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PHARMACOGRAPBIA.
PHARMACOGRAPHIA.
A HISTORY
THE PEINCIPAL DRUGS
OF VEGETABLE ORIGIN,
MET WITH IN
GREAT BRITAIN AND BRITISH INDIA.
FRIEDRICH A. FLUCKIGER,
mil,. UK., rROI'BSSOK IN TIIK UNIVERSITY OF STRASSBURQ,
AND
DANIEL HANBURY, F.R.S.,
FELLOW Of THE LINNEAN AND CHEMICAL SOCIETIES Of LONDON.
SECOA^D EDITION.
|£onbxru :
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1 879.
[7Vic Right of Translation and Evproduction is reserved.'^
PREFACE.
Pharmacographia, the word which gives the title to this book,
indicates the nature of the work to which it has been prefixed. The
term means simply a writing about drugs ; and it has been selected
not without due consideration, as in itself distinctive, easily quoted,
and intelligible in many languages.
Pharmacographia, in its widest sense, embodies and expresses the
joint intention of the authors. It was their desire, not only to write
upon the general subject, and to utilize the thoughts of others ; but
that the book which they decided to produce together should contain
observations that no one else had written down. It is in fact a record
of personal researches on the principal drugs derived from the vegetable
kingdom, together with such results of an important character as have
been obtained by the numerous workers on Materia Medica in Europe,
India, and America.
Unlike most of their predecessors in Great Britain during this cen-
tury, the authors have not included in their programme either Phar-
macy or Therapeutics ; nor have they attempted to give their work
that diversity of scope which would render it independent of collateral
publications on Botany and Chemistry.
While thus restricting the field of their inquiry, the authors have
endeavoured to discuss with fuller detail many points of interest
which are embraced in the special studies of the pharmacist ; and at
the same time hav-e occasionally indicated the. direction in which
further investigations are desirable. A few remarks on the heads
under which each particular article is treated, will explain more pre-
cisely their design.
The drugs included in the present work are chiefly those which are
commonly kept in store by pharmacists, or are known in the drug and
spice market of London. The work likewise contains a small number
vi
PREFACE.
which belong to the Pharmacopoeia of India : the appearance of this
volume seemed to present a favourable opportunity for giving some
more copious notice of the latter than has hitherto been attempted.
Supplementary to these two groups must be placed a few substances
which possess little more than historical interest, and have been intro-
duced rather in obedience to custom, and for the sake of completeness,
than on account of their intrinsic value.
Each drug is headed by the Latin name, followed by such few
synonyms as may suffice for perfect identification, together in most
cases with the English, French, and German designation.
In the next section, the Botanical Origin of the substance is dis-
cussed, and the area of its growth, or locality of its production is
stated. Except in a few instances, no attempt has been made to
furnish botanical descriptions of the plants to which reference is made.
Such information may readily be obtained from original and special
sources, of which we have quoted some of the most important.
Under the head of History, the authors have endeavoured to trace
the introduction of each substance into mBdicine, and to bring forward
other points in connection therewith, which have not hitherto been
much noticed in any recent work. This has involved researches which
have been carried on for several years, and has necessitated the consul-
tation of many works of general literature. The exact titles of these
works have been scrupulously preserved, in order to enable the reader
to verify the statements made, and to prosecute further historical
inquiries. In this portion of their task, the authors have to acknow-
ledge the assistance kindly given them by Professors Heyd^ of Stuttgart,
Winkelmann of Heidelberg, Monier Williams of Oxford, Diimicheu of
Strassburg ; and on subjects connected with China, by Mr. A. Wylie
and Dr. Bretschneider. The co-operation in various directions of many
other friends has been acknowledged in the text itself.
In some instances the Formation, Secretion, or Method of Collection
of a drug, has been next detailed : in others, the section History has
been immediately followed by the Description, succeeded by one in
which the more salient features of Microscopic Structure have been set
forth. The authors have not thought it desirable to amplify the last-
named section, as the subject deserves to be treated in a special work,
and to be illustrated by engravings. Written descriptions of micro-
iThe admirable work of this author — Geschichte des Levantehandels im MittelaUer, 2
vols., Stuttgart, 1879 — appeared when the second edition of our Pbarmacograijhia was
already in the press.
PREFACE.
vii
scopic structure are tedious and uninteresting, and however carefully-
drawn up, must often fail to convey the true meaning wliich would be
easily made evident by the pencil. The reader who wishes for illustra-
tions of the minute structure of drugs may consult the works named in
the foot-note.^
The next division includes the important subject of Chemical Com-
position, in which the authors have striven to point out to the reader
familiar with chemistry what are the constituents of greatest interest
in each particular drug — what the characters of the less common of
those constituents — and by whom and at what date the chief investi-
gations have been made. A knowledge of the name and date provides
a clue to the original memoir, which may usually be found, either in
extenso or in abstract, in more than one periodical. It has been no
part of the authors' plan to supersede reference to standard works on
chemistry, or to describe the chemical character of substances^ which
may be easily ascertained from those sources of information which
should be within the reach of every pharmaceutical inquirer.
In the section devoted to Production and Commerce, the authors
have given such statistics and other trade information as they could
obtain from reliable sources ; but they regret that this section is of
very unequal value. Duties have been abolished, and a general and
continuous simplification of tariffs and trade regulations has ensued.
The details, therefore, that used to be observed regarding the com-
merce in drugs, exists no longer in anything like their former state of
completeness : hence the fragmentary nature of much of the informa-
tion recorded under this head.
The medicinal uses of each particular drug are only slightly men-
tioned, it being felt that the science of therapeutics lies within the
province of the physician, and may be wisely relinquished to his care.
At the same time it may be remarked that the authors would have
rejoiced had they been able to give more definite information as to
the technical or economic uses of some of the substances they have
described.
^ Berg, Anatomischer Atlas zur jjharriiazeutischen Waarenkunde, Berlin, 1865. 4to.,
with 50 plates.
Fluckiger, Gnmdlcujm der pharmaceutische.n Waarenkunde, Einleitung in das Studium
der Pharmacognosie, Berlin, 1873.
Planchon, Traits pratique de la determination des drogues simple>i d'origine vegetale,
Paris, 1874.
Luerssen, Medic'mlscli-Pkarmaceutische Botanik, Leipzig (in progress).
2 For further information, see Fluckiger, P/iarmaceutische Chemie, Berlin, 1879.
VIU
PREFACE.
What has been written under the head of Adulteration is chiefly
the result of actual observation, or might otherwise have been much
extended. The authors would rather rely on the characters laid down
in preceding sections than upon empirical methods for the determina-
tion of purity. The heading of Substitutes has been adopted for
certain drugs, more or less related to those described in special articles,
yet not actually used by way of adulteration.
A work professing to bring together the latest researches in any
subject will naturally be thought to contain needless innovations.
Whilst deprecating the inconvenience of changes of nomenclature, the
authors have had no alternative but to adopt the views sanctioned by
the leaders of chemical and botanical science, and which the progress
of knowledge has required. The common designations of drugs may
indeed remain unchanged : — hellebore, aconite, colchicum, anise, and
caraway, need no modernizing touch. But when we attempt to com-
bine with these simple names, words to indicate the organ of the plant
of which they are constituted, questions arise as to the strict applica-
tion of such terms as root, rhizome, tuber, conn, about which a
diversity of opinion may be entertained.
It has been the authors' aim to investigate anew the field of Vege-
table Materia Medica, in order as far as possible to clear up doubtful
points, and to remove some at least of the uncertainties by which the
subject is surrounded. In furtherance of this plan they have availed
themselves of the resources offered by Ancient and Modern History ;
nor have they hesitated to lay under contribution either the teaching
of men eminent in science, or the labours of those who foUow the paths
of general literature. How far they have accomplished their desire
remains for the public to decide.
CORBIGENDA.
Page 57, foot-note 4 ; for qui produit, read qui a produit.
„ 86, 13th line from bottom ; for Bauchin, read Bauhin.
,, 128, foot-note 3 ; read Adver.sariorum, /or Adersarlorum.
,, 161, line from top : read southern and south-western part, for northern part.
,, 265, foot-note 2 , for 47U4 grammes, read i'7'M gi-arames.
,, 271, line 5 from bottom ; read drijpa^ vypos for -rrvpa ^vypbs.
„ 368, line 12 from bottom ; read Flora, for Florae.
, 20 ,, ,, mossing, /or motsing.
„ 309, „ 17 from top ; read Jose, for Jose.
,,404, ,, 2 from bottom ; rend X'arnauz, /or Xamaux.
,, „ foot-note 7 ; read jior, /or par.
,, ,, line 12 from bottom ; ?-ead Barharigo, /or Barberigo.
,, 407, ,, 5 ,, ,, benzoic, /or benzoin.
„ 469, lines 21 and 24 from top ; with reference to Xicotiana rasii^a and
iV. repanda, see Pharm. Journ. i.x. (1878) 710.
„ 558, foot-note 3 ; read 562, for 652.
„ 55!), line 24 from top ; read 1849, for 1749.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The premature death — March 24, 1875 — of my lamented friend Daniel
Hanbury, having deprived me of his invaluable assistance, I have
attempted to prepare the new edition of our work with adherence -to
the same principles by which we were guided from the beginning.
I desire to acknowledge my obligations for great and valuable
assistance to my friend Thomas Hanbury, Esq., F.L.S., who has also
honoured the memory of his late brother by causing the scientific
researches of the latter to be collected and republished in the handsome
volume entitled, " Science Papers, chiefly Pharmacological and Botanical,
by Daniel Hanbury, edited, with memoir, by Joseph Ince," London.
1876. To Dr. Charles Rice of New York, editor of " New Remedies,"
I am indebted for much kindly extended and valuable information,
and to whose intimate acquaintance with oriental literature, both
ancient and modern, many of the following pages bear ample testimony.
I am likewise indebted for similar assistance to my friends Professors
Goldschmidt and Noldeke, Strassburg. Information of various kinds,
as well as valuable specimens of drugs, have also been courteously sup-
plied to me by the following gentlemen, viz. : — Cesar Chantre, Esq.,
F.L.S., London ; Prof. Dymock, Bombay ; H. Fritzsche, Esq. (Schimmel
& Co., Leipzig) ; E. M. Holmes, Esq., F.L.S., &c., London ; J. E. Howard,
Esq., F.R.S., &c., London ; David Howard, Esq., F.C.S., &c. ; Wm. Dill-
worth Howard, F.I.C., London ; Capt. F. M. Hunter, F.G.S., &c., Assistant
Resident, Aden ; A. Oberdorffer, Esq., Hamburg ; Prof Edward Schar,
Zurich ; Dr. J. E. de Vry, the Hague, &c.
On mature consideration, it was deemed expedient to omit in the
new edition a lai-ge number of references I'elating more especially to
chemical facts. Yet, in most instances, not only the author but also
the year has been stated in which the respective observation or dis-
X
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
covery was made, or at least the year in which it was published or
recorded. Every such fact of any importance may thus, by means of
those short references, be readily traced and consulted, if wished for,
either in the original sources, in abstracts therefrom, or in the periodical
reports. Opportunities of the latter kind are abundantly afforded by
the German Jahresbericht der Pharmacie, &c., published at Gottingen
since 1844*, successively by Martins, Wiggers, Husemann, and at the
present time by Dragendorff". The same may be said, since 1857, of
the Report on the Progress of Pharmacy, as contained annually in the
Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association, and likewise,
since 1870, of the Yearbook of Pharmacy, for which the profession is
indebted to the British Pharmaceutical Conference.
PROF. FLtiCKIGER.
Strashburg, Germany, October, 187'J.
EXPLANATIONS.
INCHES
CENTIMETRES
Polarization. — Most essential oils, and the solutions of several
substances described in this book are capable of effecting the deviation
of a ray of polarized light. The amount of this rotatory power cannot
be regarded as constant in essential oils, and is greatly influenced by
various causes. As to alkaloids and other organic compounds, the
deviation frequently depends upon the nature
and quantity of the solvent. The authors
have thought it needful to record in numerous
cases the results of such optical investigations,
as determined by means of the Polaristrohometer
invented by Wild, and described in Poggen-
dorlf's Annalen der Physik und Chemie, vol.
122 (1864) p. 626 ; or more completely in the
Bulletin de I'Academie imperiale des Sciences
de St. Petersbourg, tome viii. (1869) p. 33.
Measurements and Weights.-The authors
regret to have been unable to adopt one standard
system of stating measurements. They have
mostly employed the English inch: the accom-
panying woodcut will facilitate its comparison
with the French decimal scale. The word milli-
metre is indicated in the text by the contraction
mm.; micromillimetre, signifjmg the thousandth
part of a millimetre, and only used in reference
to the microscope, is abbreviated thus, mkm.
1 inch
I gallon
1 ounce (oz.) avdp. =
1 lb. avoirdupois =
1 cwt. =
1 ton
1 kilogramme
1 pecul
25'399 millimetres.
4-543 litres.
28'34 grammes.
453-59
= 112 1b.
= 2240 „
50-8 kilogrammes.
= 1016
= 2-204 lb. avoirdupois.
= 133-33 lb. = 60-479 kilogrammes.
Thermometer. — The Centigrade Thermometer has been alone
adopted. The following table is given for comparing the degrees of
the Centigrade 'or Celsius Thermometer with those of Fahrenheit's
Scale.
xii
THERMOMETRIC TABLE.
CENT.
FA HR.
CENT.
F All It.
CKNT.
FA Hit.
CENT.
F All It.
— 29"
— 20-2°
+ 4r
+ 105-8°
+ 111
+ 231-8
+ 181
+ 357-8
28
18-4
42
107-6
112
233-6
182
359-6
27
16-6
43
109-4
113
235-4
183
361-4
26
14-8
44
111-2
114
237-2
184
363-2
25
13-0
45
113 0
115
239-0
185
365-0
24
11 '2
46
114 '8
116
240-8
186
366-8
23
9 '4
47
116 -6
117
242-6
187
368 6
22
7 '6
48
118-4
118
244-4
188
370-4
21
5'8
49
120-2
119
246-2
189
372-2
20
4-0
50
122-0
120
248-0
190
374-0
19
2-2
51
123-8
121
249-8
191
375-8
18
— 0-4
52
125-6
122
251-6
192
377-6
17
+ 1-4
53
127-4
123
253-4
193
379-4
16
3-2
54
129-2
124
255-2
194
381-2
15
5 0
55
131 0
125
257-0
195
383-0
14
6 '8
56
132 8
126
258-8
196
384 -8
13
8.6
57
134-6
127
260-6
197
386-6
12
10 '4
58
136-4
128
262-4
198
388-4
11
12 "2
59
138 -2
129
264-2
199
390 2
10
14 '0
60
140-0
130
266 -0
200
392 0
9
15-8
61
141-8
131
267-8
201
393-8
8
17-6
62
143-6
132
269-6
202
395-6
7
19-4
63
145-4
133
271-4
203
397-4
6
21 '2
64
147-2
134
273-2
204
399-2
5
23-0
65
149 0
135
275-0
205
401-0
4
24-8
66
150-8
136
276-8
206
402-8
3
26 "6
67
152-6
137
278-6
207
404-6
2
28 "4
68
1544
138
280-4
208
406 -4
— 1
30 '2
69
156-2
139
282-2
209
408 2
0
32 0
70
158-0
140
284 0
210
410-0
+ 1
33-8
71
159-8
141
285-8
211
411-8
2
35-6
72
161-6
142
287-6
212
413-6
3
37-4
73
163-4
143
289-4
213
415-4
4
39-2
74
165-2
144
291-2
214
417-2
5
41-0
75
167-0
145
293-0
215
419-0
6
42"8
76
168-8
146
294-8
216
420-8
7
44'6
77
170 6
147
296-6
217
422-6
8
46 "4
78
172-4
148
298-4
218
424-4
9
48'2
79
174 -2
149
300-2
219
426-2
10
50 '0
80
176-0
150
302-0
220
428-0
11
51 '8
81
177-8
151
303-8
221
429-8
12
53-6
82
179-6
152
305-6
222
431-6
13
55-4
83
181-4
153
307-4
223
433-4
14
57-2
84
183-2
154
309-2
224
435-2
15
59 0
85
185 0
155
311-0
225
437-0
16
60 "8
86
186-8
156
312 '8
226
438-8
17
62' 6
87
188-6
157
314-6
227
440-6
18
64"4
88
190'4
158
316 -4
228
442-4
19
66 '2
89
192 -2
159
318-2
229
444 2
20
68 '0
90
194 0
100
320 0
230
446 0
21
69-8
91
195-8
161
321-8
231
447-8
22
71-6
92
197-6
162
323-6
232
449-6
23
73-4
93
199-4
163
325-4
233
451-4
24
75-2
94
201-2
164
327-2
334
453-2
25
77-0
95
203-0
165
329-0
235
455-0
26
78 '8
96
204-8
166
330-8
236
456-8
27
80 6
97
206 6
167
332-6
237
458-6
28
82 '4
98
208-4
168
334-4
238
460-4
29
84 '2
99
210-2
169
336-3
239
462-2
30
86 "0
100
212-0
170
338-0
240
464-0
31
87-8
101
213-8
171
339-8
241
465-8
32
89-6
102
215-6
172
341-6
242
467-6
33
91-4
103
217-4
173
343-4
243
469-4
34
93-2
104
219-2
174
345-2
244
471-2
35
95-0
105
221-0
175
347-0
245
473-0
36
96-8
106
222-8
176
348-8
246
474-8
37
98-6
107
224-6
177
350-6
247
476-6
38
100-4
108
226-4
178
352-4
248
478-4
39
102-2
109
228-2
179
354-2
249
480-2
40
104-0
110
230-0
180
356-0
250
482-0
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preface v
Preface to the Second Edition ... ... ... ... ... ... ix
Explanations ... .... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... xi
Thermometric Table ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... xii
I.— PHiENOGAMOUS OR FLOWERING PLANTS.
Ranunculace.e ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1
Radix Hellebori uigii ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... 1
Rhizoma Coptidis ... ... ... ... ... .,. ... ... 3
Semen Staphisagriae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5
Radix Aconiti ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... H
Folia Aconiti ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 11
Radix Aconiti indica ... ... ... .j. ... ... ... ... 12
lieteropliylli ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 14
Cimicifugas ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 15
Magnoliacej? ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 17
Cortex Wiuteranus ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 17
Fructus Anisi stellati ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 20
Menispermace^ 2'3
Radix Calumbu; ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 23
Pareira Brava ... ... ... . . ... ... ... ... ... 25
Cocculus indicus ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 31
Gulancha ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 33
BEEBKRIDEa; ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 34
Cortex Berberidis indicus ... .... ... ... ... ... ... 34
Rhizoma Podophylli ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 36
PAPAVERACEiE ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 39
Petala Rhreados 39
Capsulae Papaveris ... ... ... ....... ... ... ... 40
Opium ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 42
(Jrucifer^. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 64
Semen Sinapis nigree ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 64
albse 68
xiv
Eadix Arruoracise
Canellace^
Cortex Canell£8 albse
BlXACEiE
Senieu Gynocardiije
PoLYGALEiE
Eadix SenegiB
Krainerite ...
GUTTIFER.5:
Cambogia
Oleum Garciniae ...
DlPTEROCARPE^
Balsamuni Dipterocarpi .
Malvace^
Eadix Althsese
Fructus Hibisci esculeuti
StERCULI.ACEjE
Oleum Cacao
LlNE^
Semen Lini
Zygophylle^
Lignum Guaiaci ...
Eesiua Guaiaci
EuTACEiE
Cortex Angosturae
Folia Buclm
Eadix Toddalia; ...
Folia Pilocarpi
AuRANTlACEyE ...
Fructus Limonis ...
Oleum Limonis ...
Bergamotta;
Cortex Aurantii ...
Oleum Neroli
Fructus Belse
SlMARUBEJi:
Lignum Quassise
BURSERACE^ ...
Olibanum ...
Myrrha
Elemi
Meliace^e
Cortex Margosse ...
Soyniidae ...
Ehamnace^
Fructus Eliamni ...
CONTENTS.
PAUE
71
73
73
75
75
77
77
79
83
83
86
88
88
92
92
94
95
95
97
97
100
100
103
106
106
108
Ill
113
114
114
118
121
124
126
129
131
131
133
133
140
147
154
154
156
157
157
CONTENTS.
XV
PASE
Ampelide^ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 159
Uvse passse ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... ... 159
Anacardiacb^ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 161
Mastiche ■ 161
Terebinthina chia ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. 165
Gallse chinenses seu japonicae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 167
LegdminosjE ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 170
Herba Scoparii ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 170
Semen Foeni grffici ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... 172
Tragacantba ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 174
Radix Glycyrrhizae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 179
Succus Glycyrrbizse ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 183
Oleum Arachis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 186
Radix Abri 188
Seta3 MncuDEe ■ 189
Semen Physostigmatis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 191
Kino 194
Lignum Pterocarpi ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 199
Balsamum tolutanum ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... 202
peruvianum ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 205
Semen Bonducellse ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 211
Lignum Heematoxyli ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 213
Folia Sennse 216
Fructus Cassice Fistulae 221
Tamarindi Pulpa 224
Balsamum Copaiba ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 227
Gummi Acaciae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 233
Catechu 240
Rosacea 244
Amygdalae dulces ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 244
amarae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 247
Fructus Pruni ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 251
Cortex Pruni serotinje ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 253
Folia Lauro-cerasi ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 254
Flores Koso 256
Petala Rosae gallicae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 259
centifoliae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 261
Oleum Rosae 262
Fructus Rosae caninae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 268
Semen Cydoniae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 269
Hamamelide^ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 271
Styrax liquidus 271
MtrtacejE ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 277
Oleum Cajuputi ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 277
Caryophylli ... 280
Fructus Pimentae ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 287
XVI
CONTENTS.
PAGi;
VxKAWAlJa*,!!. ... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... Zoy
Cortex (jriauiiti frnctu.s
... ... ... ... ZO./
1 (lUlL^lr* ... ... ... ...
290
I,/ U KdI 1 ALilj-LTli ... ... ... ... ...
292
J. 1 tlV/ULlo J^^Uilliil. ... .•• ... ...
292
1 '/-ll<^^^^T•-l^-^ll flirt
Vyijiuuy li uii iuio ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ZiJO
U M JiJljljljlr JcjK/Ej ... ... .. ... ... ...
907
... ... ... ... ZiO i
Hoi'bfi H^ydrocotylcs ... ... ... ...
907
... ... ... ... .iiij i
Fructus Couii ... ... ... ...
900
... ... ... ... ZiJ.v
Foliti CoDii ... ... ...
... ... ... ... fjyi L
Frnctus Ajowiin ... ... .. ... ...
... ... ... ... ouz
Cftru i ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... o\i-t
FoBiiiculi ... ...
... ... ... ... «J\ 'o
Aiiisi ... ... ... ... ,,,
... ... ... ... tj -L U
Rcidix Sunibul ... ... ... ... ...
3 1 2
AScHtJctiUtl ... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... O i 'i
Grtilbjiuuni, ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... 1
A ni TTl ATTlfir'lllll
J i I LI lllUIJlctL'Ltlli ... ... ... ... ...
324
Fructus A-iietlii ... ... ... ...
, , , ... ... ... OZ /
'I IiiliUl 1 ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... rJ^tJ
Cuiniui ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ool
OAFKirOLilAUJCi^ ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ooo
Florcs Sfiniljiici ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ooo
a\>\J 151 AL-hi/Ht ... ... ... • .,, ... ...
... ... ... ... OOO
Gciinbicr ... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... OOO
Cortex CinclioDf8 ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... .3'JO
Rs-dix Tppcficnfinht'B ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... O 1 V
\ AhjUiiLA.N Ay^ rjJh ... ... ... ... ...
T?aniY \/ 11 1 PT*i n fip
XVCtLl La. V fl'lClictli c" ... •■■ ... ... ...
... ... ... ... 'J 1 t
yjOSairOhL IJvj ... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... oov'
X\'d,(^ 1 1 A. X 11 Ulct: ... ... ... ... .,*
... ... ... ... .JOU
PyrGthri ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... fJOO
Floves AiitliGniidis ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... .JO'l
SfiiitoiiicJi ... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... »?o /
XVOjUIA XXl lilCtC ... ... ... ... ...
"^Ol 1
... ... ... ... O.y w
X lUl OS ... ... ,,, ... ...
... ... ... ... .J./Zi
Rcidix TsirHXivci ... ... ... ... ...
•309
... ... ... ... OiJZ
H^erbti Lfictuc?6 virosft* ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... Otto
Xj£ictuc£iriiini ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... rJ'/\J
XjOBELIACEj^I ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... rjijfJ
Herbal IjobelisG
399
11jL\1\jA\^i2jJ]1j ... ... ... ... . • ■ ...
401
Folia Uva3 Ursi ...
401
Ebenace^e
403
Fmctua Diospyri ...
403
CONTENTS.
Stfrace^
Eesina Benzoe . . .
Oleace^
Manna
Oleum Olivse
Apocyne^
Cortex Alstoniee ...
ASCLEPIADE^
E,adix Hemidesmi
Cortex Mudar
Folia Tylophorse . . .
LoGANIACEjE ...
Nux Vomica
Semeu Ignatii
Eadix SpigelifB ...
Gentiane^
Radix Gentianse ...
Herba Chiratte . . .
CONVOLVULACE^
Scammonium
Eadix Jalapee
Semen Kaladana;
SOLANACE^
Stipes Dulcamarse
Fructus Capsici ...
Eadix Belladonnse
Folia Belladonnse
Herba Stramonii . . .
Semen Stramonii
et Folia Daturae
Folia Hyoscyami . . .
Tabaci
SCROPHULARIACE^
Folia Digitalis
ACANTHACE^
Herba Andrographidis
SESAMEiE
Oleum Sesami
Labiate
Flores Lavandulaj
Herba Menthse vividis
piperitse
Pulegii ...
Thymi
Eosmarini
albse
xviii
Plantagine^ ...
Semen Ispaghulie
PoLTGONACEiE
Radix Rbei
Myristice^
Myristica
Macis
Laurace^
Camphoia ...
Cortex Cinnamomi
Cassiae lignepe
Bibiru
Radix Sassafras ...
Thymele^
Cortex Mezerei ...
Artocarpace^
Caric£e
MORACE^
Fructus Mori
Cannabine^
Herba Cannabis ...
Strobiii Humub' ...
Glandulse Humub
Ulmace^
Cortex Ulmi
fulvfe
ELPHOR^IACEiE
Euphorbium
Cortex Cascaribte
Semen Tiglii
Ricini
Kamala
PlPERACE^
Fructus Piperis uigri
longi
Cubebie
Herba Matico
Aristolochiace^
Radix Serpentariae
CUPULIFER^ ...
Cortex Quercus ...
Gallse balepenses
Santa LACE^
Lignum Santab ...
CONTENTS.
PAGE
490
490
491
491
502
502
508
510
510
519
527
535
537
540
540
542
542
544
544
546
546
551
554
556
556
557
558
558
561
565
... 567
572
576
576
582
584
589
591
591
593
593
595
599
599
CONTENTS.
xix
PAOB
Conifers 604
Terebinthina vulgaris ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 604
veneta 609
Cortex Laricis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 611
Terebinthina canadensis .. . ... ... ... 612
argentoratensis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 615
Pix burgundica ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 616
liquida 619
nigra 623
Fructus Juniperi ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 624
Herba Sabinaj 626
Cannace^ ... 629
Amylum Marantse ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 629
ZlNGIBERACE^ 635
Ehizoma Zingiberis ... ... ... ... ... ... 635
Curcumse .., 638
Galangse 641
Fructus Cardamomi ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 643
Grana Paradisi ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 651
Orchidace^ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 654
Salep 654
Vanilla 657
Iridace^ ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 660
Ehizoma Iridis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 660
Crocus ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 663
Palm^ 669
Semen Arecse ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 669
Sanguis Dracouis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 672
Aroide^ 676
Rhizoma Calami aromatici ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 676
LiLiACE^ ... ... ... ••• ... ... 679
Aloe 679
Bulbus ScilljE 690
Melanthace^ 693
Ehizoma Veratri albi ... ... . . ... ... ... ... ... 693
viridis ... ... ... 695
Semen Sabadillae 697
Cormus Colchici ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 699
Semen Colchici 702
Smilace^ 703
Radix Sarsaparillse 703
Tuber Chinse 712
XX
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Gramine^ 714
Sacchai'um ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 714
Hordeum decorticatum ... ... ... ... ... ... 722
Oleum Andropogonis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 725
Rhizoma Graminis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 729
II.— CRYPTOGAMOUS OR FLOWERLESS PLANTS.
Lycopodiace^ 731
Sporse Lycopodii ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 731
FiLicES 733
Ehizoma filicis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 733
LiCHENES 737
Lichen islaadicus ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 737
Fungi 740
Secale cornutum 740
Alg^e (Floride^) .. 747
Chondrus crispus . . . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 747
Fucus amylaceus ... ... ... ... 749
APPENDIX.
Short Biographic aud Bibliographic Notes relating to authors and books
quoted iu the Pharmacographia ... ... ... ... ... ... 751
Index,
769
PHAEMACOGRAPHIA.
I.~PHA^NOGAMOUS or FLOWERING PLANTS.
KANUNCULACE^.
RADIX HELLEBORI NIGRI.
Radix Ellehor i nigri, Radix Melampodii ; Black Hellebore Root ;
F. Racine d'Ellehore noir ; G. Schwarze Nieswurzel.
Botanical Origin — Helhhurus niger L., a low perennial herb,
native of sub-alpine woods in Southern and Eastern Europe. It is
found in Provence, Northern Italy, Salzburg, Bavaria, Austria,
Bohemia, and Silesia, as well as, according to Boissier,i in Continental
Greece.
Under the name of Christmas Rose, it is often grown in English
gardens on account of its handsome white flowers, which are put forth
in mid-winter.
History — The story of the daughters of Proetus, king of Argos,
being cured of madness by the soothsayer and physician Melampus,
who administered to them hellebore, has imparted great celebrity to
the plant under notice.'
But admitting that the medicine of Melampus was really the root of
a species of Hellehorus, its identity with that of the present plant is
extremely improbable. Several other species grow in Greece and Asia
Mi nor, and Schroff ' has endeavoured to show that of these H, orien-
talis Lam. possesses medicinal powers agreeing better with the ancient
accounts than those of H. niger L. He has "also pointed out that the
ancients employed not the entire root but only the bark separated from
the woody column ; and that in H. niger and H. viridis the peeling of
the rhizome is impossible, but that in H. orientalis it may be easily
effected.
1 Flora Orientalis, i. (1867) 61. a Zeitschr. d. GesellscL d. Aerzte zu Wic.n.
2 See the list of theses and memoirs on 1860, No. 25 ; Canstatt's Jalirenherichl for
Hellebore given by M(5rat and De Lens, 1859. i. 47. 1860. i. 55.
Diet. in. (1831) 472, 473.
RANUNCULACEiE.
According to the same authority the hellebores differ extremely in
their medicinal activity. The most potent is H. orierdalis Lam. ; then
follow H. viridis L. and H. fontidun L. (natives of Britain), and H.
purpurascens Waldst. et Kit., a Hungarian species, while U. niyer is
the weakest of all.^
Description — Black Hellebore produces a knotty, tieshy, brittle
rhizome which creeps and branches slowly, forming in the course of
years an intangled, interlacing mass, throwing out an abundance of
stout, straight roots. Both rhizome and roots are of a blackish brown,
but the younger roots are of lighter tint and are covered with a short
woolly tomentum.
In commerce the rhizome is found with the roots more or less broken
off and detached. It is in very knotty irregular pieces, 1 to 2 or 3
inches long and about to ^ of an inch in diameter, internall}^ whitish
and of a horny texture. If cut transversely (especially after maceration),
it shows a circle of white woody wedges, 8 to 12 in number, surrounded
by a thick bark. The roots are unbranched, scarcely ^ of an inch in
diameter. The younger, when broken across, exhibit a thick bark
encircling a simple woody cord ; in the older this cord tends to divide
into converging wedges which present a stellate appearance, though
not so distinctly as in Adcea. The drug when cut or broken has a
slight odour like that of senega. Its taste is bitterish and slightly acrid.
Microscopic Structure — The cortical part both of the rhizome and
the rootlets exhibits no distinct medullary rays. In the rootlets the
woody centre is comparatively small and enclosed by a narrow zone
somewhat as in sarsaparilla. A distinct pith occurs in the rhizome but
not always in the rootlets, their woody column forming one solid bundle
or being divided into several. The tissue contains small starch granules
and drops of fatty oil.
Chemical Composition — The earlier investigations of Black Helle-
bore by Gmelin, and Feneulle and Capron, and of Riegel indicated only
the presence of the more usual constituents of plants.
Bastick, on the other hand, in 1852 obtained from the root a peculiar,
non-volatile, crystalline, chemically-indifferent substance which he
named Hellehorvii. It is stated to have a bitter taste and to produce
in addition a tingling sensation on the tongue ; to be slightly soluble in
water, more so in ether, and to dissolve freely in alcohol.
Marme and A. Husemann extracted helleborin (1861) by treating
with hot water the green fatty matter which is dissolved out of the
root by boiling alcohol. After recrystallization from alcohol, it is
obtainable in shining, colourless needles, having the composition
Q36U42Q6 gtatcd to be highly narcotic. Helleborin appears to be
more abundant in H. viridis (especially in the older roots) than in H.
niger, and yet to be obtainable only to the extent of 0'4 per mille.
When it is boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, or still better with solution
of zinc chloride, it is converted into sugar and Helleboresin, C^'^H^^O*.
Marme and Husemann succeeded in isolating other crystallized
principles from the leaves and roots of H. niger and H. viridis, by
precipitation with phospho-molybdic acid. They obtained firstly a
1 Between purpiwascens and nhjer, Schroflf Boissier holds to be simply H. orientalis
places L. ponticus A. Br., a plant wliicli Lam.
EHIZOMA COPTIDIS.
3
slightly acid glucoside which they named Hellehoreln. It occurs only
in very small pro])ortion, but is rather ]nore abundant in H. niger than
in H. viridis. When boiled with a dilute acid, helleborein, C^'*H'"0^',
is resolved into Helleboretin, C^ff^O^ of a fine violet colour, and sugar,
Q12JJ24Q12 jt ig remarkable that helleboretin has no physiological
action, though helleborein is stated to be poisonous.
An organic acid accompanying helleborin was regarded by Bastick
as probably aconitic (equisetic) acid. There is no tannin in hellebore.
Uses — Black Hellebore is reputed to be a drastic purgative. In
British medicine its employment is nearly obsolete, but the drug is still
imported from Germany and sold for the use of domestic animals.
Adulteration — Black Hellebore root as found in the market is not
always to be relied on, and without good engravings it is not easy to
point out characters by which its genuineness can be made certain. In
fact to ensure its recognition, some pharmacopoeias required that it
should be supplied with leaves attached.
The roots with which it is chiefly liable to be confounded are the
following : —
1. Hellehurus Vii'idls L. — Although a careful comparison of authen-
ticated specimens reveals certain small difterences between the roots
and rhizomes of this species and of H. niger, there are no striking
characters by which they can be discriminated. The root of H. viridis
is far more bitter and acrid than that of //. niger, and it exhibits more
numerous drops of fatty oil. In German trade the two drugs are sup-
plied separately, both being in use ; but as H. viridis is apparently the
rarer plant and its root is valued at 3 to 5 times the price of that of
niger, it is not likely to be used for sophisticating the latter.
2. Actcea spicata L. — In this plant the rhizome is much thicker ;
the rootlets broken transversely display a cross or star, as figured in
FlUckiger's " Grundlagen " (see p. vii.), fig. 64, p. 76. The drug has but
little odour ; as it contains tannin its infusion is blackened by a
persalt of iron, which is not the case with an infusion of Black
Hellebore.
RHIZOMA COPTIDIS.
Radix Goptidis ; Coptis Root, Mislmd Bitter, MisUnii Tita.
Botanical Origin — Coptis Teeta Wallich, a small herbaceous plant,
still but imperfectly known, indigenous to the Mishmi mountains, east-
ward of Assam. It was first described in 1836 by Wallich.'
History — This drug under the name of Mahmira is used in Sind
for infiammation of the eyes, a circumstance which enabled Pereira^ to
identify it with a substance bearing a nearly similar designation, men-
tioned by the e&rly writers on medicine, and previously regarded as the
root of Chelidoniuni ma jus L.
Thus we find that Paulus Mgrnoia, in the 7th century was ac-
quainted with a knotty root named Ma/xtpa?.^ Khazes, who according to
^ Tram, of Med. and Pkys. Soc. of Cal-
cutta, viii. (1836) 85. Reprinted in Per-
eira's Materia Medica, vol. ii. part 2 (1857),
699.
■'Pliarm. Jount. xi, (1852) 204; also
Mat. Med. I.e.
See also Meyer, Geschichte der Botanik,
ii. (185.5) 419.
4
RANUNCULACEiE.
4
Choulant died in A.D. 923 or 932, mentions Mamiran, and it is also
noticed by Avicenna a little later as a drug useful iu diseases of
the eye. Ma/nijpa likewise occurs in exactly the same way in the
writings of Leo, "Philosophus et Medicus.'" Ibn Bay tar called the
drug Mamiran and UruJc, and described it as a small yellow root like
turmeric, coming from China. Other writers of the middle ages allude
to it under the name oi Memeren.
Hajji Mahomed, in the account of Cathay whicli he gave to
Ramusio {circa A.D. 1550) says that the 3[arnhroni cliiiii, by which we
understand the root in question, is found in the mountains of Succuir
(Suh-cheu) where rhubaib grows, and that it is a wonderful remedy
for disea,ses of the eye.'^ In an official report published at Lahore
in 1862,^ MamiraM-i-chiiii is said to be brought from China to
Yarkand.
The rhizome of Coptis is used by the Chinese under the names
Hwang-lien and Chucn-lien.* It is enumerated by Cleyer (1682) as
"radix 2)Tetiosa amara," and was described in 1778 by Bergius " who
received it from Canton.
More recently it was the subject of an interesting notice by Gui-
bourt " who thought it to be derived from Oj'hioxylon serpentinum L.,
an apocyneous plant widel}' removed from Coptis. Its root was recom-
mended in India by Maclsaac* in 1827 and has been subsequently
employed with success by many practitioners.
There is a rude figure of the plant in the Chinese herbal Pun-taao.
Description — Tita, as the drug is called in the Mishmi country,
whence it is sent by way of Sudiya on the Bramaputra to Bengal, is
a rhizome about the thickness of a quill occurring in pieces an inch
or two in length. It often branches at the crown into two or three
heads, and bears the remains of leafstalks and thin wiry rootlets, the
stumps of which latter give it a rough and spiny appearance. It is
nearly cj'lindrical, often contorted, and of a yellowish brown colour.
The fracture is short, exhibiting a loose structui-e, with large bright
yellow radiating woody bundles. The rhizome is intensely bitter," but
not aromatic even when fresh.
It is found in the Indian bazaars in neat little open-work bags
formed of narrow strips of rattan, each containing about half an ounce.
We have once seen it in bulk in the London market.^"
Microscopic Structure — Cut transversely the rhizome exhibits an
inner cortical tissue, through which sclerenchymatous groups of cells
are scattered. The latter are most obvious on account of their bright
yellow colour. In the woody central column a somewhat concentric
* F. Z. Ermer'm», Anecdota medica
Graeca, e codicibus MSS. expromsit.
Lugd. Bat. 1840. Leonis Pliilosophi
et Medici conspectus mediciiiae, lib.
iii. cap. I. (K£0.«. IlfjOt o4)^a\^uyv
Kai KUfX^opa).
2 Yule, Cathay and tJie ivay thither,
(Hakluyt Society) i. (1866) p. ccxvi.
Davies, Beport on the trade of the coun-
tries on the N. W. boundary of India,
Lahore, 1862.
* Otherwise written Honglane, Chonlin,
aitynlen, Chouline, Souline, &c.
' Specimen Medicince Sinicte, Med. Simp.
No. 27.
^Mat. Med. ii. (1778) 908.
•Hist, des Drog. ii. (1849) 52G.
' Trans, of Med. and Phys. Soc. of Cal-
cutta, iii. (1827) 432.
' Teeta is the Hindustani tIta, from the
Sanskrit tikta, "bitter." (Dr. Eice.)
Two cases were offered for sale as Okn
or Mishmee by Messrs. Gray and Clark,
drug-brokers, 22th Nov. 1858.
SEMEN STAPHISAGRm
o
arrangement is found, cori-esponding to two or three periods of annual
growth. The pith, not the medullary rays, begins to be obliterated
at an early period. The structure of the drug is, on the whole, very
irregular, on account of the branches and numerous rootlets arising:
from it.
The medullaiy rays contain small starcli granules, while the
bark, as well as the pith, ai'e richer in albuminous or mucilaginous
matters.
Chemical Composition — The colouring matter in which the
rhizome of Captis abounds, is quickly dissolved by water. If the
yellow solution obtained by macerating it in water is duly concentrated,
nitric acid will produce an abundant heavy precipitate of minute yellow
crystals, which if redissolved in a little boiling water will separate again
in stellate groujis. Solution of iodine also precipitates a cold infusion
of the root.
These reactions as well as the bitterness of the drug are due to a
large proportion Berber ive, as proved by J. D. Perrins.^ The rhizome
yielded not less than 8^- per cent., which is more than has been met
with in any other of the numerous plants containing that alkaloid.
As pure berberine is scarcely dissolved by water, it must be combined
in Cojitis with an acid forming a soluble salt. Further researches are
requisite to determine the nature of this acid. In some plants berberine
is accompanied by a second basic principle : whether in the present
instance such is the case, has not been ascertained.
Uses — The drug has been introduced into the Pharmacopceia of
Tndi(( as a pure, bitter tonic.
Substitutes — Tludictrum foliolosum DC, a tall plant common at
Mussooree and throughout the temperate Himalaya at 5000 — 8000 feet,
as well as on the Khasia Hills, affords a yellow root which is exported
from Kumaon under the name Momiri. From the description in the
Pharmacopoeia of India, it would appear to much resemble the Mishmi
Tita, and it is not impossible that some of the observations made
under the head History (p. 3) may apply to Thalictrum as well as
to Coptis.
In the United States the rhizome of Coptis trifolia Salisb., a small
herb indigenous to the United States and Arctic America, and also
found in European and Asiatic Russia, is employed for the same
purposes as the Indian drug. It contains berberine and another
crystalline principle."
SEMEN STAPHISAGRI^.
Stavesacre ; F. Staphisaigre ; G. Stephanskorner, Ldusesamen.
Botarxical Origin — Delphinium Staphisagria L., a stout, erect,
biennial herb growing 3 to 4 feet high, with palmate, 5- to 9-lobed leaves,
which as well as the rest of the plant are softly pubescent.
It is a native of Italy, Greece, the Greek Islands and Asia Minor,
growing in waste and shady places ; it is now also found throughout
^. Journ. o/Chem. Soc. xv. (1862) 339.
2 Gross in .4???. Journ. of Pharm. May
1873. 193.
G
RANIJNCULACE^.
the greater part of the Mediterranean regions and in the Canary
Islands, but whether in all instances truly indigenous is question-
able. It is cultivated to some extent in Puglia, very little now near
Montpellier.
History — Stavesacre was well known to the ancients. It is the
ayporept] (TTa(j)h of Nicander/ the <TTa<f>h aypia of Dioscorides,' and
Alexander Trallianus,* the Staphisagria or Herba j)edicnlaria of
Scribonius Largus/ the Astaphis agria or StaphAs of Pliny.'^ The
last-named author mentions the use of the powdered seeds for destroying
vermin on the head and other parts of the body.
The drug continued in use during the middle ages. Pietro Cres-
cenzio," who lived in the 13th century, mentions the collection of the
seeds in Italy ; and Simon Januensis,' physician to Pope Nicolas IV.
(a.D, 1288 — 1292), describes them — " p)ropter exceUentem operationem
in caputpurgio."
Description — The fruit consists of three downy follicles, in each of
which about 12 seeds are closely packed in two rows. The seeds
(which alone are found in commerce) are about 3 lines in length and
rather less in width ; they have the form of a very irregular 4-sided
pyramid, of which one side, much broader than the others, is distinctly
vaulted. They are sharp-angled, a little flattened, and very rough, the
testa being both wrinkled and deeply pitted. The latter is blackish-
brown, dull and earthy-looking, rather brittle, yet not hard. It
encloses a soft, whitish, oily albumen with a minute embryo at its
sharper end.
The seeds have a bitter taste and occasion a tingling sensation when
chewed. Ten of them weigh about 6 grains.
Microscopic Structure — The epidermis of the seed consists of
one layer of large cells, either nearly cubical or longitudinally extended:
hence the wrinkles of the surface. The brown walls of these cells are
moderately thickened by secondary deposits, which may be made very
obvious by macerating thin sections in a solution of chromic acid, 1 p.
in 100 p. of water. By this treatment numerous crystals after a short
time make their appearance, — without doubt the chromate of one of
the alkaloids of staphisagria.
The outer layer of the testa is made up of thin-walled narrow cells,
which become larger near the edges of the seed and in the superficial
wrinkles. They contain a small number of minute starch granules and
are not altered on addition of a salt of iron. The interior layer
exhibits a single row of small, densely-packed cells. The albumen is
composed of the usual tissue loaded with granules of albuminoid matter
and drops of fatty oil.
Chemical Composition — Brandes (1819) and Lassaigne and
Feneulle (1819) have shown this drug to contain a basic principle.
Erdmann in 1864 assigned it the formula C-''H^NO'' ; he obtained
it to the extent of 1 per mille in crystals, soluble in ether, alcohol,
' 0. kSchneider, Nicandrea, Lips. 1856. ^ DeCompositioneMedicamentorum,c.\&5.
271. 'Lib. xxiii. c. 13.
- De Mat. Med. lib. iv. c. 153. ^ Libro della Ayrkultura, Venet. (1511)
Puschmann's edition (quoted in tlie lib. vi. c. 108.
Appendix) i. 450. ^ Claris Sanationis, Yenet. 1510.
SEMEN STAPHISAGRm
7
chloroform, or benzol. The alkaloid has an extremely burning and
acrid taste, and is highly poisonous.
Couerbe^ in 1833 pointed out the presence in stavesacre of a second
alkaloid separable from delphinine by ether in which it is insoluble.
The treatment of the shell of the seed with chromic acid, detailed
above, shows that this part of the drug is the principal seat of the
alkaloids ; and the albumen indeed furnishes no crystals of any
chromate. In confirmation of this view we exhausted about 400
grammes of the erttire seeds with warm spirit of wine acidulated with
a little acetic acid. The liquid was allowed to evaporate and the
residue mixed with warm water. The solution thus obtained, separated
from the resin, yielded on addition of chromic acid an abundant,
precipitate of chromate. The same solution likewise furnished copious
precipitates when bichloride of platinum," iodohydrargyrate of potassium,
or bichi'omate of potassium were added. By repeating the above
treatment on a larger scale we obtained crystals of delphinine of con-
siderable size, and also a second alkaloid not soluble in ether.
In tlie laboratory of Dragendorft', Marquis in 1877 succeeded in
isolating the following alkaloids: — 1. Delphinine, C^'H^'^NO", yielding-
crystals one inch in length, belonging to the rhombic system. They
are soluble in 11 parts of ether, 15 parts of chloroform, and 20 of
absolute alcohol. 2. SfapMsagrine, C"H''''NO^ is amorphous, soluble
in less than 1 part of ether, also in 200 parts of water at 150°. This
alkaloid, although it would appear to be the anhydride of the former,
is in every respect widely different from delphinine. 3. DelpJiinoidine
(formula not qiiite settled), amorphous, soluble in three parts of ether,
more abundantly occurring in the seed than the two former alka-
loids. In its physiological action delphinoidine agrees with delphinine,
not with staph isagrine. 4-. Ddpkisine (formula doubtful) forms
crystalline tufts, occurs in but small amount, is sparingly soluble in
alcohol, chloroform, or ether. — The total amount of alkaloids afforded
by stavesacre is about 1 per cent.
By exhausting the seeds with boiling ether, we get 27 per cent,
of a greenish, fatty oil, which continued fluid even at — 5" C. It con-
creted by means of hyponitrie acid, and is therefore to be reckoned
among the non-drying oils ; it contained a large part of the alkaloids.
The drug air-diy contains 8 per cent, of hygroscopic water. Dried
at 100° C. and incinerated it left 8'7 per cent, of ash.
Nothing exact is known of the Delphinic acid of Hofschlager (about
1820) said to be ciystalline and volatile.
Commerce — The seeds are imported from Trieste and from the
south of France, especially from Nismes, near which city as well as in
Italy (Puglia) the plant is cultivated.
Uses — Stavesacre seeds are still employed as in old times for the
destruction of pediculi in the human subject, for which purpose they
are reduced to powder which is dusted among the hair. Dr. Balmanno
Squire ^ having ascertained that pjrurigo senilis is dependent on the
presence of p)ediculus, has recommended an ointment of which the
' Ann. de Ckimie et de PJu/s. In. (1833) 352.
- The platinic compound is in fine micro-
scopic crystals.
^ Pharm. Journ. vi. (1865) 405, and vii.
(1877) 1043.
8
RANUNCULACEiE.
essential ingredients is the fatty oil of stavesacre seeds extracted hy
ether. It is plain that such a preparation would contain delphinine.
Delphinine itself has been used externally in neuralgic affections.
Stavesacre seeds are largely consumed for destroying the pediculi that
infest cattle.
RADIX ACONITI.
Tuber Aconiti ; Acovite Root^; F. Racine d'Aconit; G. EisenhutJcnoUen,
SturmhutJcnollen.
Botanical Origin — Aconitum Na/pelhis L. — This widely-diffused
and most variable species grows chiefly in the mountainous districts
of the temperate parts of the northern hemisphei'e.
It is of frequent occurrence throughout the chain of the Alps u])
to moi'e than 6500 feet, the Pyrenees, the mountains of Germany and
Austria, and is also found in Denmark and Sweden. It has become
naturalized in a few spots in the west of England and in South Wales.
Eastward it grows throughout the whole of Siberia, extending to the
mountain ranges of the Pacific coast of North America. It occurs in
company with other species on the Himalaya at 10,000 to 16,000 feet
above the sea-level.
The plant is cultivated for medicinal use, and also for oi'nament.
The Abb^ Armand David" saw in northern Sz-chuen (Setchuan) fields
planted with Aconite (A. Napellus ?).
History — The 'Akovitov of the Greeks and the Aconitum of the
Romans are held to refer to the genus under notice, if not precisely to
A. Napellus. The ancients were well aware of the poisonous properties
of the aconites, though the plants were not more exactly distinguished
vintil the close of the middle ages. The Greek name is supposed to refer
to the same source as that of Conium. (See article on Fructus Conii.)
Aconite has been widely employed as an arrow-poison. It was used
by the ancient Chinese,^ and is still in requisition among the less
civilized of the hill tribes of India. Something of the same kind was
in vogue among the aborigines of ancient Gaul.^ Aconite was pointed
out in the thirteenth century, in " The Physicians ofMyddvai," as one
of the plants which every physician is to grow.
Storck of Vienna introduced aconite into regular practice about the
year 1762 the root and the herb occur in the German pharmaceutical
tariff of the seventeenth century.
Description — The herbaceous annual stem of aconite starts from
an elongated conical tuberous root 2 to 4 inches long and sometimes
as much as an inch in thickness. This root tapers off in a long tail,
while numerous branching rootlets spring from its sides. If dug up in
the summer it will be found that a second and younger root (occasion-
ally a third) is attached to it near its summit by a very short branch
' We use the word 7-oof as most in ac-
cordance with the teaching of English
botanists.
- Journal de mon troisiime voi/Mje eu
Chine, i. (Paris 1875) 367.
' F. Porter Smith, Mat. Med. and Nat.
Hist of China, Shanghai, 1871. 2, .3.
■* Pliny, lib. xxvii. c. 76, also x.xv. 25.
^ The Physicians of Myddvai : Meddy-
i/on Myddfai. Published for the Welsh
MSS. Society. Llandovery, 1861. 282,
457.
* De Stramonio, Hyoscyamo et Aconito,
Yindob. 1762.
RADIX ACONITI.
9
and is growing out of it on one side. This second root has a bud at
the top whicli is destined to produce the stem of the next season. It
attains its maximum development at the latter part of the year, the
parent root meanwhile becoming shrivelled and decayed. This form of
growth is therefore analogous to that of an orchis.
The dried root is more or less conical or tapering, enlarged and knotty
at the summit which is crowned with the base of the stem. It is from
2 to 3 or -i inches long and at the top from ^ to 1 inch thick. The
tuber-like portion of the root is more slender, much shi-ivelled longi-
tudinally, and beset with the prominent bases of rootlets. The drug-
is of a dark brown; when dry it breaks with a short fracture exhibiting
a white and farinaceous, or brownish, or grey inner substance some-
times hollow in the centre. A transverse section of a sound root shows
a pure white central portion (pith) which is many-sided and has at each
of its projecting angles a thin iibro-vascular bundle.
In the fresh state the root of aconite has a sharp odour of radish
which disappears on drying. Its taste which is at first sweetish soon
becomes alarmingly acrid, accompanied with sensations of tingling and
numbness.
Microscopic Structure — The tuberous root as seen in a transverse
section, consists of a central part enclosed by a delicate cambial zone.
The outer part of this central portion exhibits a thin brownish layer
made up of a single row of cells (Kerii scheide of the Germans). This is
more distinctly obvious in the rootlets, which also show numei'ous,
scattered, thick-walled cells of a yellow coloui-.
The fibi'o-vascular bundles of aconite root ai"e devoid of true
ligneous cells ; its tissue is for the largest part built up of uniform
parenchymatous cells loaded with starch granules.
Chemical Composition — Aconite contains chemical ])rinciples
which are of great interest on account of their virulent effects on the
animal economy.
The first to be mentioned is Aconitine, a highly active crystallizable
alkaloid, furnishing readily crystallizable salts. It is accompanied b}'
another active alkaloid, I'seiuhtcovlthie, which is crystallizable, but
yields mostly amorphous salts. According to the admirable researches
of Wright and Lnfi^ aconitine may be decomposed according to the
following equation : —
Aconitine. Benzoic acid. Aconine.
and pseudaconitine breaks up in accordance with the equatiun :
Pseudaconitine. Dimethyl- Pseudaconine.
protocatechuic acid.
The decomposition of aconitine, as well as of pseudaconitine, may
be performed by means of mineral acids, alkaline solutions, or also by
heating the bases -with water in sealed tubes. The two alkaloids,
Aconine and Pseudaconine, appear to be present already in the roots
of Aconitum ; they, moreover, contain two other alkaloids of less
^Pharm. Jouni. 1875 to 1878, also Year- Comparative qualitative reactions of Aconi-
hook of Pharmacy, the results being sum- tine, Aconine, Pseudaconitine, and Pseu-
marized in the Yearbook for 1877, 466. — ■ daconine, see Yearbook (1877) 459.
10
RANUNCULACE^.
physiological potency. One of them, Picraconitine, C"ff'NO^", is merely
bitter, producing no lip-tingling ; it gives well crystallized salts,
although it is itself amorphous. Commercial aconitine is a mixture of
the above alkaloids. The total yield of basic substances afforded by
aconite root is not more than about 0 07 per cent.
The other constituents of aconite root are but imperfectly known.
In the ]ireparation of the alkaloids, a dark green mixture of i-esin and
fat is obtained ; it is much more abundant in European than in Nepal
aconite (Groves). The root contains Manniie, as proved by T. and H.
Smith (1850), together with cane sugar, and another sugar which reduces
cupric oxide even in the cold. Tannin is absent, or is limited to the
corky coat. The absence of a volatile alkaloid in the root was proved
by Groves in 1S6G.
Uses — Prescribed in the form of tincture as an anodyne liniment ;
occasionally given internally in rheumatism.
Adulteration and Substitution — Aconite root, though offered in
abundance in the mai'ket, is by no means always obtained of good
quality. Collected in the mountainous parts of Europe by peasants
occupied in the pasturing of sheep and cattle, it is often dug up without
due regard to the proper season or even to the proper species, — -a care-
lessness not surprising when regard is had to the miserable price which
the drug realizes in the market.^
One of the species not unfrequent in the Alps, of which the I'oots
are doubtless sometimes collected, is^. Storckeanuvi Reichenb. In this
plant the tuberous roots are developed to the number of three or four,
and have an anatomical structure slightly different from that of A.
Napelliif^^' A. variegaium L., y1. Canimaruni J acq., and A. ixmicula-
tum Lam. are blue-flowered species having tuberous roots resembling
those of A. Kajx'llu.^, but according to Schroff somewhat less active.
The yellow-flowered A. Anthora L. and A. Lycocfonum L. produce
roots which cannot be confounded with those of A. Napellus L.
The root of A. jo-pon lcum Thunb. has been noticed in Europe by
Christison as early as 1859'*; it is now imported occasionally from the
East. It forms grey or almost blackish tubers from of an inch to
upwards of 1 inch in length, and from -f^ to y^- of an inch in diameter,
oblong or ovoid, either tapering or rounded at their extremities. Thej'
are of plump, scarcely shrivelled appearance.''
Japanese aconite afforded to Wright and Luff a crystallized active
alkaloid different from both aconitine and pseudaconitine.
Holmes'' states that the aromatic roots oi Im]3eratoria OstrutJiium
L. have been found mixed with aconite.
' Thus the continental druggists are able
to offer it in quantity as low as 4d. to od.
per lb., and a pound, we find, contains
fully 150 roots !
"See fig-ure in Berg's Afki.'i zur pharm.
Waarenh-uiide (1865) fig. 24.
sHanbury, Science Papers (1870) 258,
with figure. See also Pharm. Journ. ix.
(1870) 615, where the drug is derived from
Aconitum Fischeri.
* Their n-iicroscopic structure is figured
in the paper of Dr. Dunin (quoted farther
on, in our article on Aconitum hetero-
phyllum at p. 14) 217-225.
^ Pilar m. Journ. vii. (1877) 749.
FOLIA AOONITT.
11
FOLIA ACONITI.
Herba Aconita ; Aconite Leaves ; F. Feuilles d'Aconit; G., Eisenhut-
kraut, Sturnihxdkraut.
Botanical Origin— Aconitum Napelliis L., see preceding article.
History — Aconite herb was introduced into medicine in 1762 by
Storck of Vienna ; and was admitted into the London Pharmacopa?ia
in 1788.
Description — The plant produces a stiff', upright, herbaceous,
simple stem, 3 to 4 feet high, clothed as to its upper h.alf with spread-
ing, dark green leaves, which are paler on their under side. The leaves
are from 3 to 5 or more inches in length, nearly half consisting of the
channelled petiole. The blade, which has a roundish outline, is divided
down to the petiole into three principal segments, of which the lateral
are subdivided into two or even three, the lowest being smaller and
less regular than the others. The segments, which are trifid, are
finally cut into 2 to 5 strap-shaped pointed lobes. The leaves are
usually glabrous, and are deeply impressed on their upper side by
veins which run with but few branchings to the tip of every lobe.
The uppermost leaves are more simple than the lower, and gradually
pass into the bracts of the beautiful raceme of dull-blue helmet-shaped
flowers which crowns the stem.
The leaves have when bruised a herby smell ; their taste is at first
mawkish but afterwards persistently burning.
Chemical Composition — The leaves contain aconitine in small
proportion and also aconitic acid, — the latter in combination with lime.
AcovHic Acid, C^H^O", discovered by Peschier in 1820 in somewhat
considerable quantity in the leaves of aconite, occurs also in those of
larkspur, and is identical with the Equif^etic Acid of Braconnot and
the Citridic Acid of Baup.^ It has been stated to be present likewise
in Adonis vernalis L. (Linderos, 1876, — 10 per cent, of dried leaves 1)
and in the sugar cane (Behr, 1877).
Schoonbroodt" (1867) on treating the extract with a mixture of
alcohol and ether, obtained acicular crystals, which he thought were the
so-called Aconella of Smith. He further found that the distillate of
the plant was devoid of odour, but was acid, and had a burning taste.
By saturation with an alkali he obtained from it a crystalline substance,
soluble in water, and having a very acrid taste. Experiments made
about the same time by Groves,* a careful observer, led to opposite
results. He distilled on different occasions both fresh herb and fresh
roots, and obtained a neutral distillate, smelling and tasting strongly
of the plant, but entirely devoid of acridity. Hence he concluded that
A. Na2:)ellus contains no volatile acrid principle.
In an extract of aconite that has been long kept, the microscope
reveals crystals of aconitate of calcium, as well as of sal-ammoniac.
The leaves contain a small proportion of sugar, and a tannin striking
' Gtnelin, Cliemixfri/, xi. (1857)402. (1869) 82, also Jahresherichf of Wiggers
' AVittstein's Vierteljahresschrift, xviii. and Husemann (1869) 12.
'Pharm. Journ. viii. (1867) 118.
12
RANUNCULACEiE.
green with iron. When dried they yield on incineration 16 (J per cent,
of ash.
Uses — In Britain the leaves and small shoots are only used in the
fresh state, the flowering herb being purchased by the druggist in order
to prepare an inspissated juice, — Extractum Aconiti. This preparation,
which is considered rather uncertain in its action, is occasionally pre-
scribed for the relief of rheumatism, inflammatory and febrile affections,
neuralgia, and heart diseases.
RADIX ACONITI INDICA.
Blsli, Bifi or Bllch, Indian Aconite Root, Xcpal Aconite.
Botanical Origin — The poisonous root known in India as Bish,
Bis, or Bikh^ is chiefly derived from Aconitum /evmvWallich, a plant
growing 3 to 6 feet high and bearing large, dull-blue flowers, native of
the temperate and sub-alpine regions of the Himalaya at an eleva-
tion of 10,000 to 14,000 feet in Garwhal, Kuniaon, Nepal and Sikkim.'
In the gi'eater part of these districts, other closely allied and equally
poisonous species occur, viz. A. unicivatinn \j.,A. htridum H. f et Th.,
A. paJmatum Don, and also abundantly A. Napellus L., which last, as
already mentioned, grows throughout Europe as well as in Northern
Asia and America. The roots of these plants are collected indiscrimin-
ately according to Hooker and Thomson under the name of Bi.'^Ji
or Bil-h.
History — Tlie Sanskrit name of this potent drug, VisJur, signifies
simply poison, and Ativisha, a name which it also bears, is equivalent
to " uminnum venevuw ." Bish is mentioned by the Persian physician
Alhervi"* in the 10th century as well as by Avicetina '' and many other
Arabian writers on medicine, — one of whom, Isa Ben Ali, calls it the
most rapid of deadly poisons, and describes the symptoms it produces
with tolerable correctness."
Upon the extinction of the Arabian school of medicine this virulent
drug .seems to have fallen into oblivion. It is just named by Acosta
(1578) as one of the ingredients of a pill which the Brahmin physicians
give in fever and dysentery." There is also a very strange reference to
it as "Bisch" in the Persian Pharmacopoeia of Father Ange, where it
is stated * that the root, though most poisonous when fresh, is perfectly
innocuous when dried, and that it is imported into Persia from India,
and mixed tuith food arnl condiments as d restorative! Ange was
aware that it was the root of an aconite.
' The Arabic name Bish. or Persian BU is
stated by Moodeen Sheriff in his Supple-
ment to the Phcwmacopieid of India (p. 265)
to be a more correct designation than Bikli,
which seems to be a corruption of doubtful
origin. We find that the Arabian writer
Ihn Baytar gives the word as Bixh (not
Blkh).
2 Figured in Bentley and Trinien, Med.
Plants (1877) pt. 27.
^Flor. Ind. i. (1855)54,57; and Introd.
Essay, 3.
■* Abu Mansiir Mowafik ben Ali Alherui,
Liher Fitiulamentoriim Phdrviacoloi/ice, i.
(Vindob. 1830) 47. Seligmann's edition.
^ Valgrisi edition, 1564, lib. ii. tract. 2.
it. N. (p. 347).
" Ibn Baytar, Sontheimer's transl. i.
(1840) 199.
' Clusius, Exotica, 289.
^ Pharm. Persica, 1681, p. 17, 319, 358.
The word hisch is correctly given in Arabic
characters, so that of its identity there can
be no dispute. {Pharm. persica, see appen-
dix : Angelus.)
RADIX ACONITI INDICA.
The poisonous properties of Bish were particularly noticed by
Hamilton (late Buchanan) ^ who passed several months in Nepal in
180:2-3 : but nothing was known of the plant until it was gathered
by Wallich and a description of it as J., ferox communicated by Seringe
to the Socidte' de physique de Geneve in 1822.^ Wallich himself
afterwards gave a lengthened account of it in his Plavtai Asiaticce
Eariore.'i (1830).'
Description — Balfour, who also figures A. ferox,* describes the
])lant from a specimen that flowered in the Botanical Garden of Edin-
burgh as — " having 2 — 3 fasciculated, fusiform, attenuated tubers,
some of the recent ones being nearly 5 inches long, and I J- inches in
circumference, dark brown externally, white within, sending off sparse,
longish branching fibres."
Aconite root has of late been imported into London from India in
considerable quantity, and been offered by the wholesale druggists as
Xepal Aconite.'^ It is of very uniform appearance, and seems derived
from a single species, which we suppose to be ^1. ferox. The drug
consists of simple tuberous roots of an elongated conical form, 3 to 4
inches long, and i to If inches in greatest diameter. Very often the
roots have been broken in being dug up and are wanting in the lowei
extremity : some are nearly as broad at one end as at the other. They
are mostly flattened and not quite cylindrical, often arched, much
shrivelled chiefly in a longitudinal direction, and marked rather sparsely
with the scars of rootlets. The aerial stem has been closely cut away,
and is represented only b}^ a few short scaly rudiments.''
The roots are of a blackish brown, the ])rominent portions being
often M'hitened by fiiction. In their normal state they are white and
farinaceous Avithin, but as they are dried by fire-heat and often even
scorched, their interior is generall}'' horny, translucent, and extremely
compact and hard. The largest root we have met with weighed ooS
grains.
In the Indian Bazaars, BisJt is found in another form, the tuberous
roots having been steeped in cow's urine to pi-eserve them from insects.'
These roots which in our specimen' are mostly plump and cylindrical,
are flexible and moist when fresh, but become hard and brittle by i<eep-
ing. They are externally of very dark colour, black and horny within,
Avith an offensive odour resembling that of hyraceum or castor. Im-
mersed in water, though only for a few moments, they afford a deep
brown solution. Such a drug is wholly unfit for use in medicine,
though not unsuitable, perhaps, for the poisoning of wild beasts, a
l)urpose to which it is often applied in India."
^ Account of til e Kim/dom of JS'^pal, Ediu.
1819, 98.
- Mmee HeJvilique d' Hist. Nat. Berne, i.
(1823) 160.
^ Yet strange to say confused tlie pkvnt
with A. Napellus, an Indian form of which
he figured as A. ferox !
* Editil). New Phil. Joiini. xlvii. (1849)
366, pi. 5.
^ The first importation was in 1869, when
ten bags containing 1,000 lbs., said to be
part of a much larger quantity actually in
London, were oflfei'ed for sale by a drug-
broker.
" There is a rude woodcut of the root in
PJinrm. Journ. i. (1871) 434.
' A specimen of ordinary Bixh in my pos-
session for two or three years became much
infested by a minute and active insect of
the genus Fsocu/i. — D. H.
^ Obligingly sent to me in 1867 by Messrs.
Rogers & Co. of Bombay, who say it is the
only kind there procurable. — D. H.
" According to Moodeen Sheriff (Supple-
14
EANUNCULACE^.
Microscopic Structure — Most of the roots fail to display any-
characteristic structure by reason of the heat to which they have been
subjected. A living root sent to us from the Botanical Garden of Edin-
Ijurgh exhibited the thin brownish layer which encloses the central part
in A. Napellus, replaced by a zone of stone cells, — a feature discernible
in the imported root.
Chemical Composition — According to Wright and Lufi' (see
previous article) the roots of Aconituiu ferox contain comparatively
large quantities of pseudaconitine with a little aconitine and an alkaloid,
apparently non-crystalline, which would appear not to agree with the
analogous body from A. Napellus.
Uses — The drug has been imported and used as a source of aconitine.
It is commonly believed to be much more potent than the aconite root
of Europe.
RADIX ACONITI HETEROPHYLLI.
Atiis or Atees.
Botanical Origin — Aconitum heteivphyllum Wallich, a plant of
1 to 3 feet high with a raceme of large flowers of a dull yellow veined
with purple, or altogether blue, and reniform or cordate, obscurely
5-lobed, radical leaves.^ It grows at elevations of 8000 to 13,000 feet
in the temperate regions of the Western Himalaya, as in Simla,
Kumaon and Kashmir.
History — We have not met with any ancient account of this drug,
which however is stated by O'Shaughnessy " to have been long cele-
brated in Indian medicine as a tonic and aphrodisiac. It has recently
attracted some attention on account of its powers as an antiperiodic in
fevers, and has been extensively prescribed by European physicians in
India.
Description — The tuberous roots of A. heteropliyllum are ovoid,
oblong, and downward-tapering or obconical ; they vary in length
from ^ to \\ inches and in diameter from to of an inch, and
weigh from o to 45 grains. They are of a light ash colour, wrinkled
and marked with scars of rootlets, and have scaly rudiments of leaves
at the summit. Internally they are pure white and farinaceous. A
transverse section shows a homogeneous tissue with 4 to 7 yellowish
vascular bundles. In a longitudinal section these bundles are seen to
traverse the root from the scar of the stem to the opposite pointed
end, here and there giving off a rootlet. The taste of the root is simply
bitter with no acridity.
ment tu Phunii. of India, pp. 25-32, 265)
there are several kinds o£ aconite root
found in the Indian bazaars, some of them
highly poisonous, others innocuous. The
first or poisonous aconites he groups under
the head Aconitum ferox, v/hile the second,
of which there are three varieties mostly
known by the Arabic name Jadvdr (Persian
Zadvdr), he refers to undetermined species
of Aconitum.
The surest and safest names in most
parts of India for the poisonous aconite
roots are Bish (Arabic); Bin (Persian);
Singyd-bis, MUlia-zahar, Bachhndg (Hindu-
stani) ; Vasha-ndvi (Tamil) ; Vasa-ndbhi
(Malyalim).
^ Beautifully figured in Royle's Illmtra-
fiona of the Botany of the Himalayan
■mountains, &c., 1839, tab. 13; also in
Bentley and Trimen'a Medicinal Plants,
Part 27 (1877).
2 Bengal Diapematory, 1842. 1G7.
RADIX CIMICIFUGtE.
15
Microscopic Structure — The tissue is formed of large angular
thin-walled cells loaded with starch which is either in the form of
isolated or compound granules. The vascular bundles contain numer-
ous spiroid vessels which seen in transverse section appear arranged
so as to form about four rays. The outer coat of the root is made
up of about six rows of compressed, tabular cells with faintly brown-
ish walls.
Chemical Composition — The root contains Atisviie, an amorphous
alkaloid of intensely bitter taste discovered by Broughton/ who assigns
to it the formula C^^H'^N'O^, obtained from concurrent analysis of a
platinum salt. The alkaloid is readily soluble in bisulphide of carbon
or ia benzol, also to some extent in water. It is of decidedly alkaline
reaction, devoid of any acridity. Atisine has also been prepared (1877)
by Dunin' from the root in the laboratory of one of us. We have
before us its hydroiodate, forming colourless crystallized scales, which
we find to be very sparingly soluble in cold alcohol or water. At
boiling temperature the hydroiodate of atisine is readily dissolved; the
aqueous solution on cooling yields beautiful crystals. They agree,
according to Dunin, with the formula CH'-'N'O'. HI + OH- ; this
chemist has also shown atisine not to be poisonous. The absence in
the drug of aconitine is proved by medical experience,* and fully con-
firmed by the absence of any acridity in the root.
Uses — The drug is stated to have proved a valuable remedy in
intermittent and other paroxysmal fevers. In ordinary intermittents
it may be given in powder in 20-grain doses. As a simple tonic the
dose is 5 to 10 grains thrice a day.
Substitutes — The native name Jft's is applied in India to several
other drugs, one of which is an inert tasteless root commonly referred
to Asparagus sarmentosus L. In Kunawar the tubers of Aconitum
Napellus L. are dug up and eaten as a tonic, the name atis being
applied to them as well as to tho.se of A. heterophyll'im*
RADIX CIMICIFUG^.
Madix Actceoi racemosce ; Black Snake-root, Black Cohosh, Bughane.
Botanical Origin — Cimicifuga racemosa Elliott (Actcm racemosa
L.), a perennial herb 3 to 8 feet high, abundant in rich woods in
Canada and the United States, extending southward to Florida.' It
much resembles Actcta spicata L., a plant widely spread over the
northern parts of Eui'ope, Asia, and America, occurring also in Britain;
but it difiers in having an elongated raceme of 3 to 8 inches in length
and dry dehiscent capsules. A. spicata has a short ]-aceme and juicy
berries, usually red.
' Pliarm Jourit. vi. (1875) 189 ; also
Blue Book, East India Chincliona Cultiva-
tion, 1877. 133.
- Dr. M. Dunin von Wasowicz has
devoted to the drug under notice an
elaborate paper in the Archiv der PJiar-
made, 214 (1879) 193-216, including its
structure, which he illustrates by en-
gravings.
^ Pharm. of India, 1868. 4. 434.
Hooker and Thomson (on the authority
of Muuro) Flor. hid. 1855. 58.
' For figure, see Bentley and Trimen,
Med. Plants, Part 23 (1877).
IG
RANUNCULACE^.
History — The plant was first made known by Plukenet in 1690 as
Clivistophoriand Canadensis lucemosa. It was recommended in 1743
by Colden ' and named in 1749 by Linnaaus in his Materia Medica as
Actoia racemis lovyissimis. In 1823 it was introdnced into medical
practice in America by Garden; it began to be used in England about
the year ISGO."^
Description — The drug consists of a very short, knotty, branching-
rhizome, I an inch or more thick, having, in one direction, the remains
of several stout aerial stems, and in the other, numerous brittle, wiry
roots, to -^-Q of an inch in diameter, emitting rootlets still smaller.
The rhizome is of somewhat flattened cylindrical form, distinctly
marked at intervals with tlic scars of fallen leaves. A transverse
section exhibits in the centre a horny whitish ]>ith, round which are a
number of rather coarse, irregular woody rays, and outside them a hard,
thickish bark. The larger i-oots when broken display a thick cortical
hiyer, the space within Avhich contains converging wedges of open
woody tissue 3 to 5 in number forming a star or cross, — a beautiful and
charactei'istic structure easily observed with a lens. The drug is of a
dark blackish brown ; it has a bitter, rather acrid and astringent taste,
and a heavy narcotic smell.
Microscopic Structure — The most striking character is afforded
by the rootlets, which on a transverse section display a central wood}^
column, traversed usually by 4 wide medullary ra3's and often enclos-
ing a pith. The woody column is surrounded by a parenchymatous
layer separated from the cortical portion by one row of densely packed
small cells constituting a boundary analogous to the nucleus-sheath
(Kemscheide) met with in many roots of monocotyledons, as for instance
in sai'saparilla. The ])arenchyme of cimicifuga i-oot contains small
starch granules. The structure of the di-ug i.s, on the whole, the same
as that of the closely allied Eui opean Acteca spicata, L.
Chemical Composition — Tilghmann' in 1834 analysed the drug,
obtaining from it gum, sugar, resin, starch and tannic acid, but no
peculiar principal.
Conard'' extracted from it a neutral crystalline substance of in-
tensely acrid taste, soluble in dilute alcohol, chloroform, or ether, but
not in benzol, oil of turpentine, or bisulphide of carbon. The composi-
tion of this body has not been ascertained. The same chemist showed
the drug not to afford a volatile principle, even in its fresh state.
The American practitioners called Eclectics prepare Avith Black
Snake-root in the same manner as they prepare podophyllin, an impure
resin which they term Ciniicifugin or Macrotin. The drug yields,
according to Parrish, 3| per cent, of this substance, which is sold in the
form of scales or as a dark brown powder.
Uses — Cimicifuga usually prescribed in the form of tincture (called
Tivctiira Actcecv racemoscv) has been employed chiefly in rheumatic
aflections. It is also used in dropsy, the early stages of phthisis, and
in chronic bronchial disease. A strong tincture has been lately recom-
i Ada Soc. Rc'j. Sricnt. Upsal. 1743. 131.
-Bentley, Pharm. Jouni. ii. (18G1) 460.
3 Quoted by Bentlcy.
* Am. Journ. of Pliarm. xliii. (1871) 151;
Pharm. Journ. April 29, 1871. 866.
CORTEX WINTERANUS. 17
mended in America as an. external application for reducing inflam-
mation.^
MAGNOLIACEJE.
CORTEX WINTERANUS.
Cortex Winteri, Cortex Magellanicus ; Winters Bark, Winter's Cinna-
mon ; F. Ecorce de Winter ; G. Wintersrinde, Magellanischer Zimmt.
Botanical Origin — Drimys" Winteri Forster, a tree distributed
throughout the American continent from Mexico to Cape Horn. It
presents considerable variation in form and size of leaf and flower
in the diflferent countries in which it occurs, on which account it has
received from botanists several distinct specific names. Hooker^ has
reduced these species to a single type, a course in which he has
been followed by Eichier in his monograph of the small order
^Yinteracca^*'. — In April, 1877, the tree was blossoming in the open air
in the botanic garden at Dublin.
History — In 1577 Captain Drake, afterwards better known as Sir
Francis Drake, having obtained from Queen Elizabeth a commission to
conduct a squadron to the South Seas, set sail from Plymoutli with five
ships ; and having abandoned two of his smaller vessels, passed into the
Pacific Ocean by the Straits of Magellan in the autumn of the following
year. But on the 7th September, 1.j78, there arose a dreadful storm,
which dispersed the little fleet. Drake's ship, the Pelican, was driven
southward, the EUzaheth, under the command of Captain Winter,
repassed the Straits and returned to England, while the third vessel, the
Marigold, was heard of no more.
Winter remained three weeks in the Straits of Magellan to recover
the health of his crew, during which period, according to Clusius (the
fact is not mentioned in Hakluyt's account of the voyage), he collected
a certain aromatic bark, of which, having removed the acridity by
steeping it in honey, he made use as a spice and medicine for scurvy
during his voyage to England, where he arrived in 1579.
A specimen of this bark having been presented to Clusius, he gave
it the name of Cortex Wintcranus, and figured and described it in his
pamphlet: "Aliquot notpe in Garcije aromatum historiam," Antverpise,
1582, p. 30, and also in the Lihr'i Exoticorinn, published in 1G05. He
afterwards received a specimen with wood attached, wliich had been
collected by the Dutch navigator Sebald de Weerdt.
Van Noort, another well-known Dutch navigator, who visited the
Straits of Magellan in 1600, mentions cutting wood at Port Famine to
make a boat, and that the bark of the trees was hot and biting like
pepper. It is stated by Murray that he also brought the bark to
Europe.
' Yearbook of Pharmaci/, 1872. .385.
- From 5f)i|Ui;s, acrid, biting.
^ Flora Antarctica, ii. (1847) 229.
*Martius, Flor. Brax. fasc. .38(1864) 134.
Eichler however admits ti ve principal varie-
ties, viz. «. MageJ.layiica ; fS. C/iilnisis ; y.
Granatensis ; 6. revoluta ; s. angmtifoUa.
B
18
MAGNOLIACEvE.
But although the straits of Magellan were several times visited
about this period, it is certain that no regular communication between
that remote region and Europe existed either then or subsequently ;
and we may reasonably conclude that Winter's Bark became a drug of
great rarity, and known to but few persons. It thus happened that,
notwithstanding most obvious differences, the Canella alba of the West
Indies, and another bark of which we shall speak further on, having
been found to possess the pungency of Winter's Bark, were (owing to
the scarcity of the latter) substituted for it, until at length the peculiar
characters of the original drug came to be entirely forgotten.
The tree was figured by Sloane in 1693, from a specimen (still
extant in the British Museum) brought from Magellan's Straits by
Handisyd, a ship's surgeon, who had experienced its utility in treating
scurvy.
Feuilleie,^ a French botanist, found the Winter's Bark-tree in Chili
(1709-11), and figured it as Boigue cinnamomifera. It was, however,
Forster," the botanist of Cook's second expedition round the world, who
first described the tree accurately, and named it Drimys Winteri. He
met with it in 1773 in Magellan's Straits, and on the eastern coasts of
Tierra del Fuego, where it grows abundantly, forming an evergreen
tree of 40 feet, while on the western shores it is but a shrub of 10 feet
high. Specimens have been collected in these and adjacent localities
by many subsequent botanists, among others by Dr. J. D. Hooker, who
states that about Cape Horn the tree occurs from the sea-level to an
elevation of 1000 feet.
Although the bark of Drimys was never imported as an article of
trade from Magellan's Straits, it has in recent times been occasionally
brought into the market from other parts of South America, where
it is in very general use. Yet so little are drug dealers acquainted with
it, that its true name and origin have seldom been recognized.^
Description — We have examined specimens of true Winter's Bark
from the Straits of Magellan, Chili, Peru, New Gi-anada, and Mexico,
and find in each the same general characters. The bark is in quills or
channelled pieces, often crooked, twisted or bent backwards, generally
only a few inches in length. It is most extremely thick to -^^^ of
an inch) and appears to have shi'unk very much in drying, bark a
quarter of an inch thick having sometimes rolled itself into a tube only
three times as much in external diameter. Young pieces have an ashy-
grey suberous coat beset with lichens. In older bark, the outer coat is
sometimes whitish and silvery, but more often of a dark rusty brown,
which is the colour of the internal substance, as well as of the surface
next the wood. The inner side of the bark is strongly characterized by
very rough strife, or, as seen under a lens, b}^ small short and sharp
longitudinal ridges, with occasional fissures indicative of great con-
traction of the inner layer in drying. In a piece broken or cut trans-
versely, it is easy to perceive that the ridges in question are the ends of
rays of white liber which diverge towards the circumference in radiate
^ Juurn. des observations physiques, &c. ^ We have seen it offered in a drug sale at
iv. 1714. 10, pi. 6. one time as " Pepper Bark," at another as
^ Charaderes Generum Plantarum, 1116. "Cinchona." Even Mutis thought it a Cin-
42. chona, and called it " Kinkina urens" !
CORTEX WINTERANUS.
19
jrder, a dark rusty parenchyme intervening between them. No such
i'eature is ever observable in either Cavella or Cinnamodendron.
Winter's Bai'k has a short, almost earthy fracture, an intolerably
^unsrent burninp- taste, and an odour which can only be described as
:erebinthinous. When fresh its smell may be more agreeable. The
iescriptions of Clusius, as alluded to above, are perfectly agreeing and
3ven his figures as nearly as might be expected.
Microscopic Structure — In full-grown specimens the most strik-
ng fact is the predominance of sclerenchymatous cells. The tissue
moreover contains numerous lai'ge oil-ducts, chiefly in the inner portion
)f the large medullary rays. A fibrous structure of the inner part of
;he bark is observable only in the youngest specimens.^ Very small
starch granules are met with in the drug, yet less numerous than in
;anella. The tissue of the former assumes a blackish blue colour on
iddition of perchloride of iron.
The wood of Drimys consists of dotted prosenchyme, traversed by
medullary rays, the cells of which are punctuated and considerably
arger than in Coniferce.
Chemical Composition — No satisfactory chemical examination
las been made of true Wintei^'s Bark. Its chief constituents, as already
Dointed out, are tannic matters and essential oil, probably also a resin,
[n a cold aqueous infusion, a considerable amount of mucilage is indi-
cated by neutral acetate of lead. On addition of potash it yields a
lark somewhat violet liquid. Canella alba is but little altered by the
;ame treatment. By reason of its astringency the bark is used in Chili
or tanning.^
Uses— Winter's Bark is a stimulating tonic and antiscorbutic, now
draost obsolete in Europe. It is much used in Brazil and other parts
)f South America as a remedy in diarrhoea and gastric debility.
Substitute — False Winter s Barh — We have shown that the bark
)f Drimys or True Winter's Bark has been confounded with the
)ungent bark of Canella alba L., and with an allied bark, also the pro-
luce of Jamaica. The latter is that of Cinnamodendron corticosum
Vliers,^ a tree growing in the higher mountain woods of St. Thomas-in-
:he-Vale and St. John, but not observed in any other of the West
[ndian islands than Jamaica. It was probably vaguely known to
Sloane when he described the " Wild Cinamon tree, commonly, hut
falsely, called Cortex Winteranus," which, he says, has leaves resemb-
ing those of Lauro-cerasus ; though the tree he figures is certainly
Janella alha.'^ Long'^ in 1774, speaks of Wild Cinamon, Canella alba,
)r Bastard Cortex Winteranus, saying that it is used by most apothe-
caries instead of the true Cortex Winteranus.
It is probable that both writers really had in view Cinnamodendron,
:he bark of which has been known and used as Winter's Bark, both in
England and on the continent from an early period up to the present
' The structure of Winter's Bark is beau-
tifully figured by Eichler, loc. cit. tab. 32.
- Perez- Resales, Ensai sur le Chili, 1857.
113.
^Annals of Nat. Hist., May 1858 ; also
Miers' Contributions to Botany, i. 121, pi.
24, Bot. Magaz., Sept. 1874, vol. xxx. pi.
6121, and Bentley and Trimens' Medicinal
Plants, part 10.
^ Phil. Trans, xvii. for 1693. 465.
^ Hist, of Jamaica. 'LoTL\A.or\, iii. (1774) 705
— also i. 495.
20
MAGNOLIACE^.
time.' It is the bark figured as Cortex Wivtemiius by Goebel and
Kunze- and described by M^rat and De Lens,^ Pereira, and other writei's
of repute. Guibourt indeed pointed out in 1850 its great dissimilarity
to the bark of Drimyf^ and questioned if it could be derived from that
genus.
It is a stiange fact that the tree should have been confounded with
Ciinclla alba L., differing from it as it does in the most obvious manner,
not only in form of leaf, but in having the flowers axillary, whereas
those of C. alba are terminal. Although Cimi arnodendrov corticosiim
is a tree sometimes as much as 90 feet high'' and must have been well
known in Jamaica for more than a century, yet it had no botanical
name until 1858 when it was described by Miers' and referred to the
small genus Cinnamodendron which is closely allied to Cavella.
The bark of Cinnamodendron has the general structure of Cauella
alba. There is the same thin corky outer coat (which is not removed)
dotted with round scars, the same form of quills and fracture. But the
tint is different, being more or le.ss of a ferruginous brown. The inner
surface which is a little more fibrous than in canella, varies in colftui-,
being yellowish, brown, or of a deep chocolate. The bark is violently
pungent but not bitter, and has a very agreeable cinnamon-like odour.
In microftcoplc structure it approaches very close to canella ; yet
the thick- walled cells of the latter exist to a much larger extent and
are here seen to belong to the suberous tissue. The medullary ra3's are
loaded with oxalate of calcium.
Cinnamodendron bark has not been analysed. Its decoction is
blackened by a persalt of iron whereby it may be distinguished from
Canella alba ; and is coloured intense purplish brown by iodine, which
is not the case with a decoction of true Winter's Bark.
FRUCTUS ANISI STELLATI.
Semen Badiann'^; Star-Anise ; F. Badiane, Anis etoiU ; G. Siernanh.
Botanical Origin — Illicium animtum Loureiro (/. religiosum
Sieb.). A small tree, 20 to 25 feet high, native of the south-western
provinces of China; introduced at an early period into Japan by the
Buddhists and planted about their temples.
Kampfer in his travels in Japan, in 1690 — 1G92, discovered and
figured a tree called Somo or Skimmi' which subsequent authors
assumed to be the source of the drug Star-anise. The tree was also
found in Japan by Thunberg** who remarked that its capsules are not
so aromatic as those found in trade. Von Siebold in 1825 noticed the
^ It is so labelled in the Museum of the
Pharmaceutical Society, 28th April, 1873.
Pharm. Waarenkunde, 1827-29. i. Taf.
3. fig. 7.
^ As shown by De Lens' own specimeii
kindly given to us by Dr. J. Leon Soubei-
ran. There are specimens of the same
bark about a century old marked Cortex
Winteramm verus in Dr. Burges's cabinet
of drugs belonging to the Royal College of
Physicians.
* Griesbach calls it a low shrubby tree,
10—15 feet high. Mr. N. Wilson, late of
the Bath Botanic Garden, .Tamaica, lias in-
formed me it grows to be 40 — 45 in height,
but that he lias seen a specimen 90 feet
high. (Letter 22 May 1862.)— D. H.
^ Loc. cit.
^ From the Arabic Bddii/dn fennd.
T Amoenitatc.it, 1712. 880[
^ Flora Japonica, 1784. 235.
FRUCTUS ANISI STELLATI.
21
same fact, in consequence of which he regarded the tree as distinct from
that of Loureiro, naming it lUicium Japonicuni, a name he changed in
1837 to 1. reli<jiosum. Baiilon/ while admitting certain differences
between the fruits of tlie Chinese and Japanese trees, holds them to
constitute but one species, and the same view is taken by Miquel."
The star-anise of commerce is produced in altitudes of 2500 metres
in the north-western parts of the province of Yunnan in South-western
China whei'e the tree, wliich attains a height of 12 to 15 feet, grows in
abundance.^ The fruits of the Japanese variety of the tree are not
collected, and the Chinese drug alone is in use even in Japan.
History — Notwithstanding its striking appearance, there is no
evidence that star-anise found its Avay to Europe like other Eastern
spices during the middle ages. Concerning its ancient use in China,
the oidy fact we have found recorded is, that during the Sung dynasty,
A.D. 970 — 1127, star-anise was levied as tribute in the southern part of
Kien-chow, now Yen-ping-fu, in Fokien.'*
Star-anise was brought to England from the Philippines by the
voyager Candish, about a.d. 1588. Clusius obtained it in London from
tlie apothecary Morgan and the druggist Garet, and described it in
IGOl.^ The drug appears to have been rare in the time of Pomet,
who states (IGOi) that the Dutch use it to flavour their bevex-ages of
tea and " sorbec."'' In those times it was brought to Europe by way
of Russia, and was thence called Cardamomum Siberiense, or Annis de
Sibe'rie.
Description — The fruit of Illiciinu anisatum is formed of 8 one-
seeded carpels, originally upright, but afterwards spread into a radiate
whorl and united in a single row round a short central column which
proceeds from an oblique pedicel. When ripe they are woody and split
longitudinally at the upturned ventral suture, so that the shining seed
becomes visible. This seed, which is elliptical and somewhat flattened,
stands erect in the carpel ; it is truncated on the side adjoining the
central column, and is there attached by an obliquely-rising funicle.
The upper edge of the seed is keeled, the lower rounded. The boat-
shaped carpels, to the number of 8, are attached to the column through
their whole height, but adhere to each other only slightly at the base ;
the upper or split side of each carpel occupies a nearly horizontal posi-
tion. The carpels are irregularly wrinkled, especially below, and are
more or less beaked at the apex ; their colour is a rusty brown.
Internally they are of a brighter colour, smooth, and with a cavity in
the lower half corresponding to the shape of the seed. The cavity is
formed of a separate wall, i millim. thick, which, as well as the testa of
the seed, distinctly exhibits a radiate structure. The small embryo
lies next the hilum in the soft albumen, which is covered by a dark
^ Adamonia, viii. 9 ; Hint, des Plantes,
3fagnoliacces, 1868. 154.
"Ann. Mils. Bot. Lugdun. Batav. ii.
(1865—1866). 257.
'Thorel, Notes Mcdicaks du voijwjt
d' exploration du Milcomj et de Cochinchine,
Paris, 1870. 31. — Gamier, Voyaije d'ex-
ploration en hulo-Chine II. (Paris, 1873)
•139. — Rondot, Etude pratique du commerce
d'exportation de la Chine, 1848. 11.
Bretsclineider in [Foochow] Chinese Re-
corder, Jau., 1871, 220, reprinted in his
" Stndy and Value of Chinese Botanical
Works," Fcochow, 1872, 13.— See also
Hirth du Frenes, in New Remedies, New
York, 1877, 181.
5 Rarior. Plant. Hist. 202.
^ Hist, des Drog. pt. i. liv. i. 43.
22
MAGNOLIACEiii:.
brown endopleura. The seed, which is not much aromatic, amounts to
about one-fifth of the entire weight of the fruit.
Star-anise has an agreeable aromatic taste and smell, more resembling
fennel than anise, on which account it was at first designated Fcetii-
culum Sinense} When pulverised, it has a sub-acid after-taste.
Microscopic Structure — The carpels consist of an external, loose,
dark-brown layer and a thick inner wall, separated by fibro-vascular
bundles. The outer layer exhibits numerous large cells, containing
pale yellow volatile oil. The inner wall of the carpels consists of woody
prosen chyme in those parts which are exterior to the seed cavity, and
especially in the shining walls laid bare by the splitting of the ventral
suture. The inner surface of the carpel is entirely composed of scleren-
chyme. A totally different structure is exhibited by this stony shell
where it lines the cavity occupied by the seed. Here it is composed of
a single row of cells, consisting of straight tubes exactly parallel to one
another, more than 500 mkm. long, and 70 mkm. in diameter, placed
vertically to the seed cavity ; their porous walls, marked with fine
spiral striations, display splendid colours in polarized light. The seed
contains albumen and drops of fat. Starch is wanting in star-anise,
except a little in the fruit-stalk.
Chemical Composition — The volatile oil amounts to four or five
per cent. Its composition is that of the oils of fennel or anise. We
observed that oil of star-anise, as distilled by one of us, continued fluid
below 8° C. It solidified at that temperature as soon as a crystal of
anethol (see our article on Fructus Anisi) was brought in contact with
the oil. The crystallized mass began to melt again at 16° C. The oils of
anise and star-anise possess no striking optical differences, both deviat-
ing very little to the left. We are unable to give any chemical
characters by which they can be discriminated, although they are dis-
tinguished by dealers ; the oil of star-anise imparts a somewhat different
flavour,, for instance, to drinks than that produced by anise oil.
Star-anise is rich in sugar, which seems to be cane-sugar inasmuch
as it does not reduce alkaline cupric tartrate. An aqueous extract of
the fruit assumes, on addition of alcohol, the form of a clear muci-
laginous jelly, of which pectin is probably a constituent. The seeds
contain a large quantity of fixed oil.
Commerce — Star-anise is shipped to Europe and India from China.
In 1872 Shanghai imported, mostly by way of Hong-Kong 5273 peculs
(703,066 lb.), a large proportion of which was re-shipped to other ports
of China.^ According to Rondot (l. c.) the best is first brought by junks
from Fokien to Canton, being exported from Tsiouen-tchou-fou. A
little is also collected in Kiang-si and Kuancf-tune". The same druo-
under the name of Badiyane-khatai (i.e. Chinese fennel), is carried by
inland trade from China to Yarkand and thence to India, where it is
much esteemed.
Uses — Star-anise is employed to flavour spirits, the principal con-
sumption being in Germany, France, and Italy. It is not used in
medicine at least in England, except in the form of essential oil, whicli
is often sold for oil of aniseed.
iRedi, Experimenta, Amstelod. 1675, p. ^Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports
172. in China for 1872, 4—8.
RADIX CALUMET.
23
MENISPEKMACEJE.
RADIX CALUMByE.
Radix Columba ; Calumba or Colombo Root ; F. Racine de Colombo ;
G. Kalumbatuurzel, Colambowurzel.
Botanical Origin — Jateorhizapahiiata Miers^ a dioecious perennial
plant, with large fleshy roots and herbaceous annual stems, climbing-
over bushes and to the tops of lofty trees. The leaves are of large size
and on long stalks, palmate-lobed and membranous. The male flowers
are in racemose panicles a foot or more in length, setose-hispid at least
in their lower part, or nearly glabrous. The whole part is more or less
hispid with spreading setfe and glandular hairs.
It is indigenous to the forests of Eastern Africa between Ibo or Oibo,
the most northerly of the Portuguese settlements (lat. 12° 28' S.), and
the banks of the Zambesi, a strip of coa.st which includes the towns of
Mozambique and Quilimane. Kirk found it (1860) in abundance at
Shupanga, among the hills near Morambala, at Kebrabasa and near
Senna, localities all in the region of the Zambesi. Peters" states that
on the islands of Ibo and Mozambique the plant is cultivated. In the
Kew Herbarium is a specimen from the interior of Madagascar'.
The plant was introduced into Mauritius a century ago in the time
of the French governor Le Poivre, but seems to have been lost, for after
many attempts it was again introduced in 1825 by living specimens
procured from Ibo by Captain Owen.^ It still thrives there in. the
Botanical Garden of Pamplemousses.
It was taken from Mozambique to India in 1805 and afterwards
cultivated by Roxburgh in the Calcutta Garden, where however it has
long ceased to exist.
History — The root is held in high esteem among the natives of
^ Synouyma — Menixpermiim palmatum
Lamarck, Coccidtis palmatus DC, Meinnper-
mum Coiiimba Roxb., Jateorhiza Calumba
Miers, J. Miersii Oliv. , Chasmanthera
Columba Baillon. As we thus suppress a
species admitted in recent works, it is ne-
cessary to give the following explanation.
Menispermum palmatum of Lamarck, first
described in the Encyclop^die mithoclique in
1797 (iv. 99), was divided by Miers into
two species, Jateorhiza palmata and J.
Calumba. Oliver in his Flora of Tropical
Africa, i. (18C8) 42, accej)ted the view
taken by Miers, but to avoid confusion
abolished the specific name paZ/fiato, sub-
stituting for it that of Miersii. At the
same time he noticed the close relation-
ship of the two species, and suggested that
further investigation might warrant their
union. The characters supposed to dis-
tinguish them ii2ter se are briefly these : —
In J. joalmata, the lobes at the base of the
leaf overlap, and the male inflorescence is
nearly glabrous ; while in J. Calumba, the
basal lobes are rounded, but do not overlap,
and the male inflorescence is setose-hisjiid
{"sparsely pilose" Miers). On careful
examination of a large number of speci-
^aens, including those of Berry from Cal-
cutta, and others from Mauritius, Mada-
gascar, and the Zambesi, together with
the drawings of Telfair and Roxburgh, and
the published figures and descriptions, I
am convinced that the characters in ques-
tion are unimportant and do not warrant
the establishment of two species. In this
view I have the support of Mr. Horne of
Mauritius, who at my request has made
careful observations on the living plant
and found that both forms of leaf occur on
the same stem. — D. H.
^ Reise nach Mossambique, Botanik i.
(1862) 172.
3 Hooker, Bot. Mag. Ivii. (1830) tabb.
2970-71.
24
MENISPERMACEiE.
Eastern Africa who call it Kalunib, and use it for the cure of dysentery
and as a general remedy for almost any disorder.
It was brought to Europe by the Portuguese in the I7th century, and
is first noticed briefly in 1671 by Francesco Redi, who speaks of it^
as an antidote to poison deserving trial.
No further attention was paid to the drug for nearly a century, when
Percival" in 1773 re-introduced it as " a incdicine of considcvahle efficacjj
. . . not so (jcneralhj knotvn in practice as it deserves to he." From this
period it began to come into general use. J. Gurney Bevan, a London
druggist, writing to a correspondent in 1777 alludes to it as — " an article
not yet much dealt in and subject to great fluctuation." It was in fact
at this period extremely dear, and in Mr. Be van's stock-books is valued
in 1776 and 1777 at SOs. per lb., in 1780 at 28s., 1781 at 64s., 1782 at
15s., 1783 at 6s. Calumba was admitted to the London PIuD-vuicopoeia
in 1788.
Collection — As to the collection and preparation of the drug for
the market, the only account we possess is that obtained by Dr. Berry,'*
which states that the roots are dug up in the month of March, which is
the dry season, cut into slices and dried in the shade.
Description — The calumba plant produces great fusiform fleshy
roots growing several together from a short head. Some fresh speci-
mens sent to one of us (H.) from the Botanic Garden, Mauritius,
in 1866, and others from that of Trinidad in 1868, were portions of
cylindrical roots, 3 to 4 inches in diameter, externally rough and brown
and internally firm, fleshy, and of a brilliant yellow. When sliced
trans v.ersely, and dried by a gentle heat, these roots exactly resemble
imported calumba except for being much fresher and brighter.
The calumba of commerce consists of irregular flattish pieces of a
circular or oval outline, 1 to 2 inches or more in diameter, and ^ to | an
inch thick. In drying, the central portion contracts more than the
exterior : hence the pieces are thinnest in the middle. The outer edge
is invested with a brown wrinkled layer which covers a corky bark
about I of an inch thick, surrounding a pithless internal substance, from
Avhich it is separated by a fine dark shaded line. The pieces are light
and of a corky texture, easily breaking with a mealy fracture. Their
colour is a dull greenish yellow, brighter when the outer surface is
shaved off" with a knife."* The drug has a weak musty odour and a
rather nauseous bitter taste. It often arrives much perforated by in-
sects, but seems not liable to such depredations here.
Microscopic Structure — ^On a transverse section the root exhibits
a circle of radiate vascular bundles only in the layer immediately con-
nected with the cambial zone ; they project much less distinctly'' into the
cortical part. The tissue of the whole root, except the cork and vascular
bundles, is made up of large parenchymatous cells. In the outer part
of the bark, some of them have their yellow walls thickened and are
^ " Sono ancora da farsi nuove esjjerienze
intorno alia radice di C'alumbe, creduta un
grandissimo alessifarmaco. " — Esperienze, p.
125. (See Appendix, R. )
'^Essays Medical and Experimental, Lond.
ii. (1773) 3.
3 Asiatick Researches, x. (1808) 385 ;
Aiuslie, Mat. Med. of Hindoostan, 298.
^ Wholesale druggists sometimes im.sh
the drag to improve its colour.
PAREIRA BRAVA.
25
loaded with line crystals of oxalate of calcium, whilst all the other
cells coutain very large starch granules, attaining as much as 90 mkm.
The short fracture of the root is due to the absence of a proper ligneous
or liber tissue.
Chemical Composition — The bitter taste of calumba, and probably
likewise its medicinal properties, are due to three distinct substances,
Columbin, Berherine, and Colitmbic Acid.
Columbin or Colattiba-Bltter was discovered by Wittstock in 1830.
It is a neutral l^itter principle, crystallizing in colourless rhombic prisms,
slightly soluble in cold alcohol or ether, but dissolving more freely in
those liquids when boiling. It is soluble in aqueous alkalis and in acetic
acid.
The presence of Berberiiie in calumba was ascertained in 1848 by
Bodeker, who showed that the yellow cell-walls of the root owe their
colour to it and (as we may add) to Colurtibic Acid, another substance
discovered by the same chemist in the following year. Columbic Acid
is yellow, amorphous, nearly insoluble in cold water, but dissolving in
alcohol and in alkaline solutions. It tastes somewhat less bitter than
columbin. Bodeker surmises that it may exist in combination with the
berberine.
Bodeker has pointed out a connection between the three bitter prin-
ciples of calumba. If we suppose a molecule of ammonia, Nff, to be
added to columbin C^"H""0", the complex molecule thence resulting will
contain the elements of berbex'ine C^'H^'NO^, columbic acid C'~H"^0'',
and water 3H'0.
Among the more usual constituents of plants, cahimba contains (in
addition to starch) pectin, gum, and nitrate of potassium, but no tannic
acid. It yields when incinerated 6 per cent, of ash.
Commerce — Calumba root is shipped to Europe and India from
Mozambique and Zanzibar, and exported from Bombay and other
Indian ports.
Uses — It is much employed as a mild tonic, chietiy in the form of
tincture or of aqueous infusion.
PAREIRA BRAVA.
Rad 'ijo Pareiroi ; Fareiva Brava^; F. Racine de Butua ou de Pareira-
Bmva ; G. Grieswurzel.
Botanical Origin — Chondodendron tomentusiim Ruiz et Pav. (non
Eichler) [Coccidus Chondodendron DC, Botri/opsis 'platgijliylUt Miers'*).
— It is a lofty climbing shrub with long woody stems, and leaves as
much as a foot in length. The latter are of variable form, but mostly
broadly ovate, rounded or pointed at the extremity, slightly cordate at
the base, and having long petioles. They are smooth on the upper side ;
on the under covered between the veins with a fine close tomentum of
' From the Portuguese parreira, signify-
ing a vine that grows against a wall (in
French treille), and hrava, wild.
2 For a figure see Bentley and Trimeu,
Medic. Plants, Part 5 (1876) ; also Eichler
in Martius' Flor. Bras. fasc. 38. tab. 48.
The Cissampelos Abutua of Vellozo's Flora
Fluminensis, torn. x. tab. 140 appears to
us the same plant.
20
MENISPERMACE^.
an ashy hue. The flowers are unisexual, racemose, minute, produced
either from the young shoots or from the woody stems. The fruits
are | of an inch long, oval, black and much resembling grapes in form
and arrangement.^
The plant grows in Peru and Brazil, — in the latter country in the
neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, where it occurs in some abundance
on the range of hills separating the Copacabana from the basin of the
Rio de Janeiro. It is also found about San Sebastian further south.
History — The Portuguese missionaries who visited Brazil in the
I7th century became acquainted with a root known to the natives as
Abatiia or Butua, which was regarded as possessing great virtues. As
the plant affording it was a tall climbing shrub with large, simple,
long-stalked leaves, and bore bunches of oval berries resembling grapes,
the Portuguese gave it the name of Parr sir a hrava or Wild Vine.
The root was brought to Lisbon where its reputed medicinal powers
attracted the notice of many persons, and among others of Michel
Amelot, ambassador of Louis XIV., who took back some of it when he
returned to Paris in 1688. Specimens of the drug also reached the
botanist Tournefort, and one presented by him to Pomet was figured
and described by the latter in 1694.^ The drug was again brought to
Paris by Louis-Raulin Rouilld, the successor to Amelot at Lisbon,
toojether with a memoir detailing its numerous virtues.
Specimens obtained in Brazil by a naval officer named De la Mare in
the early part of the last century, were laid before the French Academy,
which body requested a report upon them from Geoff roy, professor of
medicine and pharmacy in the College of France, who was already
somewhat acquainted with the new medicine. He reported many
favourable trials in cases of inffammations of the bladder and suppres-
sion of urine.^ The drug was a favourite remedy of Helvetius,'' physi-
cian to Louis XIV. and Louis XV., who administered it for years with
great success.
Both Geoflroy and Helvetius were in fi-equent correspondence with
Sloane" who received from the former as well as from other sources
specimens of Pareira Brava, which are still in the British Museum and
have enabled us fully to identify the drug as the root of Chondodendron
tomentosm^t.
Several other plants of the order Menispermacece have stems or roots
employed in South America in the same manner as Chondodendron.
Pomet had heard of two varieties of Pareira Brava, and two were
known to Geoffi'oy." Lochner of Nlirnberg who published a treatise
on Pareira Brava in 1719' brought forward a plant of Eastern Africa
figured in 1675 by Zanoni/ and supposed to be the mother-plant of the
1 See Pharm. Journ. Aug. 2, 1873. 83 ;
Yearbook, 1873. 28 ; Am. Journ. of
Pharm. Oct. 1, 1873. fig. 3; Hanburij
Science Papers. 382.
2 Hist, des Drog. Paris, 1694. part i.
livre 2. cap. 14.
^ Hist, de I' Acad. roy. des Sciences,
annee 1710. 56.
* Traits des maladies les plus friquentes
et des reniedes sp^cifiquts puur les gu6rir,
Paris, 1703. 98.
^ In the volumes of Sloane MSS. No.
4045 and 3322 contained in the British
Museum, are a great many letters to Sloane
from Etienne-Fran^ois Geofiroy and from
his younger brother Claude-Joseph, dating
1699 to 1744.
« Tract, de Mat. Med. ii. (1741) 21—25.
Schediasma de Parreira Brava, 1719.
(ed. 2. auctior. )
* Istoria Botanica, 1675. 59. fig. 22.
PAREIRA BRAVA.
27
drug. A species of Gissampelos called by the Portuguese in Brazil
Caapeba, Cipo de Cobras or Herva de ]}iossa Senhora described by Piso
in 1648/ afterwards became associated with Pareira Brava on account
of similarity of properties.
Thus was introduced a confusion which we may say was consoli-
dated when Linnaeus in 1753,^ founded a species as Cissampelos Pareira,
citinof it as the source of Pareira Brava, — a confusion which has lasted
for more than a hundred years. This plant is very distinct from that
yielding true Pareira Brava, and though its roots and stems are used
medicinally in the West Indies,^ there is nothing to prove that the}^
were ever an object of expoi't to Europe.
As Pareira Brava failed to realise the extravagant pretensions
claimed for it, it gradually fell out of use/ and the characters of the
true drug became forgotten. This at least seems to be the explanation
of the fact that for many years past the Pareira Brava found in the
shops and supposed to be genuine is a substance very diverse from the
original drug, — albeit not devoid of medicinal properties. More re-
cently even this has become scarce, and an inert Pareira Brava has been
almost the sole kind obtainable. The true drug has however still
at times appeared in the European market, and attention having
been directed to it,^ we may hope that it will arrive in a regular
manner.
The re-introduction of Pareira Brava into medical practice is due
(so far as Great Britain is concerned) to Brodie" who recommended it
in 1828 for inflammation of the bladder.
Description — True Pareira Brava as derived from Chondodendfon
tomentosum is a long, branching, woody root, attaining 2 inches or
more in diameter, but usually met with much smaller and dividing
into rootlets no thicker than a quill or even than a horse-hair. It is
remai'kably tortuous or serpentine and marked with ti'ansverse ridges
as well as with constrictions and cracks more or less conspicuous ;
besides which the surface is strongly wrinkled longitudinally. The
bark is of a dark blackish brown or even quite black when free from
earth, and disposed to exfoliate. The root breaks with a coarse fibrous
fracture; the inner substance is of a light yellowish brown, — sometimes
of a dull fjreenish brown.
Roots of about an inch in diameter cut transversely exhibit a
central column 0"2 to 04 of an inch in diameter composed of 10 to 20
converging wedges of lai-ge-pored "\voody tissue with 3 or 4 zones
divided from each other by a wavy light-coloured line. Crossing these
zones are wedge-shaped woody rays, often rather sparsely and irregu-
larly distributed. The interradial substance has a close, resinous, waxy
appearance.
The root though hard is easily shaved with a knife, some pieces
giving the impression when cut of a waxy, rather than of a woody and
\ Medicina BrcmUcnsis, 16-48. 94.
" Species Plantarum, Holmias, 1753 ; see
also Mat. Aled. 1749. No. 459.
3 Lunan, Hort. Javiaic. ii. (1814)254;
Descourtilz, Flor. raid, des AntUles, iii.
(1827) 231.
■* Thus it was omitted from the London
pharmacopoeias of 1809 and 1824, and from
many editions of the Edinhiirrjh Dispen-
satory.
^ Hanbury in Pharm. Journ. Aug. 2 — 9,
1873, pp. 81 and 102.
Lond. Med. Gazette, Feb. 16, 1828 ;
Brodie, Lectures on Diseases of the Urinary
Organs, ed. 3. 1842. 108, 138.
28
MENISPERMACEiE.
librous substance. The taste is bitter, well marked but not persistent.
The drug has no particular odour. Its aqueous decoction is turned
inky bluish-black by tincture of iodine.
The aerial stems especially differ by enclosing a small but well-
defined pith.
Microscopic Structure— The most interesting character consists
in the arrangement rather than in the peculiarity of the tissues com-
posing this drug. The wavy light-coloured lines already mentioned
are built up partly of sclerenchymatous cells. The other portions of
the parenchyme are loaded with large starch granules, which are much
less abundant in the stem.
Chemical Composition — From the examination of this drug made
by one of us in 1869,^ it was shown that the bitter principle is the
same as that discovered in 1839 by Wiggers in the drug hereafter
described as Common False Pareira Brava, and named by him Pelosine.
It was further pointed out that this body possesses the chemical pro-
perties of the Bihirine of Greenheart bark and of the Buxine obtained
by Walz from the bark of Buxus semj^ervirens L. It was also obtained
on the same occasion (1869) from the stems and roots of Cissampelos
Pareira L. collected in Jamaica ; but from both drugs in the very small
proportion of about 4- per cent.
Whether to Buxine (for by this name rather than Pelosine it should
be designated) is due the medicinal power of the drug may well be
doubted. No further chemical examination of true Pareira Brava has
been made.
Uses — The medicine is prescribed in chronic catari'hal affections of
the bladder and in calculus. From its extensive use in Brazil^ it seems
deserving of trial in other complaints. Helvetius used to give it in
substance, which in 5-grain doses was taken in infusion made with
boiling water from the powdered root and not strained.
Substitutes — -We have already pointed out how the name Pareira
Brava has been applied to several other drugs than that described in
the foregoing pages. We shall now briefly notice the more important.
1. Stems and roots of Cissampelos Parclrali. — Owing to the difli-
culty of obtaining good Pareira Brava in the London market, although
this plant is very widely diffused over all the tropical regions of both
hemispheres, tlie firm of which one of us was formerly a member
(Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, Plough Court, Lombard Street) caused to
be collected in Jamaica, undei- the superintendence of Mr. N. Wilson,
of the Bath Botanical Gardens, the stems and root of Cissampelos
Pareira L., of which it imported in 18GG-67-68 about 300 lb. It was
found impracticable to obtain the root per se ; and the greater bulk of
the drug consisted of long cylindrical stems,^ many of which had been
decumbent and had thrown out rootlets at the joints. They had very
' iV'e!(e*- Jahrb. f. Pharm. xxxi. (1869)
257 ; Pharm. Journ. xi. (1870) 192.
2 " Prescutamente [Abutua] e reputada
diaphoretica, diureticae emeuagoga, e usada
interiormente na d6se de duas a quatro
oitavas para uma libra de infusao ou cozi-
mento, iias febres intermittentes, bydro-
pisias, e suspensao de locbios." — Lang-
gaard, Diccionario de Medicina domestica e
popular, Rio de Janeiro, i. (1865) 17.
2 Figured, togetlier with the plant, in
Bentley and Trimen, Medic. Plants, part
9 (1876).
PAREIRA BRAVA.
29
much the aspect of the climbing stems of Clematis vitalba L., and
varied from the thickness of a quill to that of the forefinger, seldom
attaining the diameter of an inch. The stems have a light brov/n bai'k
marked longitudinally with shallow furrows and wrinkles, which some-
times take a spiral direction. Knots one to three feet apart, sometimes
throwing out a branch, also occur. The root is rather darker in colour,
but not very different in structure from the stem.
The fracture of the stem is coarse and fibrous. The transverse sec-
tion, whether of stem or root, shows a thickish, corky bark surrounding
a light brown wood composed of a number of converging wedges (10 to
20) of very porous structure, separated by narrow medullary rays.
There are ^lo concentric layers of wood,^ nor is the arrangement of tlie
wedges oblique as in many other stems of the order. The drug is
inodorous, but has a very bitter taste without sweetness or astrin-
gency.
2. Common False Pareira Brava — Under this name we designate
the drug which for many years past has been the ordinary Pareira Brava
of the shops, and regarded until latel}^ as derived from Cissanrpclos
Pareira L. We have lono- endeavoured to ascertain, throug-h corre-
spondents in Bi'azil, from what plant it is derived, but without success.
We onl}' know that it belongs to the order MenisjMrmacece.
The drug consists of a ponderous, woody, tortuous stem and root,
occurring in pieces from a few inches to a foot or more in length, and
from 1 to 4 inches in thickness, coated with a thin, hard, dark brown
bark. The pieces are cylindrical, four-sided, or more or less flattened —
sometimes even to the extent of becoming ribbon-like. In transverse
section, their structure appears very remarkable. Supposing the piece
to be stem, a well-defined pith will be found to occupy the centre of
the first-formed wood, which is a column about ^ of an inch in
diameter. This is succeeded by 10 to 15 or more concentric or
oftener eccentric zones, to ^'jj of an inch wide, each separated
from its neighbour by a layer of parench3'me, the outermost being-
coated with a true bark. In pieces of true root, the pith is reduced to
a mere point.
Sometimes the development of the zones has been so irregular that
they have formed themselves entirely on one side of the primitive
column, the other being; coated with bark. The zones, includino- the
layer, around the pith (if pith is present), are crossed by numerous
small medullary rays. These do not lun from the centre to the circum-
ference, but traverse only their respective zones, on the outside of which
they are arched together.
The drug, when of good quality, has its wood firm, compact, and of
a dusky yellowish brown hue, and a well-mar'ked bitter taste. It
exhibits under the knife nothing of the close waxy texture seen in the
root of Chondodenclron, but cuts as a tough, fibrous wood. Its decoc-
tion is not tinged blue by iodine. It was in this drug that Wiggers in
1839 discovered i^elosine.
The drug just described, which is by no means devoid of medicinal
power, has of late years been almost entirely supplanted in the market
^ It is therefore entirely different to the in Martins' Flor. Bras. xiii. pars. i. tab.
■wood figured asthatofC./'areira by Eichler 50. fig. 7.
30
MENISPERMACE^.
by another sort consisting exclusively of stems which are devoid of
bitterness and appear to be wholly inert. They are in the form of sticks
or truncheons, mostly cylindrical. Cut traversely, they display the
same structure as the sort last described, with a well-defined pith. The
wood is light in weight, of a dull tint, and disposed to split. The bark,
which consists of two layers, is easily detached.
3. Stems of Chotidodendrou tomcntosnm R. et P. — These have
been recently imported from Brazil, and sold as Fareira Brava} The
drug consists of truncheons about 1| feet in length, of a rather rough
and knotty stem, from 1 to 4 inches thick.^ The larger pieces, which
are sometimes hollow with age, display, when cut traversely, a small
number (-5 — 9) nearly concentric woody zones. The youngest pieces
have the bark dotted over with small dark warts.
The wood is inodorous, but has a bitterish taste like the root, of
which it is probably an efficient representative. Some pieces have
portions of root springing from them, and detached roots occur here
and there among the bits of stem. The structure and development of
the latter has been elaborately examined and figured by Moss,"* and
also by Lanessan,^ in the French translation of our book.
4. White Pareira Brava- — Stems and roots of Ahuta rufescens
Aublet. — Mr. J. Correa de M^llo of Campinas has been good enough to
send to one of us (H.) a specimen of the root and leaves ^ of this plant,
marked Parreira Brava grande. The former we have identified with
a drug received from Rio de Janeiro as Ahutua Unha de Vaca,i.e. Coiv-
Jioof Ahutua, and also with a similar drug found in the London market.
Aublet " states that the root of A buta rufescens was, in the time of his
visit to French Guiana, shipped from that colony to Europe as Pareira
Brava, Blanc (White Pareira Brava).
This name is well applicable to the drug before us, which consists of
short pieces of a root, | an inch to 3 inches thick, covered with a rough
blackish bark, and also of bits of stem having a pale, striated, corky
bark. Cut transversely, the root displays a series of concentric zones of
white amylaceous cellular tissue, each beautifully marked with narrow
wedge-shaped meduUaiy rays of dark, porous tissue. The wood of the
stem is harder than that of the root, the medullary rays are closer
together and broader, and there is a distinct pith.
The wood, neither of root nor stem, has any taste or smell. A
decoction of the root is turned bright blue by iodine.
5. Yellow Pareira Brava — This drug, of which a quantity was in
the hands of a London drug-broker in 1873, is, we presume, the Pareira
Brava jamie of Aublet — the bitter tasting stem of his "Ahuta amara
folio levi cordiformi ligno flavescente," — a plant of Guiana unknown to
recent botanists. That which we have seen consists of portions of a
hard woody stem, from 1 to 5 or 6 inches in diameter, covered with a
^ 45 packages containing about 20 cwt.
were offered for sale by Messrs. Lewis and
Peat, drug-brokers, 11 Sept. 1873, but
there had been earlier importations.
^ From these knots, which are at regular
intervals, and sometimes very protuberant,
it would appear that the panicles of flower
arise year after year.
^Pharm. Journ. vi. (1876) 702.
^ Histoire des Drogues d'origine vei/t-tcde,
i. (Paris, 1878) 72.
^ I have compared these leaves with
Aublet's own specimen in the British
Museum. — D. H.
''• Ilht. den Planies de la Gulune Fran-
fO!>, i. (1775) 618. tab. 250.
COCCULUS INDICUS.
31
Avbitish bark. Internally it is marked by numerous regular concentric
zones, is of a brigbt yellow colour and of a bitter taste. It contains
berberine. The same drug, apparently, was exhibited in the Paris
exposition of 1878 as " Liane amere ' from French Guiana.
COCCULUS INDICUS.
Fructus Gocculi ; Cocculus Indicus ; F. Coque du Levant ;
G. Kohhelshorner.
Botanical Origin — Anamirta paniculata0o\%\>xo6ke:, 1822 (Afenis-
jKrmmn Cocculm L. ; Anamirta Coccidus Wight et Arnott, 1834), a
strong climbing shrub found in the eastern parts of the Indian penin-
sula from Concan and Orissa to Malabar and Ceylon, in Eastern Bengal,
Khasia and Assam, and in the Malayan Islands.
History — It is commonly asserted that Cocculus Indicus was, intro-
duced into Europe through the Arabs, but the fact is difficult of proof ;
for though Avicenna ' and other early writers mention a drug having
the power of poisoning fish, they describe it as a harh, and make no
allusion to it as a production of India. Even Ibn Bay tar ^ in the 13th
century professed his inability to discover what substance the older
Arabian authors had in view.
Cocculus Indicus is not named by the writei's of the School of
Salerno. The first mention of it we have met with is by Ruellius,'^
who, alluding to the property possessed by the roots of Aristolochia
and Cyclamen of attracting fishes, states that the same power exists in
the little berries found in the shops under the name of Cocci Orientis,
which when scattered on water stupify the fishes, so that they may be
captured by the hand.
Valerius Cordus ■* thought the drug which he calls Cuculi de
Levante to be the fruit of a Solanuni growing in Egypt.
Dalechamps repeated this statement in 1586, at which period and
for long afterwards, Cocculus Indicus used to reach Europe from Alex-
andria and other parts of the Levant. Gerarde,^ who gives a very good
figure of it, says it is well known in England (1597) as Coccidus
Indicus, otherwise Cocci vel Coccidce Orientcdes, and that it is used for
destroying vermin and poisoning fish. In 1635 it was subject to an
import duty of 2s. per lb., as Cocculus IndiceJ
The use of Cocculus Indicus in medicine was advocated by Battista
Codronchi, a celebrated Italian physician of the 16th century, in a
tractate entitled De Baccis Orientalihus? In the "Pinax" Caspar
Bauhin (about 1660) states that Cocculce offLcivarmn " saepe racematim
pediculis hserentes, hederse coxymborum modo, ex Alexandria
adferuntur."
The word Coccidus is derived from the Italian coccola, signifying a
' Valgrisi edition, l.^fi-l. lib. ii. tract. 2.
cap. 488.
" Sontheimer's transl. ii. 460.
'X'e Natura Stirpium, Paris, 15.3f). lib.
iii. c. 4.
^Adnotaf'ones, 1549. cap. 6.3 (p. 500).
5 Hist. Gen. Plant. 1586. 1722.
6 Herball, Lond. 1636. 1548—49.
' The Bates of Marchandizes, Lond. 1635.
* It forms part of his work De Christiana
ac tuta medendi ratione, Ferrariffi, 1591.
32
MENISPERMACE^.
small, berry-like fruit.^ Mattioli remarks that as the berries when first
brought from the East to Italy had no special name, they got to be
called Coccole di Levavie^
Description — The female flower of Anamirta has normally 5
ovaries placed on a short gynophore. The latter, as it gi-ows, becomes
raised into a stalk about \ an inch long, articulated at the summit with
shorter stalks, each supporting a drupe, which is a matured ovary. The
purple drupes thus produced are 1 to 3 in number, of gibbous ovoid
form, with the yjersistent stigma on the straight side, and in a line with
the shorter stalk or carpodium. They grow in a pendulous panicle, a
foot or more in length.
These fruits removed from their stalks and dried have the aspect of
little round bei^ies, and constitute the Cocculus Indicus of commerce.
As met with in the market they are shortly ovoid or subreniform, to
of an inch long, with a blackish, wrinkled surface, and an obscure
ridge running round the back. The shorter stalk, when present, sup-
ports the fruit very obliquely. The pericarp, consisting of a wrinkled
skin covering a thin woody endocarp, encloses a single reniform seed,
into which the endocarp deeply intrudes. In transverse section the
seed has a horse-shoe form ; it consists chiefly of albumen, enclosing
a pair of large, diverging lanceolate cotyledons, with a short terete
radicle.^
The seed is bitter and oily, the pericarp tasteless. The drug is pi'e-
ferred when of dark colour, free fi-om stalks, and fresh, with the seeds
well preserved.
Microscopic Structure — The woody endocarp is built up of a
peculiar sclerenchymatous tissue, consisting of branched, somewhat
elongated cells. They are densely packed, and run in various direc-
tions, showing but small cavities. The parenchyme of the seed is loaded
with crystallized fatty matter.
Chemical Composition — Plcrotoxiv, a crj'.staliizablo substance
occurring in the seed to the extent of f to 1 per cent., was observed by
Boullay, as early as 1812, and is the source of the poisonous property
of the drug. Picrotoxin does not neutralize acids. It dissolves in
water and in alkalis ; the solution in the latter reduces cupric or bis-
mutic oxide like the sugars, but to a much smaller extent than glucose.
The alcoholic solutions deviate the ray of polarized light to the left.
The aqueous solution of picrotoxin is not altered by any metallic salt,
or by tannin, iodic acid, iodohydrargyrate or bichromate of potassium
— in fact by none of the reagents which aflfect the alkaloids. It may
thus be easily distinguished from the bitter poisonous alkaloids,
although in its behaviour with concentrated sulphuric acid and bichro-
mate of potassium it somewhat resembles strychnine, as shown in 1867
by Kohler.
Picrotoxin melts at 200° C. ; its composition, C"H"0'', as ascertaino<l
in 1877 by Paterno and Oglialoro, is the same as that of everninic,
^ Frutto Lralcur.i aiberi, e d'alciine piante,
o erbe salvatiche, come cijDi-esso, ginepro,
alloro, pugnitopo, e lentischio, e simili. —
Lat. bacca ; Gr. aKpoo^vn. — Vocabolario
degli Accademici della Critsca.
^ Quoted bj' J. J. von Tsclindi, Die Koh-
kelskiirner und das Pikrotoxin, St. Galleii,
1847.
2 The fruit should be macerated in order
to examine its structure.
GULANCHA.
33
hydrocoffeic, umbellic and veratric (or dimethylprotocatechuic acid —
see Semen Sabadillte) acids.
Pelletier and Couerbe (1833) obtained from the pericarp of Cocculus
Indicus two crystallizable, tasteless, non-poisonous substances, having
the same composition, and termed respectively Menispermine and
Paramenisi)ermine. These bodies, as well as the very doubtful
amorphous Hypopierotoxic Acid of the same chemists, require re-
examination.
The fat of the seed, which amounts to about half its weight, is used
in India for industrial purposes. Its acid constituent, formerly regarded
as a peculiar substance under the name of Stearophavic or Anaviirtic
Acid, was found by Heintz to be identical with stearic acid.
Commerce — Cocculus Indicus is imported from Bombay and
Madras, but we have no statistics showing to what extent. The stock
in the dock warehouses of London on 1st of December, 1873, was 1168
packages, against 2010 packages on the same day of the previous year.
The drug is mostly shipped to the Continent, the consumption in Great
Britain being very small.
Uses — In British medicine Cocculus Indicus is only employed
as an ingredient of an ointment for the destruction of pedicidi. It
has been discarded from the British Pharmacopoeia, but has a place
in that of India.
GULANCHA.
Caulis et radix T'mosporoi.
Botanical Origin — Tinospora cordifoUa, Miers (Cocmdus cordi-
folius DC), a lofty climbing shrub found throughout tropical India
from Kumaon to Assam and Burma, and from Concan to Ceylon and
the Carnatic.^ It is called in Hindustani Gulancha ; in Bombay the
drug is known under the name of Goohuail.
History — The virtues of this plant which appear to have been long
familiar to the Hindu physicians, attracted the attention of Europeans
in India at the early part of the present century." According to a paper
published at Calcutta in 1827,^ the parts used are the stem, leaves, and
root, which are given in decoction, infusion, or a sort of extract called
'pdlo, in a variety of diseases attended Vv'ith slight febrile symptoms.
O'Shaughnessy declares the plant to be one of the most valuable in
India, and that it has proved a very useful tonic. Similar favourable
testimony is borne by Waring. Gulancha was admitted to the Bengal
Fhctrmacopceia of 1844, and to the Pharmacopoeia of India of 1868.
Description — The stems are perennial, twining and succulent,
running over the highest trees and throwing out roots many yards in
length which descend like slender cords to the earth. They have a
thick corky bark marked with little prominent tubercles.
1 Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med. ^ On the native drug called Gulancha hy
Plants, part 13. Ram Comol Shen. — Trans, of Med. and.
^ Fleming, Catal. of Indian Med. Plants Phys. Soc. of Calcutta, iii. (1827) 295.
and Drugs, Calcutta, 1810. 27.
C
34
BERBERIDE^.
As found in the bazaars the drug occui's as short transverse segments
of a cylindrical woody stem from | of an inch up to 2 inches in
diameter. They exhibit a shrunken appearance, especially those derived
from the younger stems, and are covered with a smooth, translucent,
shrivelled bark which becomes dull and rugose with age. Many of the
pieces are marked with warty prominences and the scars of adventitious
roots. The outer layer which is easily detached covers a shrunken
parenchyme. The transverse section of the stem shows it to be divided
by about 12 to 14 meduallry rays into the same number of wedge-
shaped woody bundles having very large vessels, but no concentric
structure. The drug is inodorous but has a very bitter taste. The
root is stated by O'Shaughnessy' to be large, soft, and spongy.
Microscopic Structure-- The suberous coat consists of alternating
layei's of flat coi'ky cells and sclerenchyme, sometimes of a yellow
colour. The structure of the central part reminds one of that of
Cissamjielos Paveiva (p. 28), like which it is not divided into concentric
zones. The woody rays which are sometimes intersected by parenchyme,
are surrounded by a loose circle of arched bundles of liber tissue.
Chemical Composition — No analysis worthy of the name has
been made of this drug, and the nature of its bitter principle is wholly
unknown. We have had no material at our disposal sufficient for
".hemical examination.
Uses — Gulancha is reputed to be tonic, antiperiodic and diuretic.
According^ to Waring-^ it is useful in mild forms of intermittent fever, in
debility after fevers and other exhausting diseases, in secondary syphilitic
affections and chronic rheumatism.
Substitute — Tinos-pora crispa Miers, an allied species occurring in
Silhet, Pegu, Java, Sumatra, and the Phillipines, possesses similar pro-
perties, and is highly esteemed in the Indian Archipelago as a febrifuge.
BEKBEKIDEyE.
CORTEX BERBERIDIS INDICUS.
Iridian Barhervy Bark.
Botanical Origin — This drug is allowed in the Pharmacopoeia of
Pnclia to be taken indifferently from three Indian species of Berber is^
which are the following : —
1. Bevheris aristataDG.,a, variable species occurring in the temper-
ate regions of the Himalaya at 6000 to 10,000 feet elevation, also found
in the Nilghiri mountains and Ceylon.''
2. B. Lycium Royle, an erect, rigid shrub found in dry, hot situa-
tions of the western part of the Himalaya range at 3000 to 9000 feet
al)ove the sea-level.
' Bengal Dispensatory, 1842. 198. Indica {1855), alsoHooker's Flo7-a of British
- Pharm. of India, 18()8. 9. India, i. (1872) 108.
^ For remarks on the Indian species of Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Berheris, see Hooker and Thomson's Flora Plants, part 25.
CORTEX BERBERIDIS INDICUS.
35
3. B. asiatica Roxb. — This species has a wider distribution than the
last, being found in the dry valleys of Bhotan and Nepal whence it
stretches westward along the Himalaya to Garwhal, and occurs again in
Afi'ohanistan.
History — The medical practitionei'S of ancient Greece and Italy
m xde use of a substance called Lycium {Xvkiov) of which the best kind
A\ as brought from India. It was regarded as a remedy of gx'eat value
in restraining inflammatory and other discharges ; but of all the uses
to which it was applied the most im{)ortant was the treatment of
various forms of ophthalmic inflammation.
Lycium is mentioned by Dioscorides, Pliny, Celsus, Galen, and
Scribonius Largus ; by such later Greek writers as Paul us /Egineta,
iEtius, and Oribasius, as well as by the Arabian physicians.
The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea who probably
lived in the 1st century, enumerates Xvkiov as one of the exports of
Barbarike at the mouth of the Indus, and also names it along with
Bdellium and Costus among the commodities brought to Barygaza : —
and further, lycium is mentioned among the Indian drugs on which
duty was levied at the Roman custom house of Alexandria about a.d.
176—180.'
An interesting proof of the esteem in which it was held is afforded
by some singular little vases or jai*s of which a few specimens are pre-
served in collections of Greek antiquities." These vases were made to
contain lycium, and in them it was probably sold ; for an inscription on
the vessel not only gives the name of the drug but also that of a person
Avho, we may presume, was either the seller or the inventor of the
composition. Thus we have the Lycium of Jason, of Musceus, and of
Hemcleus. The vases bearing the name of Jason were found at Taren-
tum, and there is reason to believe that that marked Herdclrus was
from the same locality. Whether it was so or not, we know that a
certain Heraclides of Tarentum is mentioned by Celsus^ on account of
his method of treating certain diseases of the eye; and that Galen gives
formuJie for ophthalmic medicines^ on the authority of the same
person.
Innumerable conjectures were put forth during at least three centuries
as to the origin and nature of lycium, and especially of that highly
esteemed kind that was brought from India.
In the year 1833, Royle" communicated to the Linnean Society of
London a paper proving that the Indian Lycium of the ancients was
identical with an extract prepared from the wood or root of several
species of Berheris growing in Northern India, and that this extract,
well known in the bazaars as Rmot or Rasot, was in common use among
the natives in various forms of eye disease.** This substance attracted
^ Vincent, Commerce and Navigation of
the Ancients in the Indian Ocean, ii. (1807)
390, 410, 734.
2 Figures of these vessels were published
by Dr. J. Y. Simpson in an interesting paper
entitled Notes on some ancient Greek medical
vases for containing Lycium, of which we
have made free use. — See [Edinh. ) Monthhj
Journal of Med. Science, xvi. (1853) 24, also
Pharm. Journ. xiii. (1854) 413.
^ Lib. vii. c. 7. — See also Ceelius Aure-
lianus, De morbis chrouicis (Haller's ed. ) lib.
i. c. 4, lib. iii. c. 8.
■4 Cataplasmata lippientium quibus usus est
Heraclides Tarentinus — Galen, De L'omp.
Med. sec. locos, lib. iv. (p. 153 in Venice
edit, of 1625).
' On the Lycium of Dioscorides. — Linn.
Trans, xvii. (1837) 83.
^ It is interesting to find that two of the
36
BERBERIDE^.
considerable notice in India, and though its efficacy per se^ seemed
questionable, it was administered with benefit as a tonic and febrifuge.^
But the I'usot of the natives being often badly prepared or adulterated,
the bark of the root has of late been used in its place, and in consequence
of its acknowledged efficacy has been admitted to the Pharmacopoeia
of Ind ia.
Description. — In B. as'iatica (the only species we have examined)
the roots which are thick and woody, and internally of a bright yellow,
are covered with a thin, brittle bark. The bark has a light-bl'own
coiky layer, beneath which it appears of a darker and greenish-yellow
hue, and composed of coai'se fibres running longitudinally. The inner
surface has a glistening appearance by reason of fine longitudinal
strife. The bark is inodorous and very bitter.
Chemical Composition.- — Solly ^ pointed out in 1843 that the root-
bark of the Ceylon barberry \B. arlstata] contains the same yellow
colouring matter as the barberry of Europe. L. W. Stewart"" extracted
Berheriiie in abundance fi'om the barberry of the Nilkhiri Hills and
Northern India, and presented specimens of it to one of us in 18G5'.
The root-bark of Berheris vulgaris L. was found by Polex (1836) to
contain another alkaloid named OxyaamtJiime, which forms with acids
colourless cry stall izable salts of bitter taste.®
Uses. — The root-bark of the Indian barberries administered as a
tincture has been found extremely useful in India in the treatment of
fevers of all types. It has also been given with advantage in diarrhoea
and dyspepsia, and as a tonic for general debility. In the collection of
the Chinese customs at Paris, in 1878, the root-barks of Berheris
Lycium and B. chinensis, from the province of Shen-si, were likewise
exhibited (No. 1,823) as a tonic.
RHIZOMA PODOPHYLLI.
Radix podophylli ; Podophyllum Root.
Botanical Origin — Podophyllum pieltatum L., a perennial herb
growing in moist shady situations throughout the eastern side of the
North American continent from Hudson's Bay to New Orleans and
Florida.
The stem about a foot high, bears a large, solitary, white flower,
rising from between two leaves of the size of the hand composed of
5 to 7 wedge-sha{)ed divisions, somewhat lobed and toothed at the
apex. The yellowish pulpy fruit of the size of a pigeon's egg is
slightly acid and is sometimes eaten under the name of May Apjile.
The leaves partake of the active properties of the root.
History — The virtues of the rhizome as an anthelminthic and emetic
names for lycium. given by Ibn Baytar in
the 13tli century are precisely those under
which 7-usot is met with in the Indian
bazaars at the present day.
1 The natives apply it in combination
with alum and opium.
'- O'Shaughnessy, Bengal Dispensatory
(1842) 203—205.
3 Journ. of R. Asiat. Sac. vii. (1843) 74.
^ PJiarm. Journ. vii. (1866) .303.
* Gmelin, Cliemistry, xvii. (1866) 197.
RHIZOMA PODOPHYLLI.
37
have been long known to the Indians of North America. The plant
was figured in 1731 by Catesby^ who remarks that its root is an
excellent emetic. Its cathartic properties were noticed by Schopf^
and Barton^ and have been commented upon by many subsequent
writers. In 1820, podopliyUum was introduced into the tlnited States
Pharmacopoeia, and in 186-i into the British Pliarmacopoeia. Hodg-
son published in 1832 in the Journal of the Philadelphia College of
Pharmacy* the first attempt of a chemical examination of the
rhizome, which now furnishes one of the most popular purgatives, the
so-called Podophyllin, manufactured on a large scale at Cincinnati
and in other places in America, as well as in England.
Description — The drug consists of the i-hizome and rootlets. The
foi'mer creeps to a length of several feet, but as imported is mostly in
somewhat flattened pieces of 1 to 8 inches in length and 2 to 4 lines in
longest diameter : it is marked by knott}' joints showing a depressed
scar at intervals of a few inches which marks the place of a fallen
stem. Each joint is in fact the growth of one year, the tei-minal bud
being enclosed in papery brownish sheaths. Sometimes the knots
produce one, two, or even three lateral buds and the rhozime is bi- or
tri-furcate. The reddish-brown or grey surface is obscurely marked
at intervals by oblique wrinkles indicating the former attachment of
rudimentary leaves. The rootlets are about ^ a line thick and arise
from below the knots and adjacent parts of the rhizome, the internodal
space being bare. They are brittle, easily detached, and commonly of
a paler colour. The rhizome is mostly smooth, but some of the
branched pieces are deeply furrowed. Both rootstock and rootlets
have a short, smooth, mealy fracture ; the transverse section is white,
exhibiting only an extremely small corky layer and a thin simple
circle of about 20 to 40 yellow, vascular bundles, enclosing a central
pith which in the larger pieces is often 2 lines in diameter.
The drug has a heavy narcotic, disagreeable odour, and a bitter, acrid,
nauseous taste.
Microscopic Structure — The vascular bundles are composed of
spiral and scalariform vessels intermixed with cambial tissue. From
each bundle a narrow-tissued, wedge- or crescent-shaped liber-bundle
projects a little into the cortical layer. This, as well as the pith, exhibits
large thin-walled cells. The rootlets are as usual of a different
structure, their central part consisting o^ one group of vascular bundles
more or less scattered.' The parenchymatous cells of the drug are
loaded with starch granules ; some also contain stellate tufts of oxalate
of calcium.
Chemical Composition — The active principles of podophyllum
exist in the resin, which acco]-ding to Squibb" is best prepared by the
process termed re-jyercolation. The powdered drug is exhausted by
alcohol which is made to percolate through successive portions. The
1 Nat. Hist, of Carolina, i. tab. 24.
- Materia Med. Avieric. Erlang£e, 1787,
p. 86. Schopf was physician to German
troops fighting in the War of Independence.
3 Collections for an Essay on Mat. Med. of
U.S. Philad. 1798, 31.
•» Vol. iii. 273.
^ Figured by Power, Proc. American
Phar. Assoc., 1877. 420—433.
^ American Journ. of Pharm. xvi. (1868)
1—10.
38
BERBERIDE^.
strong tincture thus obtained is slowly poured into a lai'ge quantity of
water acidulated with hydrochloric acid (one measure of acid to 70 of
water), and the precipitated resin dried at a temperature not exceeding
32° C. The acid is used to facilitate the subsidence of the pulverulent
resin which according to Maisch settles down but very slowly if preci-
j)itated by cold water simply, and if thrown down by hot water fuses
into a dark brown cake. The resin re-dissolved in alcohol and again
precipitated by acidulated water, after thorough washing with distilled
water and finally drying over sulphuric acid, amounts to about 2
per cent.
Resin of podophyllum is a light, brownish-yellow powder with a
tinge of green, devoid of crystalline appearance, becoming darker if
exposed to a heat above 32° C, and having an acrid, bitter taste;
it is very incorrectly called Podojjhyllin. The product is the same
whether the rhizome or the rootlets are exclusively employed.^ It is
soluble in caustic, less freely in carbonated alkalis, even in ammonia,
and is precipitated, apparentl}'' without alteration, on addition of an
acid. Ether separates it into two nearly equal portions, the one soluble
in the menstruum, the other not, but both energetically purgative.
From the statements of Credner^ it appears that if caustic lye is
shaken M'ith the ethereal solution, about half the i-esin combines with
the potash, while the other half remains dissolved in the ether. If an
acid is added to the potassie solution a red-brown precipitate is produced
which is no longer soluble in ether nor possessed of purgative power.
According to Credner, the body of greatest purgative activity was
precipitated by ether from an alcoholic solution of crude podophyllin.
By exhausting the resin with boiling water. Power found that finally
not more than 20 per cent, of the resin remained undissolved. By
melting the crude resin with caustic soda, a little protocatechuic acid
was obtained.
F. F. Mayer^ of New York stated podophyllum to contain, beside the
resin already mentioned, a large proportion of Berheriae, a colourless
alkaloid, an odoriferous principle which might be obtained by sublima-
tion in colourless scales, and finally Sa-ponin. From all these bodies
the resin as prepared by Power,* was ascertained by him to be destitute ;
he especially proved the absence of berberine in Podophyllum.
Uses — Podophyllum is only employed for the preparation of the resin
{Resina Podopltylli) which is now much prescribed as a purgative.
Saunders in vl w. Journ. of Pharm. xvi. Am. Journ. of Pliarmaoj, xxxv. (1863)
75. 97.
2 Ueher Podophyllin (Dissertation), Gies- ^ Jj. cit., also Am. Jouni. of Pharm. (1S78)
sen, 1869. 370.
PETALA RHGEADOS.
39
PAPAVEEACE^.
PETALA RHGEADOS.
Flores Rhceados ; lied Po^ypy Petcds ; F. Fleurs de Coqitelicot ; C\.
Klatschrosen.
Botanical Origin — Papaver Rhoeas L. — The common Red Poppy or
Corn Rose is an annual herb found in fields throughout the gi'eater
part of Eurojie often in extreme abundance. It almost always occurs
as an accompaniment of cereal crops, frequently disappearing when
this cultivation is given up. It is plentiful in England and Ireland,
but less so in Scotland ; is found abundantly in Central and Southern
Eui'ope and in Asia Minor, whence it extends as far as Abyssinia,
Palestine, and the banks of the Euphrates. But it does not occur in
India or in North America.
From the evidence adduced by De Candolle^ it would appear that
the ])laut is strictly indigenous to Sicily, Greece, Dalmatia, and possibly
the Caucasus.
History — Papaver Rhoeas was known to the ancients, though doubt-
less it was often confounded with P. dubium L. the flowers of which are
rather smaller and paler. The petals were used in pharmacy in Germany
in the 15th century.^
Description — The branches of the stem are upright, each terminat-
ing in a conspicuous long-stalked flower, from which as it opens the
two sepals fall oft". The delicate scarlet petals are four in number,
transversely elliptical and attached below the ovary by very short, dark-
violet claws. As they are broader than long, their edges overlap in the
expanded flower. In the bud they are irregularly crumpled, but when
imfolded are smooth, lustrous, and unctuous to the touch. They fall oft'
very quickly, shrink up in drying, and assume a brownish-violet tint
even when dried with the utmost care. Although they do not contain
a milky juice like the green parts of the plant, they have while fresh a
strong narcotic odour and a faintly bitter taste.
Chemical Composition — The most important constituent of the
petals is the colouring matter, still but very imperfectly known.
According to L. Meier (1846) it consists of two acids, neither of which
could be obtained other than in an amorphous state. The colouring
matter is abundantly taken up by water or spirit of wine but not by
ether. The aqueous infusion is not precipitated by alum, but yields a
dingy violet precipitate with acetate of lead, and is coloured blackish-
brown by ferric salts or by alkalis.
The alkaloids of opium cannot be detected in the petals. Attfield
in particular has examined the latter (1873) for morphine but without
obtaining a trace of that body.
1 Giogr. botanique, ii. (1S55) 649. Nordliugen. See Fltickiger, in the Archiv
sFlores Papaveris riibri— in the list of der Pharm. 211 (1877) 97, No. 62.
the pharmaceutical shop of the towii of
40
PAPAVERACE^.
The milky juice of the herb and capsules has a narcotic odour, and
appears to exert a distinctly sedative action. Hesse obtained from
them (1865) a colourless crystallizable substance, Bhoeadive, C'^H-^NO'^,
of weak alkaline reaction. It is tasteless, not poisonous, nearly insoluble
in water, alcohol, ether, chloroform, benzol, or aqueous ammonia, but
dissolves in weak acids. Its solution in dilute sulphuric or hydrochloric
acid acquires after a time a splendid red colour, desti'oyed by an alkali
but reappearing on addition of an acid. Hesse further believes (1877)
the milky juice to contain meconic acid.
Uses — Red Poppy petals are employed in pharmacy only for the sake
of their fine colouring matter. They should be preferred in the fresh
state.
CAPSULE PAPAVERIS.
Fructus Pcqxiveris ; Poppy Capsules, Pop)py Heads; F. Ca2)sules oil
Tetes de Pavot ; G. Molmka'pseln.
Botanical Origin — Papaver somniferum L. Independently of the
garden-forms of this universally known annual plant, we may, following
Boissier,^ distinguish three principal varieties, viz. : —
a. setigerum {P. setigerum DC), occurring in the Peloponnesus,
Cyprus, Corsica and the islands of Hiferes, the truly wild form of the
plant with acutely toothed leaves, the lobes sharp-pointed, and each
tei-minating in a bristle. The leaves, peduncles, and sepals are covered
with scattered bristly hairs, and the stigmata are 7 or 8 in number.
/3. glabrum — Capsule subglobular, stigmata 10 to 12. Chiefly cul-
tivated in Asia Minor and Egypt.
y. album (P. offic'male Gmelin) — has the capsule more or less egg-
shaped and devoid of apertures. It is cultivated in Persia.
Besides the differences indicated above, the petals vary from white
to red or violet, with usually a dark purplish spot at the iDase of each.^
The seeds also vary from white to slate-coloured.
History — The poppy has been known from a remote period through-
out the eastern countries of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and Central
Asia, in all which regions its cultivation is of very ancient date.^
Syrup of poppies, a medicine still in daily use, is recommended as a
sedative in catarrh and cough in the writings of the younger Mesne [oh.
A.D. 1015) who studied at Bagdad, and subsequently resided at Cairo as
physician to the Caliph of Egypt. Their medicinal use seems to have
reached Europe at an early period, for the Welsh " Physicians of
Myddvai" in the 13th century alread}^ stated : ■* "Poppy heads bruised
in wine will induce a man to sleep soundly." They even prepared
pills with the juice of poppy, which they called opium. In the Ricet-
tario Fiorentino (see Appendix R) a formula is given for the syrup
''^ Flora OrientaUs, i. (1867) 116.
2 English growers prefer a white-flowered
poppy.
^ For further particulars consult Eitter,
Eh-dkunde von Asien, vi. (1843) 773, etc. ;
Unger, Botanische Streifziige auf dem Gebiete
der Culturgetichichte, ii. (1857) 46.
* Meddyi/on Myddfai, Llandovery, 1861,
50. 216. 400.
CAPSULE PAPAVERIS.
41
as Syroppo di Papaveri semplicl di Mesne ; in the first pharmacopoeia
of the London College (1618), the medicine is prescribed as Hyrupus
de Meconio Mesua'.
Description — The fruit is formed by the union of 8 to 20 carpels,
the edges of which are turned inwards and project like partitions
towards the interior, yet without reaching the centre, so that the fruit
is really one-celled. In the unripe fruit, the sutures of the carpels are
distinctly visible externally as shallow longitudinal stripes.
The fruit is crowned with a circular disc, deeply cut into angular
ridge-like stigmas in number equal to the carpels, projecting in a stellate
manner with short obtuse lobes. Each carpel opens immediately belov/
the disc by a pore, out of which the seeds may be shaken ; but in some
varieties of poppy the carpel presents no aperture even when fully ripe.
The fruit is globular, sometimes flattened below, or it is ovoid ; it is
contracted beneath into a sort of neck immediately above a tumid ri;jg
at its point of attachment with the stalk. Grown in rich moist ground
in England, it often attains a diameter of three inches, which is twice
that of the capsules of the opium poppy of Asia Minor or India. While
growing it is of a pale glaucous green, but at maturity becomes yel-
lowish brown, often marked with black spots. The outer wall of the
pericarp is smooth and hard ; the rest is of a loose texture, and while
green exudes on the slightest puncture an abundance of bitter milky
juice. The interior surface of the pericarp is rugose, and minutely and
beautifully striated transversely. From its sutures spring thin and
brittle placentfe directed towards the centre and bearing on their per-
pendicular faces and edges a vast number of minute reniform seeds.
The unripe fruit has a narcotic odour which is destroyed by drying ;
and its bitter taste is but partially retained.
Microscopic Structure — The outer layer consists of a thin cuticle
exhibiting a large number of stomata ; the epidermis is formed of a row
of small thick-walled cells. Fragments of these two layers, which on
the whole exhibit no striking peculiarity, are always found in the resi-
due of opium after it has been exhausted by water.
The most interesting part of the constituent tissues of the fruit is
the system of laticiferous vessels, which is of an extremely complicated
nature inasmuch as it is composed of various kinds of cells intimately
interlaced so as to form considerable bundles.^ The cells containins:
the milky juice are larger but not so much branched as in many other
plants.
Chemical Composition — The analyses of poppy heads present
discrepant results with regard to morphine. Merck and Winckler
detected it in the ripe fruit to the extent of 2 per cent., and it has also
been found by Groves (1854) and by Deschamps d'Avallon (1864).
Other chemists have been unable to find it.
In recent pharmacopoeias poppy heads are directed to be taken
previous to complete maturity, and both Meurein and Aubergier have
shown that in this state they are richer in morphine than when more
advanced. Deschamps d'Avallon found them sometimes to contain
^ For particulars see Trecul, Ann. des Grundlayen der Phannaceutischen Waaren-
Scknces Nat. v. (1866) 49 ; also Fliickiger, kunde, 1873. 45.
42
PAPAVERACEvE.
narcotine. He also obtained mucilage perceptible by neutral acetate
of lead, ammonium salts, meconic, tartaric, and citric acid, the ordinary
mineral acids, wax, and lastly two new crystalline bodies, Pcvpaverin,
and Papaverosine. The former is not identical with Merck's alkaloid
of the same name ; although nitrogenous and bitter, it has an acid
reaction (?), yet does not combine with bases. It y ields a blue pi'ecipi-
tate with a solution of iodine in iodide of potassium.
Papaverosine on the other hand is a base to which sulphuric acid
imparts a violet colour, changing to dark yellowish-red on addition of
nitric acid.
In ripe poppy heads, Hesse (1866) found jRhoeadine. Groves in 1854
somewhat doubtfully announced the presence of Codeine. Fricker ^
stated to have obtained from the capsules 010 per cent, of alkaloid,
and Krause ^ was able to prove the presence of traces of morphine,
narcotine, and meconic acid. Ripe poppy capsules (seeds removed)
dried at 100° C. afforded us 14'28 per cent, of ash, consisting chiefly
of alkaline chlorides and sulphates, Avith but a small quantity of
phosphate.
Production — Poppies are grown for medicinal uses in many parts
of England, mostly on a small scale. The large and fine fruits (poppy
heads) are usually sold entire ; the smaller and less sliglitly are broken
and the seeds having been removed are supplied to the druggist for
pharmaceutical preparations. The directions of the pharmacopceia as
to the fruit being gathered when " nearly ripe " does not appeal- to be
much regarded.
Uses — In the form of syrup and extract, poppy heads are in com-
mon use as a sedative. A hot decoction is often externally applied as
an anodyne.
In upper India an intoxicating liquor is prepared by heating the
capsules of the poppy with jagghery and water.*
OPIUM.
Botanical Origin — Papaver somniferum L., see preceding article.
History* — The medicinal properties of the milky juice of the
poppy have been known from a remote period. Theophrastus who
lived in the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. was acquainted with the
substance in question, under the name of MtjKwviov. The investigations
of Unger (1857 ; see Cajisulce Papaveris,) have failed to trace any
acquaintance of ancient Egypt with opium.
Scribonius Largus in his Com2)ositiones Medicamentorum^ {circa
A.D. 40) notices the method of procuring opium, and points out that the
true drug is derived from the capsules, and not from the foliage of the
plant.
^ DragendorfF's Jahresbericht, 1874. 148.
2 Archil) der Pharm. 204 (1874) 507.
3 Catal. Ind. Departm. Internat. Exhibi-
tion. 1862. No. 742.
^For more particulars see Dr. Rice's
learned notes in New Remedies, New York,
1876, 229, reprinted in Pharm. Journ. vii.
(2 Dec. 1876; 23 June 1877), pp. 452 and
1041.
^Ed. Bernhold, Argent. 1786, c. iii. sect.
22.
OPIUM.
43
About the year 77 of the same century, Dioscoricles^ plainly distin-
guished the juice of the capsules under the name of otto? from an
extract of the entire plant, jui.ijKwveiov, which he regarded as much less
active. He described exactly how the capsules should be incised, the
performing of which operation he designated by the verb oiri^eiv. We
may infer from these statements of Dioscorides that the collection of
opium was at that early period a branch of industry in Asia Minor.
The same authority alludes to the adulteration of the drug with the
milky juices of Glauciuvi and Lactuca, and with gum.
Pliny^ devotes some space to an account of O'pion, of which he
describes the medicinal use. The drug is repeatedly mentioned as
Lacrima papaveris by Celsus in the 1st century, and more or less
particularly by numerous later Latin authors. During the classical
period of the Roman Empire as well as in the early middle ages, the
only sort of opium known was that of Asia Minor.
The use of the drug was transmitted by the Arabs to the nations of
the East, and in the first instance to the Persians. From the Greek
word oTTog, juice, was formed the Arabic word Afyim, which has found
its way into many Asiatic languages.^
The introduction of opium into India seems to have been connected
with the spread of Islamism, and may have been favoured by the
Mahommedan prohibition of wine. The earliest mention of it as a
production of that country occurs in the travels of Barbosa** who visited
Calicut on the Malabar coast in 1511. Among the more valuable drugs
the prices of which he quotes, opium occupies a prominent place. It
was either imported from Aden or Cambay, that from the latter place
being the cheaper, yet worth three or four times as much as camphor
or benzoin.
Pyres^ in his letter about Indian drugs to Manuel, king of Portugal,
written from Cochin in 151G, speaks of the opium of Egypt, that of
Cambay and of the kingdom of Cous (Kus Bahar, S.W. of Bhotan) in
Bengal. He adds that it is a great article of merchandize in these
parts and fetches a good price ; — that the kings and lords eat of it,
and even the common people, though not so much because it costs
dear.
GarCj'ia d'Orta*^ informs us that the opium of Cambay in the middle
of the 16th century was chiefly collected in Malwa, and that it is soft
and yellowish. That from Aden and other places near the Erythrean
Sea is black and hard. A superior kind was imported from Cairo,
agreeing as Gai^(;ia supposed with the opium of the ancient Theba'id, a
district of Upper Egypt near the modern Karnak and Luksor.
In India the Mogul Government uniformly sold the opium monopoly,
1 Lib. iv. c. 65. ^ Journ. dc. Soc. Phann. Lusit. ii. (1838) 36.
^ Lib. XX. c. 76. ■ Pires, or Pyres, was the first ambassador
^ There are no ancient Chinese or Sanskrit from Europe to China: Abel Pvemiisat,
names for opium. Li the former language Nouv. nUkuujes asiafiqites, ii. (1829) 203.
the drug is calledO-/((-;/Mnr7 from the Arabic. See also Pedro Jose da Silva, Mogio historko
Two other names Ya-pien and O-pien are e noticia completa de Thom6 Pires, pharma-
adaptations to the Chinese idiom of our word ceutico e primeiro nnturalista da India,
opium. There are several other designa- Lisboa, 1866 (Library of the Pharm. Soc,
tions which may be translated S?;io^»i<7c?/r^, London, Pamphlets, No. 30).
Foreign poison, Blacl- commodity, kc. ^ Aromatu7n . . . /Z^istoria, edit Clusius,
* Coasts of East Africa and ilaJahar Antv. 1574. lib. i. c. 4.
(Hakluyt Soc), Lond. 1866. 206, 223.
PAPAVERACE^.
and the East India Company followed their example, reserving to itself
the sole right of cultivating the poppy and selling the opium.
Ojyium thebaicuvc was mentioned by Simon Januerisis/ physician
to Pope Nicolas IV. (a.d. 1288-92), who also alludes to meconium as
the dried juice of the pounded capsules and leaves. Prosper Alpinus,-
who visited Egypt in 1580-83, states that opium or meconium was in
his time prepared in the Thebaid from the expressed juice of poppy
heads.
The German traveller Kampfer, who visited Persia in 1685, describes
the various kinds of opium prepared in that country. The best sorts
were flavoured with nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and mace, or simply
with saffron and ambergris. Such compositions were called 'llierial'a,
and were held in great estimation during the middle ages, and probably
supplied to a large extent the place of pure opium. It was not
uncommon for the sultans of Egypt of the 15th century to send
presents of Theriaka to the doges of Venice and the sovereigns of
Cj'prus.^
In Europe opium seems in later times not to have been reckoned
among the more costly drugs; in the IGth century we find it quoted
at the same price as benzoin, and much cheaper than camphor, rhubarb,
or manna.*
With regard to China it is supposed that opium was first brought
thither by the Arabians, who are known to have traded with the
southern ports of the empire as early as the 9th century. More recently,
at least until the 18th century, the Chinese imported the drug in their
junks as a return cargo from India. At this period it was used almost
exclusively as a remedy for dysentery, and the whole quantity imported
was very small. It was not until 17G7 that the importation reached
1,000 chests, at which rate it continued for some years, most of the trade
being in the hands of the Portuguese. The East India Company made
a small adventure in 1773 ; and seven years later an opium depot of
two small vessels was established by the English in Lai^k's Bay, south
of Macao.
The Chinese authorities began to complain of these two ships in
1793, but the traffic still increased, and without serious interruption
until 1820, when an edict was issued forbidding any vessel having
opium on board to enter the Canton river. This led to a system of
contraband trade with the connivance of the Chinese officials, which
towards the expiration of the East India Company's charter in 1834
had assumed a regular character. The political difficulties between
England and China that ensued shortly after this event, and the so-
called Opium War, culminated in the Treaty of Nanking (1842), by
which five ports of China were opened to foreign trade, and opium was
in 1858 admitted as a legal article of commerce.^
The vice of opium-smoking began to prevail in China in the second
^ Clavis Sanationis, Venet. 1510. 46.
2 i'e Medicina JSgyjJtiorum, Lugd. Bat.
1719. 261.
^ De Mas Latrie, Hist, de Cliypre, iii. 406.
483; Muratori, Eeriim Italic. Scriptores,
xxii. 1170; Amari, / diplomi Arahi del
archivio Fiorentino, Firenze, 1863. 358.
* Fontanon, Edicts et ordonnances das roijs
de France, ii. (1585) 347.
° For more ample particulars on these
momentoiis events, see S. Wells Williams's
Middle Kinijdom, vol. ii. (1848) ; British
Almanac Companion for 1844, p. 77.
OPIUM.
45
half of the I7tli century/ and in another hundred years had spread like
a plague over the gigantic empire. The fiist edict against the practice
was issued in 1790, since which there have been innumerable enact-
ments and memorials," but all powerless to arrest the evil which is
still increasing in an alarming ratio. Mr. Hughes, Commissioner of
Customs at Amoy, thus wrote on this subject in his oflicial Trade
Report^ for the year 1870: — "Opium-smoking appears here as else-
where iu China to be becoming yearly a more recognized habit, —
almost a necessity of the people. Those who use the drug now do so
openly, and native public opinion attaches no odium to its use, so long
as it is not carried to excess. ... In the city of Amoy, and in adjacent
cities and towns, the proportion of opium-smokers is estimated to be
from 15 to 20 per cent, of the adult population. ... In the country
the proportion is stated to be from 5 to 10 per cent. . . ."
Production — The poppy in whatever region it may grow always
contains a milky juice possessing the same properties; and the collection
of opium is posf^ible in all temperate and sub-tropical countries where
the rainfall is not excessive. But the production of the drug is limited
by other conditions than soil and climate, among which the value of
land and labour stands pre-eminent.
At the present day opium is produced on an important scale in
Asia Minor, Persia, India, and China ; to a small extent in Egypt. The
drug has also been collected in Europe, Algeria,"* North America,'* and
Australia,'' but more for the sake of experiment than as an object of
commerce.
We shall describe the production of the different kinds under their
several names.
1. 02num of Asia Minor ; Turlrt/, Smyrna, or Constanti-
nople Ojiiuni' — The poppy from which this most important kind of
opium is obtained is Papaver somniferum, var. /3. glahrum Boissier.
The flowers are commonly purplish, but sometimes white, and the seeds
vary from white to dark violet.
The cultivation is carried on throughout Asia Minor, both on the
more elevated and the lower lands, the cultivators being mostly small
peasant proprietors. The plant requires a naturally rich and moist soil,
further improved by manure, not to mention much care and attention
on the part of the gi-ower. Spring frosts, drought, or locusts sometimes
effect its complete destruction. The sowing takes place at intervals
from November to March, partly to insui-e against risk of total failure,
and partly in order that the plants may not all come to perfection at
the same time.
The plants flower between May and July according to the elevation
of the land. A few days after the fall of the petals the poppy head
^ Bretschneider, Stuihj of Chinese Bot.
WorJcs, 1870. 48.
'^Chinese Repository, vol. v. (1837) vi. &c.
^Addressed to the Inspector- General of
Customs, Pekin, and published at Shanghai,
1871.
^ Pharm. Journ. xv. (1856) 348.
= Am. Journ. of Phar. xviii. (1870) 124 ;
Journ. of Soc. of Arts, Dec. 1, 1871.
« Pharm. Journ. Oct. 1, 1870. 272.
Much information under this head has
been derived from a paper On the production
of Opium in Asia Minor by S. H. Maltass
{Pharm. Journ. xiv. 1855. 395), and one
On the Culture and Commerce in Opium in
Asia Minor, by E. E. Heffler, of Smyrna
(Pharm. Journ. x. 1869. 434).
46
PAPAYERACE^.
being about an inch and a half in diameter is ready for incision. The
incision is made with a knife transversely, about half-way up the cap-
sule, and extends over about two-thirds the cii'cumference, or is carried
spirally to beyond its starting point. Great nicety is required not to
cut too deep so as to penetrate the capsule, as in that case some of the
juice would flow inside and be lost. The incisions are generally made
in the afternoon and the next morning are found covered with exuded
juice. This is scraped oft' with a knife, the gatherer transferring it to
a poppy leaf which he holds in his left hand. At every alternate
scraping, the knife is wetted with saliva by drawing it through the
mouth, the object being to prevent the adhesion of the juice to the blade.
Each poppy-head is, as a rule, cut only once ; but as a plant produces
several heads all of which are not of proper age at the same time, the
operation of incising and gathering has to be gone over two or three
times on the same plot of ground.
As soon as a sufficient (quantity of the half-dried juice has been
collected to form a cake or lump, it is wrapped in poppy leaves and put
for a short time to dry in the .shade. There is no given size for cakes of
opium, and they vary in weight from a few ounces to more than two
pounds. In some villages it is the practice to make the masses laiger
than in others. Before the opium is ready for the market, a meeting of
buyers and sellers is held in each district, at which the price to be
asked is discussed and settled, — the peasants being most of them in
debt to the buyers or merchants.
To the latter the opium is sold in a very soft but natural state.
These dealers sometimes manipulate the soft drug with a wooden pestle
into larger masses which they envelope in poppy leaves and pack in
cotton bags sealed at the mouth for transport to Smyrna. According
to another account, the opium as obtained from the grower is at once
packed in bags together with a quantity of the little chaffy fruits of a
dock (Rumex sp.) to prevent the lumps from sticking together, and so
bi'ought in baskets to Smyrna, or ports farther north.
The opium remains in the baskets (placed in cool warehouses to
avoid loss of weight) till sold, and it is only on reaching the buyer's
warehouse that the seals are broken and the contents of the bags ex-
posed. This is done in the presence of the buyer, seller, and a public
examiner, the last of whom goes through the process of inspecting the
drug piece by piece, throwing aside any of suspicious quality. Heftier
of Smyrna asserts that the drug is divided into three qualities, viz. —
the prime, which is not so much a selected quality as the opium of
some esteemed districts, — the ciirreiat, which is the mercantile quality
and constitutes the great bulk of the crop, — and lastly the inferior or
chiqiiiti} The opium of very bad quality or wholly spurious he
would place in a fourth category. Maltass applies the name ch iqinti
(or chicimtee) to opium of every degree of badness.
The examination of opium by the oflicial expert is not conducted in
any scientific method. His opinion of the drug is based on colour,
odour, appearance and weight, and appears to be generally very correct.
Fayk Bey (1867) has recommended the Turkish government to adopt
the more certain method of assaying opium by chemical means.
In Asia Minor the largest quantities of opium are now produced in
^ Probably signifying refti.se, — that which comes out.
OPIUM.
47
the north-western districts of Karahissar Sahib, Balahissar, Kutaya, and
Kiwa (or Geiveh), the last on the river Sakariyeh which runs into the
Black Sea. These centres of large production of opium send a superior
quality of the drug to Constantinople by way of Izmid ; the best ap-
parently from Bogaditch and Balikesri, near the Susurlu river. Angora
and Amasia are other places in the north of Asia Minor whence opium
is obtained.
In the centre of the peninsula Afium Karahissar (literally Ojoium-
hlach- castle) and Ushak are important localities for opium, which is also
the case with Isbarta, Buldur and Hamid farther south. The product
of these districts finds its way to Smyrna, in the immediate neighbour-
hood of which but little opium is produced. The export from Smyrna
in 1871, in which year the crop was very large, was 5650 cases, valued
at £784,500.'
Turkey O^num, as it is generally called in English trade, occurs in
the form of rounded masses which according to their softness become
more or less flattened or many-sided, or irregular by mutual pressure in
the cases in which they are packed. There appears to be no rule as to
their weight" which varies from an ounce up to more than 6 ft). ; from
}j ft), to 2 ft), is however the most nsual. The exterior is covered with
the remains of poppy leaves strewn over with the Rumex chaff before
alluded to, which together make the lumps sufficiently dry to be easily
handled. The consistence is such that the drug can be readily cut
with a knife, or moulded between the fingers. The interior is moist
and coarsely granular, varying in tint from a light chestnut to a
blackish brown. Fine shreds of the epidermis of the poppy capsule
are perceptible even to the naked eye, but are still more evident if the
I'esidue of opium washed with Avater, is moistened with dilute chromic
acid (1 to 100). The odour of Turkey opium is peculiar, and though
commonly described as narcotic and unpleasant, is to many persons far
from disagreeable. The taste is bitter.
The substances alleged to be used for adulterating Turkey opium
are sand, pounded poppy capsules, pulp of apricots or tigs, gum traga-
canth or even turpentine. Bits of lead are sometimes found in the
lumps, also stones and masses of clay.
2. E[i]iptlan Oplmn — though not abundant little as formerly is still
met with in European commerce. It usually occurs in hard, flatfish
cakes about 4 inches in diameter covered with the remnants of a poppy
leaf, but not strewn over with rumex-fruits. We have also seen it
(1873) as freshly imported, in a soft and plastic state The fractured
surface of this opium (when hard) is finely porous, of a dark liver-
colour, shining here and there from imbedded particles of quartz or
gum, and reddish-yellow points (of i-esin X). Under the microscope
an abundance of starch granules is sometimes visible. The morphine
in a sample from Merck amounted to 6 per cent.
According to Von Kremer who wrote in 1803,^ there were then in
^ Consul Cumberhatch, Trade Report for
1871, presented to Parliament.
^ The largest lump I have seen weighed
6 It). 6oz., being part of 65 packages which
I examined 2ud July, 1873.— D. H.
^ Aegypten, Forschungen iiher Land und
Volkwdhrend eines 10 jdhrigen Aufenthaltcs,
Leipzig, 1863.
48
PAPAVERACE^.
Upper Egypt near Esneh, Kenneh, and Siout, as much as 10,000
feddan (equal to about the same number of English acres) of land
cultivated with the poppy from which opium was obtained in March,
and seed in April. Hartmann ^ states that the cultivation is carried
on by the government, and solely for the requirement of the sanitary
establishments.
S. Stafibrd Allen in 1861 witnessed the collection of opium at
Kenneh in Upper Egypt,^ from a white-flowei'ed poppy. An incision
is made in the capsule by running a knife twice round it transversely,
and the juice scraped otf the following day with a soi't of scoop-knife.
The gatherings are collected on a leaf and placed in the sun to harden.
The pi-oduce appeared extremely small and was said to be wholly used
in the country
Gastinel, director of the Experimental Garden at Cairo, and govern-
ment inspector of pharmaceutical stores, has shown (1865) that the
poppy in Egypt might yield a very good product containing 10 to V2
per cent, of morphine, and that the present bad quality of Egyptian
opium is due to an over-moist soil, and a too early scarification of
tlie capsule, whereby (not to mention wilful adulteration) the propor-
tion of morphine is reduced to 3 or 4 per cent.
In 1872, 9636 lb. of opium, value £5023, were imported into the
United Kingdom from Egypt.
3. Persian Opium. ■ — • Persia, probably the original home of the
baneful practice of opium-eating, cultivates the drug chiefly in the
central provinces where, according to Boissier, the plant grown to
furnish it is Palaver somniferum, var. y album (P. ojjiciiiale Gm.)
having ovate roundish capsules. Poppy heads from Persia which we
saw at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, had vertical incisions and contained
white seeds.
The strongest opium called in Persia Teriah-e-A rahi sfani is obtained
in the neiohbourhood of Dizful and Shuster, east of the Lower Tijjris.
Good opium is likewise produced about Sari and Balfarush in the
province of Mazanderan, and in the southern province of Kerman. The
lowest quality which is mixed Math starch and other matters, is sold
in light brown sticks; it is made at Shahabdulazim, Kashan, and
Kum.^ A large quantity of opium appears to be produced in Khokan
and Turkestan.
Persian opium is carried overland to China through Bokhara,
Khokan and Kashgar;'* but since 1864 it has also been extensively
conveyed thither by sea, and it is now quoted in trade reports like that
of Malwa, Patna, and Benares.^ It is exported by way of Trebizond to
Constantinople where it used to be worked up to imitate the opium
' Naturgeschiclitl. inedicin. SIcizze der Nil- ^ Polak, Persien, ii. (1865) 248, &c.
lander, Berlin, 1866. 353. * Powell, Economic Products of the Pun-
- Pharm. Journ. iv. (1863) 199. jab, i. (1868) 294.
5 Thus in the Trade Report for Foochow, for 1870, addressed to Mr. Hart, Inspector-
Ueneral of Customs, Pekin, is the following table :
Malwa. Patna. Benares. Persian.
Imports of Opium in 1867 . . chests 2327 1673 724 300
1868 . . „ 2460 1257 377 544
1869 . . ,, 2201 1340 410 493
1870 . . „ 1849 1283 245 630
OPIUM.
49
of Asior Minor, and at the same time adulterated.^ Since 1870, Persian
opium which was previously rarely seen as such in Europe, has been
imported in considerable quantity, being shipped now from Bushire
and Bunder Abbas, in the Persian Gulf, to London or to the Straits
Settlements and China. It occurs in various forms, the most typical
beinff a short rounded cone weighincr 6 to 10 ounces. We have also
seen it in flat circular cakes, 1^ fb. in weight. In both forms the drug was
of firm consistence, a good opium-smell, and internally brown of a com-
paratively light tint. The surface was strewn over with remnants of
stalks and leaves. Some of it had been collected with the use of oil as
in Malwa (see p. 51), which was apparent from the greasiness of the
cone, and the globules of oil visible when the drug was cut. The best
samples of this drug as recently imported, have yielded 8 to 10"75 per
cent, of morphine, reckoned on the opium in its moist state.^
Carles,-^ from a specimen which seems to have been adulterated with
sugar, obtained 8'40 per cent, of morphine, and 3'60 of narcotine, the
drug not having been previously dried.
Inferior qualities of Persian opium have also been imported. Some
that was soft black and extractiform aff'orded undried only 3 to per
cent, of morphine (Howard) ; while some of very pale hue in small
sticks, each wrapped in paper, yielded no more than 0 2 per cent. !
(Howard). For further details, see p. 61.
In Turkestan an aqueous extract of poppy heads collected befoi'e
maturity is prepared ; it seems to be rich in alkaloids.''
4. Enropean Ophim — From numerous experiments made during
the present century in Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany,
England, and even in Sweden, it has been shown that in all these
countries a very rich opium, not inferior to that of the East, can be
produced.
The most numerous attempts at opium-growing in Europe have
been made in France. But although the cultivation was recommended
in the strongest terms by Guibourt,^ who found in French opium the
highest percentage of morphine yet observed (22"8 per cent.), it has
never become a serious branch of industry.
Aubergier of Clermont-Ferrand has carried on the cultivation with
great perseverance since 1844, and has succeeded in producing a very
pure inspissated juice which he calls Affiuni, and which is said to con-
tain uniformly' 10 per cent, of morphine. It is made up in cakes of 50
grammes, but is scarcely an article of wholesale commerce.''
Some careful and interesting scientific investigations relating to the
production of opium in the neighbourhood of Amiens, were made by
Decharme in 1855 to 1862.^ He found 14,725 capsules incised within
' Letter from Mr. Merck to Dr. F. 1863. ^ Journ de Pharm. xvii. (1873) 427.
' Information kindly given us (9tli J une, * Fedschenko's Catalogue of the Moscow
1873) by Mr. W. Dillworth Howard, of Exhibition, Turkestan department, in
the firm of Howard and Sons, Stratford. JinchneT's Bepertorium/ili- P/iarrmcie,iuiiu.
A morphine manufacturer has no particu- (1873) 221.
lar interest in ascertaining the amount of * Journ. de Pharm. xli. (1862) 184, 201.
water in the opium he purchases. All he ^ How this uniformity is insured we know
requires to know is the percentage of mor- not.
phine which the drug contains. It is " Dorvault, Officine, 6d. 8. 1872. 648.
otherwise with the pharmaceutist, whose * They are recorded in several pamphlets,
preparations have to be made with dried for which we are indebted to the author,
opium. repnuted from the Mim. de VAcod. du di.
50
PAPAVERACE^.
6 days to afford 431 grammes of milky juice, yielding 205 grammes
( — 47'6 per cent.) of dry opium containing 16 per cent, of morphine.
Another sample of dried opium afforded 20 per cent, of morphine.
Decharme observed that the amount of morphine diminished when the
juice is very slowly dried, — a point of great importance deserving atten-
tion in India. The peculiar odour of opium as observable in the
oriental drug, is developed, according to the same authority, by a kind
of fermentation.^ Adrian even suggests that morphine is formed only
by a similar process, inasmuch as he could obtain none by exhausting-
fresh poppy capsules with acidulated alcohol, while capsules of the
same crop yielded an opium rich in moi-j^hine.
5. East Indian Oj^ixm — The principal region of British India
distinguished for the production of opium is the central tract of the
Ganges, comprising an area of about 600 miles in length, by 200 miles
in width. It reaches from Dinajpur in the east, to Hazaribagh in the
soiith, and Goraklipur in the north, and extends westward to Agra,
thus including the flat and thickly-populated districts of Behar and
Benares. The amount of land here actually under poppy cultivation
was estimated in 1871-72 as 560,000 acres.
The region second in impoi'tance for the culture of opium consists
of the broad table-lands of Malwa, and the slopes of the Vindhya Hills,
in the dominions of the Holkar.
Beyond these vast districts, the area under po]?py cultivation is
comparatively small,' yet it appears to be on the increase. Stewart''
reports (1869) that the plant is grown (principally for opium) through-
out the plains of the Punjab, but less commonly in the north-west. In
the valley of the Bias, east of Lahore, it is cultivated up to nearly'
7500 feet above the sea-level.
The manufacture of opium in these parts of India is not under any
restriction as in Hindustan. Most districts, says Powell (1868),''
cultivate the poppy to a certain extent, and produce a small quantity
of indifferent opium for local consumption. The drug, however, is
prepared in the Hill States, and the opium of Kulii (E. of Lahore), is of
excellent quality, and forms a staple article of trade in that region.
Opium is also produced in Nepal, Basahir and Rampur, and at Doda
Kashtwar in the Jammii territory."' It is exported from these districts
to Yarkand, Khutan, Aksu, and other Chinese provinces, — to the extent
in 1862 of 210 maunds (= 16,800 lb.). The Madras Presidency exports
no opium at all.
The opium districts of Bengal" are divided into two agencies, those
of Behar and Benares, which are under the control of officials residing
respectively at Patna and Ghazipur. The opium is a government
monopoly — that is to say, the cultivators are under an obligation to sell
their produce to the government at a price agreed on beforehand; at the
partement de la Somme and the Mem. de
I'Acad^mie Stanislas.
1 Jonrn. de Pharm. vi. (1867) 222.
^ So we may infer from the fact that of the
39,225 chests which paid duty to Oovern-
ment at Bombay in 18/2, .37,979 were Malwa
opium, the remaining 1,246 being reckoned
as from Guzerat. — /Statement of the Trade
and jVav. of Bombay for 1871-72, p. xv.
^ Punjab Plants, Lahore, 18G9. 10.
^ Op. cit. i. 294.
^ At the base of the Himalaya, S. and
S.E. of Kashmir.
" Much of what follows respecting Bengal
opium is derived from a paper by Eatwell,
formerly First Assistant and Opium Exa-
miner in the Government Factory at Ghazi-
pur.— Pharm. Journ. xi. (1852) 269, &c.
OPIUM.
61
same time it is wholly optional with them, whether to enter on the
cultivation or not.
The variety of poppy cultivated is the same as in Persia, namely, P.
somniferum, var. y album. As in Asia Minor, a moist and fertile soil
is indispensable.' The plant is liable to injury by insects, excessive rain,
hail, or the growth on its roots of a species of Orobanche.
In Behar the sowing takes place at the beginning of November, and
the capsules are sacrificed in February or March (March or April in
Mahva). This operation is performed with a peculiar instrument, called
a nusJitur, having three or four two-pointed blades, bound together with
cotton thread.- In using the nushtur, only one set of points is brought
into use at a time, the capsule being scarified vertically from base to
summit. This scarification is repeated on different sides of the capsule
at intervals of a few days, from two to six times. In many districts of
Bengal, transverse cuts are made in the poppj'-head as in Asia Minor.
The milky juice is scraped off early on the following morning with
an iron scoop, which as it becomes filled is emptied into an earthen pot
carried by the collector's side. In Malwa a flat scraper is used which,
as well as the fingers of the gatherer, is wetted from time to time with
linseed oil to prevent the adhesion of the glutinous juice. All accounts
represent the juice to be in a very moist state by reason of dew, which
sometimes even washes it away; but so little is this moisture of the
juice thought detrimental that, as Butter states,^ the collectors in some
places actually wash their scrapers in water, and add the washings to
the collection of the morning!
The juice when brought home is a wet granular mass of pinkish
colour; and in the bottom of the vessel in which it is contained, there
collects a dark fluid resembling infusion of coffee, which is called
pca^eiud. The recent juice strongly reddens litmus, and blackens metallic
iron. It is placed in a shallow earthen vessel, which is tilted in such
a manner that the ixtse^vd may drain off" as long as there is any of it to
be sej^arated. This liquor is set aside in a covered vessel. The residual
mass is now exposed to the air, though never to the sun, and turned
over every few days to promote its attaining the proper degree of
dryness, which according to the Benares regulations, allows of 30 per
cent, of moisture. This drying operation occupies three or four weeks.
The drug is then taken to the Government factory for sale ; previous
to being sold it is examined for adulteration by a native expert, and
its proportion of water is also carefully determined. Having been
received into stock, it undergoes but little treatment beyond a thorough
mixing, until it is required to be formed into globular cakes. This is
effected in a somewhat complicated manner, the opium being strictly of
standard consistence. First the quantity of opium is weighed out, and
having been formed into a ball is enveloped in a crust of dried poppy
petals, skilfully agglutinated one over the other by means of a liqiiid
called lewd.. This consists partly of good opium, partly oi paseiva, and
partly of opium of inferior quality, all being mixed with the washings
of the various pots and vessels which have contained opium, and then
^ It is said (1873) that the ground devoted
to poppy-culture in Bengal is becoming im-
poverished, and that the plant no longer
attains its usual dimensions.
^ For figures of the instrument, see
Pharm. Journ. xi. (1862) 207.
Pharm .Journ. xi. (1852) 209.
52
PAPAVERACE.E.
evaporated to a thick fluid, 100 grains of which should afford 53 of dry-
residue. These various things are used to form a ball of opium in the
following proportions : —
. seers, chittaks.
Opium of standard consistence . . . 1 7 '50
,, contained in lewd .... 3 '75
Poppy petals ...... 5 "43
Fine trash 0 50
~^ pjg_ I about 4 lb. 3^ oz
I avoirdupois.
The finished balls usually termed calces, which are quite spherical and
have a diameter of 6 inches, are rolled in j^oj^ijjy trash which is the name
given to the coarsely powdered stalks, capsules and leaves of the plant ;
they are then placed in small dishes and exposed to the direct influence
of the sun. Should any become distended, it is at once opened, the gas
allowed to escape, and the cake made up again. After three days
the cakes are placed, by the end of July, in frames in the factory where
the air is allowed to circulate. They still however require constant
watching and turning, as they are liable to contract mildew which has
to be removed by rubbing in poj^py trash. By October the cakes have
become perfectly dry externally and quite hard, and are in condition to
be packed in cases (40 cakes in each) for the China market which con-
sumes the great bulk of the manufacture.
For consumption in India the drug is prepared in a different shape.
It is inspissated by solar heat till it contains only 10 per cent, of mois-
ture, in which state it is formed into square cages of 2 lb. each which
are wrapped in oil paper, or it is made into flat square tablets. Such
a drug is known as Abkdri Opium.
The Government opium factories in Bengal are conducted on the
most orderly system. The care bestowed in selecting the drug, and in
excluding any that is damaged or adulterated is such that the merchants
who purchase the commodity rarely require to examine it, although
permission is freely accorded to open at each sale any number of chests
or cakes they may desire. In the year 1871-72 the number of chests
sold was 49,695, the price being £139 per chest, which is £26 higher
than the average of the preceding year. The net profit on each chest
was £90.'
In Malwa the manufacture of opium is left entii'ely to private enter-
prise, the profit to Government being derived from an export duty of
600 rupees (£60) per chest.^ As may readily be supposed, the drug is
of much less uniform quality than that which has passed through the
Bengal agencies, and having no guarantee as to purity it commands less
confidence.
Malwa opium is not made into balls, but into rectangular masses, or
bricks which are not cased in poppy petals ; it contains as much as 95
per cent, of dry opium. Some opium sold in London as Malwa Opium
in 1870 had the form of rounded masses covered with vegetable remains.
It was of firm consistence, dark colour, and rather smoky odour. W. D.
Howard obtained from it {undried) 9 per cent, of morphine. Other
^ Statement exhibiting the moral and
material progress and condition of India
during the year 1871-72,— Blue Book
ordered to be printed 29th July, 1873. p. 10.
- The revenue by this duty upon opium
exported from Bombay in the year 1871-72,
was £2,353,-500.
OPIUM.
53
importations afforded the same chemist 4'8 and 6 per cent, respec-
tively.
The chests of Patna opium hold 120 catties or 160 ft». Those of
Malwa opium 1 pecul or 133|- ft.
The quantity of opium produced in India cannot be ascertained, but
the amount exported^ is accurately known. Thus from British India the
exports in the year ending March 31, 1872, were 93,364 chests valued
at £13,365,228. Of this quantity Bengal furnished 49,455 chests,
Bombay 43,909 chests : they were exported thus : —
To China 85,470 chests.
The Straits Settlements 7,845 ,,
Ceylon, Java, Mauritius and Bourbon . . 38 ,,
The United Kingdom ..... 4 ,,
Other countries . . . . . . 7 ,,
Total . . . 93,364 „
The net revenue to the Government of India from opium in the year
1871-72 was £7,657,213.
6. Chinese Opium — China consumes not only nine-tenths of the
opium exported from India, and a considerable quantity of that produced
in Asia Minor, but the whole of what is raised in her own provinces.
How large is this last quantity we shall endeavour to show.
The drug is mentioned as a production of Yunnan in a history of that
province, of which the latest edition appeared in 1736. But it is only
very recently that its cultivation in China has assumed such large
proportions as to threaten serious competition with that in India.^
In a Report upon the Trade of Hankow for 1869, addressed to Mr.
Hai-t, Inspector-General of Customs, Pekin, we find Notes of a journey
through the opium districts of Szechuen, undertaken for the special pur-
pose of obtainingiuformation about the drug.^ From these notes it appears
that the estimated crop of the province for 1869 was 4235 peculs
( = 564,666 ft.). This was considered small, and the Szechuen opium
merchants asserted that 6000 peculs was a fair average. The same
authorities estimated the annual yield of the province of Kweichow at
1 5,000, and of Yunnan at 20,000 peculs, making a total of 41,000 peculs
or 5,466,666 ft. In 1869 also. Sir R. Alcock reported that about two-
thirds of the province of Szechuen and one-third of that of Yunnan
were devoted to opium.'*
Mr. Consul Markham states^ that the province of Shensi likewise
^ Annual Statement of the Trade and
Navigation of British India with foreign
coMre<ries,publishedby order of theGovernor-
General, Calcutta, 1872. 52.
^ In the Report on the Trade of Hankow
for 1869 addressed to Mr. Hart, Inspector-
General of Customs, Pekin, it is stated —
"The importation of opium is consider-
ably short for the last two seasons, but
this is not to be wondered at now that each
opium-shopkeeper in this and the surround-
ing districts advertises native drug for
sale."
W. H. Medhurst, British Consul at Shang-
hai, says — ' ' The drug is now being so exten-
sively produced by the Chinese upon their
own soil as sensibly to affect the demand for
the India-grown commodity." — Foreigner in
Far Cathay, Lond. 1872. 20.
The quantity of opium exported from
Bombay in 1871-72 was less by 1719 chests
than that exported in 1870-71, the decrease
being attributed to the present large culti-
vation in China. — Statement of the Trade
andNav. of Bombay for 1871-72, pp. xii. xvi.
^ According to the French missionaries,
the cultivation of the poppy in the great
province of Szechuen was hardly known
even so recently as 1840.
* Calcutta Blue Book, p. 205.
^Journ. ofSoc. of Arts, Sept. (1872) 6,
p. 338.
54
PAPAVERACEiE.
furnishes important supplies. Mr. Edkins the well-known missionary
has lately pointed out from personal observation^ the extensive cultiva-
tion of the poppy in the north-eastern province of Shantung.
Opium of very fair quality is now produced about Ninguta (lat. 44°)
in north-eastern Manchuria, a region having a rigorous winter climate.
Consul Adkins of Newchwang who visited this district in 1871, reports
that the opium is inspissated in the sun until hard enough to be
wrapped in poppy leaves, and that its price on the spot is equal to about
Is. per ounce.^
Shensi opium is said to be the best, then that of Yunnan. But Chinese
consumers mostly regard home-grown opium as inferior in strength
and flavour, and only tit for use when mixed with the Indian drug.^
It must not be supposed that the growing of opium in China has
passed unnoticed by the Chinese Government. Whatever may be the
nature of the sanction now accorded to this branch of industry, it was
" rigorously " prohibited, at least in some provinces, about ten years ago,
the eft'ect of the prohibition being to stimulate the foreign importations.
Thus at Shanghai in 1865, the importation of Benares opium was 2637
peculs,^ being more than double that of the previous year, and Persian
opium, very rai'ely seen before, was imported to the extent of 533
peculs, besides about 70 peculs of Turkish.*
Of the growth of the trade in opium between India and China, the
following figures'^ will give some idea : value of exports in
1852-53 — £6,470,915. 1861-62 — £9,704,972. 1871-72 —£11,605,577.
and''
In 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876
Chests opium, . 93,364 82,908 88,727 94,746 88,350
Value, . . £13,365,228 11,426,280 11,341,857 11,956,972 11,148,426
In 1877 the imports of opium in Hong Kong were stated to consist
of 6818 peculs, valued at 2,380,665 taels, coming from Patna (2158
peculs), Benares (3596 peculs), Persia (1041 peculs), Malwa (10 peculs),
Turkey (3^ peculs). In the same year 4043 peculs of opium were
imported in Amoy.
Poppy cultivation in the south-west of China has been briefly
described by Thorel,'' from whose remarks it would appear to be exactly
like that of India. The poppy is white-flowered; the head is wounded
with a three-bladed knife, in a series of 3 to 5 vertical incisions, and the
exuded juice is scraped off" and transferred to a small pot suspended at
the waist. How the drug is finished off" we know not. A Chinese
account states simply that the best opium is sun-dried. But little is
known of its physical and chemical jiroperties. Thorel speaks of it
as a soft substance resemblinff an extract. Dr. R. A. Jamieson' describes
1 North China Herald, June 28, 1873.
^ Bcporls of H.M. Conmds in China, 1871
(No. 3, 1872), 1874 (No. 5, 1875), p. 4, 23.
3 One pecul=133Hb.
Beports on the Trade at the Treaty
Ports in China for 1865. 125.
^ Taken from the Annual Statement of
the Trade and Navigation of British India
with foreiijn cuiinfrict, published by order of
the Governor-General, Calcutta, 1872 — 199.
•> Statistical Abstract relatinr/ to British
India, from 1866-67 to 1875-76. London,
1877, pp. 51, 53.
'' Notes midicales du voycuje d'explora-
tion du Mekong et de Cochinchinc,'Pa,rm, 1870.
23.
* Report on the Trade of Hankoiv, before
quoted.
OPIUM.
55
a sample submitted to him as a fiat calce enveloped in the sheathing
petiole of bamboo; externally it was a blackish-brown, glutinous sub-
stance, dry and brittle on the outside. It lost by drying 18 per cent,
of water, and afforded upon incineration 7'5 per cent, of ash. In TOO
grains of the (undried) drug, there were found 5"9 of morphine, and
7'5 of narcotine. (See also p. 62.)
The Chinese who prepare opium for use by converting it into an
aqueous extract which they smoke, do not estimate the value of the
drug according to its richness in morphine, but by peculiarities of
aroma and degree of solubility. In China the pre[)aration of opium
for smoking is a special business, not beneath the notice even of
Europeans.^
7. Zambezi or Mommhik Opium — From a notice in Pharm. Journal
viii. (1878) 1007, it would appear that the Portuguese have formed in
1877 a large company called the "Mozambique Opium Cultivating and
Trading Company."
Description — The leading characteristics of each kind of opium
have been already noticed. The following remarks bear chiefly on the
microscopic appearances of the drug.
As will l3e presently .shown, a more or less considerable part
of the drug consists of peculiar substances which are mostly crystalliz-
able and are many of them present in a crystalline state in the drug
itself. All kinds of opium appear more or less crystalline when a little
in a dry state is triturated with benzol and examined under the micro-
scope. The forms are various : opium from Asia Minor exhibits needles
and short imperfect crystals usually not in large quantity, whereas
Indian and still more Persian opium is not only highly crystalline but
shows a variety of forms which become beautifully evident when seen
by polarized light. In several kinds large crystals occur which are
doubtless sugar, either intentionally mixed or naturally present. The
crystals seen in opium ai-e not however sufiiciently developed to
warrant positive conclusions as to their nature, besides which the
opium constituents when pure are capable under slightly varied circum-
stances of assuming very different forms. Hence the attempt to obtain
from solutions crystals which shall be comparable with those of the
same substances in a state of purity often fails. Some interesting
observations in this direction were made by Deane and Brady in
18G4-5.-
All opium has a peculiar narcotic odour and a sharp bitter taste.
Chemical Composition — Poppy-juice like analogous vegetable
fluids is a mixture of several substances in variable proportion. With
the commoner substances which constitute the great bulk of the drug
we are not yet sufiiciently acquainted.
^ In 1870, a British firm at Amoy opened
an establishnaent for preparing opium for
the supply of the Chinese in California and
Australia — Pall Mall Gazette, Nov. 7th,
1878, p. 7, announces: "The monopoly of
preparing and selling opium in the 14 dis-
tricts of Kwang-chow-f u, has been leased to
a Hong at Canton for 3 years, . . .
innovation on former practice
Opium shops are henceforth to be licensed,
and the Exchequer will receive the yearly
sum of 140,000 dollars — a welcome addi-
tion to the revenue."
2 Pliarrn. Journ. vi. 234; vii. 183. with
4 beautiful j^lates representing the crystal-
lizations from extract and tincture of opium
as well as from the pure opium constituents.
When the juice of the poppy is prevented
from rapid drying by the addition of a
little glycerin, crystals are developed in it.
56
PAPAVERACE^.
In the first place (independently of water) there is found mucilage
distinct from that of gum arabic, also pectic matter/ and albumin.
These bodies, together with unavoidable fragments of the poppy-
capsules, probably amount on an average to more than half the weight
of the opium.^
In addition to these substances, the juice also contains sugar in solu-
tion,— in French opium to the extent of 6^ to 8 per cent. : according to
Decharme it is uncrystallizable. Sugar also exists in other opium,
but whether always naturally has not been determined.
Fresh poppy-juice contains in the form of emulsion, wax, pectin,
albumin and insoluble calcar-eous salts. When good Turkey opium is
treated with water these substances remain in the residue to the extent
of 6 to 10 per cent.
Hesse (1870) has isolated the wax by exhausting the refuse of
opium with boiling alcohol and a little lime. He thus obtained a
crystalline mass from which he separated by chloroform Palmitate and
Cerotate of Gerotyl, the former in the larger proportion.
The presence of Caoutchouc has also been pointed out ; Procter^
found opium produced in Vermont to contain about 11 per cent, of
that substance, together with a little fatty matter and resin.
Respecting the colouring matter and an extremely small quantity
of a volatile body with pepper-like odour, we know but little. After
the colouring matter has been precipitated from an aqueous solution of
opium by lead acetate, the liquid becomes again coloured by exposure
to the air. As to the volatile body, it may be removed by acetone or
benzol, but has not yet been isolated.
The salts of inorganic bases, chiefly of calcium, magnesium and
potassium, contain partly the ordinary acids such as phosphoric and
sulphuric, and partly an acid peculiar to the poppy.
Good opium of Asia Minor dried at 100° C. yields 4 to 8 per cent,
of ash.
Poppy-juice contains neither starch nor tannic acid, the absence of
which easily-detected substances affords one criterion for judging of the
purity of the drug.
The proportion of water in opium is very variable. In drying
Turkey opium previous to pulverization and for other pharmaceutical
purposes, the average loss is about 12| per cent.'* Bengal opium, which
resembles a soft black extract, is manufactured so as to contain 30 per
cent, of water.
As the active constituents of opium, or at all events the morphine,
can be completely extracted by cold water, the proportion of soluble
matter is of practical importance. In good opium of Asia Minor
previously dried, the extract (dried at 100° C.) always amounts to
between 55 and G6 per cent., — generally to more than 60, — thus
affording in many instances a test of the pureness of the drug. Dried
1 We had the opportunity of examining
very good specimens of pectic matter and
caoutchouc from ojiium, with which we
were presented (1879) by Messrs. J. F.
Macfarlane & Co., of London and Edin-
burgh.
2 FUickiger, in Pharm. Journ. x. (1869)
208.
3 American Joui-n. of Pharm., 1870.
124.
■* From the laboratory accounts of Messrs.
Allen and Hanburys, London, by which it
appears that 200 lb. of Turkey opium dried
at various times in the course of 10 years
lost in weight 25^ Tb.
OPIUM.
57
Indian opium yields from 60 to 68 per cent, of matter soluble in cold
water.^
The peculiar constituents of opium are of basic, acid, or neutral
nature. Some of these substances were observed in opium as early as
the 17th and 18th century, and designated Magisterium Opii. Bucholz
in 1802 vainly endeavoured to obtain a salt from the extract by
crystallization. In 1803, hovpever, Charles Derosne, an apothecary of
Paris, in diluting a syrupy aqueous extract of opium, observed ciystals
of the substance now called Narcotme, which he prepared pure. He
believed that the same body was obtained by precipitating the mother
liquor with an alkali, but what he so got was morphine. It is needless
to pursue the further researches of Derosne. Ingenious as they were,
it was reserved for Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner, apothecary
of Eimbeck in Hanover {nat. 1783, oh. 1841) to discover their true
interpretation.
Sertiirner had been engaged since 1805 with the chemical investi-
gation of opium, and in 1816 he summarized his results in the state-
ment that he had enriched science (we now translate his own words^)
— " not only with the knowledge of a remarkable new vegetable acid
[Mehonisdure (meconic acid) which he had made known as Ojyiwnisdure
in 1806], but also with the discovery of a new alkaline salifiable base,
Morphiitm, one of the most remarkable substances, and apparently
related to ammonia." Serturner in fact distinctly recognised the basic
nature and the organic constitution of morphium (now called Morphine,
Morphia, or Morphinum), and prepared a number of its crystalline
salts. He likewise demonstrated the poisonous nature of these sub-
stances by experiments on himself and others. Lastly, he pointed out,
though very incorrectly, the difierence between morphine and the so-
called Opium-salt (Narcotine) of Derosne. It is possible that this
latter chemist may have had morphine in his hands at the same time
as Sertiirner, or even earlier. This honour is also due to S^guin,
whose paper Sur VOj)ium" read at the Institute, December 24, 1804,
was, strange to say, not published till 1814.^ To Serturner, however,
undoubtedly belongs the merit of first making known the existence of
organic alkalis in the vegetable kingdom,'' — a series of bodies practically
interminable. As to opium, it still remains after neaiiy seventy years
a nidus of new substances.
Solutions of morphine in acids oi in alkalis rotate the plane of
polarization to the left.
The morphine in opium is combined with meconic acid, and is
therefore easily soluble in water.'^ The Narcotine is present in the
free state, and can be extracted by chloroform, boiling alcohol, benzol,
ether, or volatile oils,^ but not by water. It dissolves in 3 parts of
chloroform, in 20 of boiling alcohol, in 21 of benzol, in 40 of boiling
ether. Its alkaline properties are very weak, and it does not affect
1 Calculated from official statements given
by Eatwell in the paper quoted at p. 50.
2 Gilbert's Annalen der Physih, Iv. (1817)
57.
' Annales de Chimie, xcii. (1814) 225.
*The Institut de France on the 27th
June, 1831, awarded to Sertiirner a prize of
2000 francs — ' ' pour avoir reconuu la nature
alcaline de la morphine, et avoir ainsi ouvert
une voie qui produit de grandes decouvertes
mddicales."
* There are exceptional cases in which it
is asserted that water does not take up the
whole amount of morphine.
"In large crystals by means of oil of
turpentine.
58
PAPAVERACEiE.
vegetable colours. If we examine opium by the microscope we cannot
at once detect the presence of narcotine, but if first moistened with
glj'cerin, numerous large crystals may generally be found after the
lapse of some days. If the opium has been previously exhausted with
benzol or ether, in order to remove the narcotine, no such crystals will
be formed. Hence it follows that narcotine pre-exists in an amorphous
state.
By decomposition with sulphuric acid, narcotine yields Cotarnhie,
an undoubted base, together with Opianic Acid, and certain derivatives
of the latter.
The discovery of another base, Codeine, was made in 1832 by
Robiquet. It dissolves in 17 parts of boiling water, forming a highly
alkaline solution which perfectly saturates acids, and exhibits in
polarized light a levogyre power. Codeine is also readily soluble at
oi'dinary temperatures in 7 parts amylic alcohol, and in 11 of benzol.
The codeine of commerce is in very large crystals containing '1
atoms = 5 66 per cent, of water. By crystallization from ether the
alkaloid may be obtained in small anhydrous crystals.
Since 1832 other alkaloids have been found in opium, as may be
seen in the following table, which includes all the 17 now known. ^
A very large number of derivatives of several among them have been
prepared, of which we point out a few in smaller type. The molecular
constitution of these opium alkaloids being not yet thoroughly settled,
we add only their empirical formulfe, which however exhibit unmistake-
able connections.
Papaverosiiie discovered by Deschamps in poppy-heads (p. 42) can
hardly be absent from opium. In some points it appears to resemble
cryptopine.
Among the peculiar non-basic constituents of opium, the first to call
for notice is Meconic Acid, CffO", discovered, as already observed, by
Serttirner in 1805. It is distinguished by the red colour which it
produces with ferric salts, the same as that of ferric sulphocyanate;
but the latter only dissolves in ether. Meconic acid is soluble in 4
parts of boiling water, but immediately gives off CO-, and the l emain-
ing solution instead of depositing micaceous crystalline scales of meconic
acid, yields on cooling (but best after boiling with hydrochloric acid)
hard granular crystals of Comenic Acid, C^ffO^
Lactic Acid was discovered by T. and H. Smith in the opium-liquors
produced in the manufacture of morphine. These chemists regarded it
as a peculiar body, and under the name of Theholactic Acid, exhibited
it together with its copper and morphine salts at the London Inter-
national Exhibition of 1862. Its identity with ordinary lactic acid
was ascertained by Stenhouse (whose experiments have not been pub-
lished) and also by J. Y. Buchanan.'^ T. and H. Smith consider it to be a
regular constituent of Tui'key opium; they obtained it as a calcium-
salt to the amount of about 2 per cent., and have prepared it in this form
and in a pure state to the extent of over 100 lb. In our opinion it is
not an original constituent of poppy-juice.
^In 1851 Hinterberger described as a
peculiar alkaloid, Oinanine ; JiT. Hesse has
examined Hinterberger's specimen of this
body, and found (1875) it to consist of
impure narcotine.
" Berlchte d. Deutsch. C'heiii. Gesdlsch,
zu Berlin, iii. (1870) 182.
OPIUM. 69
NATURAL ALKALOIDS OF OPIUM
and a feiv of their A rtificial Derivatives.
DISCOVERED BY
C
H
N
O
Wohler, lSi4 . .
COTARNINE
Formed by oxidizing narcotine ; soluble in water.
13
3
Hesse, 1S71 . .
.. 1. HYDROCOTARNINE ..
12
15
3
Crystallizable, alkaline, volatile at 100°.
Matthiessen and \_
Wright, 18011 . . )
17
17
Apomorpuine
Fi'oni morphine, by hydrochloric acid. Colourless,
amorphous, turning green by exposure to air;
emetic.
1
2
Wright, 1871 . .
Dbsoxymorphine
17
19
2
SertUrner, 1816
2. MORPHINE
Crystallizable, alkaline, levoyyre.
17
19
1
3
Pelletier and Thi-|^
houmery, 1835 . . S
.. 3. PSEUDOMORPHINE ..
Crystallizes with H-O ; docs not unite even with
acetic acid.
17
19
4
Matthiessen and )
Apocodeine
From codeine by chloride of zinc: amorphous, emetic.
18
19
Burnside, 1871 .. ^
1
2
Wright, 187] ..
Desoxvcodeine
IS
21
x\UUll^ueL, loo-
18
21
o
Matthiessen and |^
Crystallizable, alkaline, soluble in water.
19
17
Foster, 1868 . . )
1
7
Thiboumery, 1S35 ..
5, THEBAINE
Crystallizable, alkaline, isomeric with buxine.
19
21
\
3
Hesse, 1870 . .
TlIEBENlNE
19
21
3
Hesse, 1870 . .
TllEBAICIXE
From thebaiue or thebeuine by hydrochloric acid.
19
21
3
Hesse 1871
20
19
5
Matthiessen and
Crystallizable, alkaline.
20
19
Foster, 1808 . . )
Metuylnornarcotine . .
1
7
Hesse, 1871 . .
Deuteropine
Not yet isolated.
20
21
5
Hesse, 1870 . .
7. LAUDANINE
An alkaloid which, as well as its salts, forms large
crystals; turns orange by hydrochloric acid.
20
25
4
Hesse, 1878 . .
8. CODAMINE
Crystallizable, alkaline ; can be sublimed ; becomes
green by nitric acid
20
25
1
4
Merck, 18-18 . .
9. PAPAVERINE
Crystallizable, also its hydrochlorate ; sulphate in
sulphuric acid precipitated by water.
21
21
4
Hesse, 1805
10. RHCEADINE
Crystallizable, not distinctly alkaline; can be sub-
limed; occurs also in Papaver Rhceas.
21
21
1
xiesse, looo
RiKEAGENINE
From rhoeadine ; crystallizable, alkaline.
21
21
li
Armstrong, 1S( 1
DiMETIIYLNORNARCOTINE
21
21
Hesse, 1870 . .
11. MECONIDINE
21
23
4
Amorphous, alkaline, melts at 58", not stable, the
salts also easily altered.
T. & H. Smith, 1864..
12. CRYPTOPINE
Crystallizable, alkaline ; salts tend to gelatinize ; hy-
drochlorate crystallizes in tufts.
21
23
Hesse, 1871 . .
13. LAUDANOSINE
Cryst;\Uizable, alkaline.
21
27
4
Derosne, 1S03 . .
..14. NARCOTINE
Crystallizable, not alkaline; salts not stable.
22
23
1
7
Hesse, 1870 . .
15. LANTHOPINE
Microscopic crystals not alkaline, sparingly soluble
in hot or cold spirit of wine, ether or benzol.
23
4
Pelletier, 1832
16. NARCEINE
Crystallizable (as a hydrate , readily soluble in boil-
ing water or in alkalis, levogyre.
23
29
9
T. & H. Smith, 1S7S..
17. GNOSCOPINE
Crystallizable, melts at 233°, soluble in chloroform
and bisulphide of carbon, slightly so in benzol,
34
Sri
11
not ill ether. The salts have an acid reaction.
GO
PAPAVERACE^.
In the year 1826, Dublanc^ observed in opium a peculiar substance
having neither basic nor acid properties which was afterwards (1832)
prepared in a state of purity by Couerbe. It has been called Opianyl
or (by Couerbe) Meconine. It has the composition C^"H'''0'' =
C''H2.CmO.CO(OCff)2. Meconin forms prisms which fuse under
water at 77° C. or per se at 110°, and distil at 155°; it dissolves in about
20 parts of boiling water, from which it may be readily crystallized.
Meconin may be formed by heating narcotiue with nitric acid.
An analogous substance Ifeconoiosin GWO"- = C^H". (OH)'.(CH')^
has been discovered in 1878 by T. and H. Smith. Meconoiosin is
readily soluble in 27 parts of cold water, and melts at 88° C. When
heated with slightly diluted sulphuric acid, and when the evaporation
has reached a certain point, meconoiosin produces a deep red; with
meconin the coloration is a beautiful green.
Proportion of peculiar constituents — The substances described
in the foregoing section exist in opium in very variable proportion; and
as it is on their presence, but especially that of morphine, that the value
of the drug depends, the importance of exact estimation is evident.
Opium whether required for analysis or for pharmaceutical prepara-
tions has to be taken exclusively in the dry state. The amount of
water it contains is so uncertain that the drug must be reduced to a
fixed standard by complete desiccation at 100° C, before any given
weight is taken.
Morphine — Guibourt^ who analysed a large number of samples of
opium, and whose skill and care in such research are not disputed,
obtained from a sample of French opium produced near Amiens, 22'88
per cent, of morphine crystallized from spirit of wine. This per-
centage has not to our knowledge been ever exceeded. From another
specimen produced in the same district he got 21'23 per cent., from
a third 20'67. The lowest peixentage from a French opium was 14"96,
— in each case reckoned on material previously dried.
Chevallier extracted from opium grown by Aubergier at Clermont
in the centre of France, 17'50 per cent, of morphine. Decharmes from
a French opium obtained 17'6 per cent., and Biltz from a German
opium 20 per cent. Opium produced in Wiirtemberg sent to the
Vienna Exhibition of 1873 afforded Hesse 12 to 15 per cent, of mor-
phine ; and opium from Silesia 9 to 10 per cent.^
A pure American opium collected in the State of Vermont yielded
Proctor 15'75 per cent, of morphine and 2 percent of narcotine.*
The opium of Asia Minor furnishes very nearly the same pro-
portions of morphine as that of Europe. The maximum recorded by
Guibourt is 21'46 per cent, obtained from a Smyrna opium sold in
Paris. The mean yield of 8 samples of opium sent by Delia Sudda of
Constantinople to the Paris Exhibition of 1855 was 14'78 per cent.
The mean percentage of morphine afforded by 12 other samples of
Turkey opium obtained from various sources was l^'GG.
^ Annates de Chimie et de Physique,
xlix. (1832) 5— 20.— The paper was read
before the Acad, de Med., 13th May,
1826.
2 Mimoire sur le dosage de V Opium et sur
la quantity de mor2yhine que I'opium doit
contenir, Paris, 1862.
3 SchrofF, Ausstellungshericht, Arznei-
waaren, p. 31.
* Am. Jmmi. of Pharm. xviii. (1870) 124.
OPIUM.
61
Chevallier^ states that Smyrna opium, of which several cases were
received by Merck of Darmstadt in 1845, afforded 12 to 13 per cent, of
pure morphine reckoned upon the drug in its fresh and moist state.
Fayk Bey ^ analysed 92 samples of opium of Asia Minor, and
found that half the number yielded more than 10 per cent, of
morphine. The richest afforded 17'2 per cent.
From the foregoing statements we are warranted in assuming that
good Smyrna opium deprived of water ought to afford 12 to 15 per
cent, of morphine, and that if the percentage is less than 10, adultera-
tion may be suspected.
Egyptian opium has usually been found very much weaker in mor-
y)hine than that of Asia Minor. A sample sent to the Paris Exhibition
of 1865 and presented to one of us by Figari Bey of Cairo, afforded
us 5'8 per cent, of morphine and 8'7 of narcotine.
Persian opium appears extremely variable, probably in consequence
of the practice of combining it with sugar and other substances. It is
however sometimes very good. Seput* obtained from four samples the
respective percentages of 13'47, 11"52, 10 12, 10 08 of morphine, the
opium being free from water. Mr. Howard as already stated (p. 49)
extracted from Persian opium, not previously dried, from 8 to 10 75 per
cent, of morphine.
East Indian opium is remarkable for its low percentage of mor-
phine, a circumstance which we think is attributable in part to
climate and in part to a method of collection radically defective. It is
scarcely conceivable that the long period during which the juice
remains in a wet state, — always three to four weeks, — does not exer-
cise a destructive action on its constituents.
According to Eatwell * the percentage of morphine in the samples of
Benares opium ofhcially submitted for analysis gave the following
averages . —
1845-46 1846-47 1847-48 1848-49
2-48 2-38 2-20 3 21
The same observer has i-ecorded the results of the examination
of freshly collected poppy-juice, which in three instances afforded
respectively 1'4, 8'06, and 2'89 per cent, of morphine, reckoned on
the material deprived of water ; but the conditions under which the
experiments were made appear open to great objection.'
Such very low results are not alw ays obtained from East Indian
opium. In a sample from Khandesh furnished by the Indian Museum,
we found 6'07 of morphine. Solly from the same kind obtained about
7 per cent.
Patna Garden Opium which is the sort prepared exclusively for
medicinal use, afforded us 8"G per cent, of purified morphine and 4 per
cent, of narcotine.^ Guibourt obtained from such an opium 7'72
1 Notice historique siir Vopittm indigiine,
Paris, 1852.
^ Monographie des Opiums de VEmpire
OUomaii envoyis d VExposition de Paris,
1867.
3 Journ. de Pharm. xxxix. (1861) 163.
* Pharm. Journ. xi. (1852) 361.
In one case the juice was allowed to
stand in a basin from 23rd Feb. to 7th May,
being " occasionally stirred " !
^ This drug made in 1838 came from
the Apothecary - General, Calcutta, and
was presented by Christison to the Kew
Museum. It is in rectangular tablets
2\ inches square and ^ of an inch thick,
cased in wax.
62
PAPAVERACE^.
per cent. Christison from a sainple sent to Duncan of Edinburgh in
1830,^ 9"50 per cent, of hydrochlorate of morphine.
Samples from the Indian Museum phvced at our disposal by Dr.
J. Forbes Watson gave^ us the following percentages of morphine: —
Medical {Inclkm) Opium, 18.52-53, portion of a square brick, 4-3;
Garden Behar Opium, 4'6; Ahkdri Provision Opium, Patna, No. 5380,
3-5; Bind Op)ium,^o. 28, 3'8 ; O^num, Hyderabad, Sind, 3-2 (and 5-4-
of narcotine) ; Malwa Opium, 61.
With regard to the percentage of morphine in Chinese Opium, the
following data have been obligingly furnished to us by Mr. T. W.
Sheppai'd, F.C.S., Opium Examiner to the Benares Opium Agency, of
analyses made by himself from samples of the drug procured in China
by Sir R. Alcock :— Szechuen opium, 2'2; Kweichow, 2 5 ; Yunnan, 41 ;
Kansu, 5"1 per cent. Mr. S. informs us that Dr. Eatwell obtained in
1852 from Szechuen opium 3 3, and from Kweichow opium 61' i)er
cent. — the opium in all instances being reckoned as dry. The samples
examined by Mr. S. contained 86 to 95 per cent of dry opium,
and yielded (undried) 36 to 53 per cent, of extract soluble in cold
water. The proportion of morphine in the sample of Chinese opium
analysed by J)r. Jamieson (p. 55) was nearly 7'2 per cent, calculated on
the dry drug.
Psei(domorphi)ie — occurs only in very small quantities. Hesse
found it in some sorts of opium to the extent of 0 02 per cent, — in
others still less.
Codeine — has been found in Smyrna, French and Indian opium,
but only to the extent of + to f per cent. T. and H. Smith give the
proportion in Turkey opium as 0 3 per cent.*
Thehaine — which has likewise been obtained from French opium,
amounts in Turkey opium according to Merck to about 1 per cent. In
the latter sort T. and H. Smith found only about 8'15 per cent., but of
Papaverine — in the same drug, 1 per cent.
Narcotine — exists in opium in widely different proportions and
often in considerable abundance. Thus Schindler obtained in 1834
from a Smyrna opium yielding 10"30 per cent, of morphine, 1"30 per
cent, of narcotine. Biltz (1831) analysed an oriental opium which
afforded 9'25 per cent, of morphine and 7'50 of narcotine. Reveil
(1860) obtained from Persian opium not rich in morphine, from half as
much to twice as much narcotine as morphine. The utmost of nai"co-
tinc was 9"90 per cent. We have found in German opium of undubit-
able purity^ 10"9 per cent, of narcotine.
East Indian opium was found by Eatwell (1850) always to afford
more narcotine than morphine,^ — frequently twice as much. The sample
from Khandesh referred to on the opposite page, afforded us 7"7 per
cent, of pure narcotine.
French opium collected from the Pavot ceillet sometimes affords
neither narcotine, thebaine, nor narceine.*'
1 The actual specimen is in the Kew
Museum.
- Pharm Journ. v. (1875) 84.5.
This sample, the richest of all in mor-
phine, is noted as of "2?z(Z quality.'"
^ Pharm. Journ. vii. (1866) 183.
^ Collected in 1829 by Biltz and oblig-
ingly placed in 1867 at my disposal by his
son.— F. A. F.
« The statement of Biltz (1831) that an
opium collected by himself from popi>ies
grown in 1829 at Erfurt aflforded 33 per
OPIUM.
63
Narceine — Of this substance Couerbe found in opium 0"1 per cent. ;
T. and H. Smith 0-02 and Schindler 0-71.
Gryptopine — exists in opium in very small proportion. T. and H.
Smith state that since the alkaloid first came under their notice, they
have collected of it altogether about 5 ounces in the form of hydro-
chlorate, and this small quantity in operating on many thousands of
pounds of opium. But they by no moans assert that the whole of the
cryptopine was obtained.
Rhoeadine — is also found only in exceedingly minute quantity.
Mcconic Acid — If the average amount of morphine in opium be
estimated at 15 per cent., and the alkaloid be supposed to exist as a
tribasic meconate, it would require for saturation 3'4 per cent, of
meconic acid. Wittstein obtained rather more than 3 per cent., T. and
H. Smith 4 per cent., and Decharmes 4'33. Opium produced in Vermont
yielded, according to Proctor (1870) 5-25 per cent, of meconic acid.
The quantity of acid required to unite with the other bases assuming
them to exist as salts can be but extremely small.
Estimation of Morphine in Opium — The practical valuation of
opium turns in the first instance upon the estimation of the water pre-
sent in the drug, and in the second upon the proportion which the
latter contains of morphine.^
The first question is determined by exposing a known quantity of
the drug divided into small slices or fragments to the heat of a water-
l)ath until it cease to lose weight.
For the estimation of the morphine many processes have been
devised, but none is perfectly satisfactory.- That which we recommend
is thus performed : — Take of opium previously dried at 100° C, as above
stated, and powdered, 10 grammes ; shake it with 100 grammes alcohol
0 950 sp. gr., and filter after a day or two. The weight of the liquid
sliould be made equal to 100 grammes. Add to it 50 grammes of ether
and 2 grammes of ammonia water 0"960 sp. gr. ; collect the crystals of
opium which separate slowly, after a day or two, dry them at 100°C.,
and weigh them. — On applying this method to Indian opium, we were
l)ut little satisfied with it.
Commerce — By official statistics it appears that the quantity of
opium imported into the United Kingdom in 1872 was 356,2111b.,
valued at £361,503. The imports from Asiatic and European Turkey'
are stated in the same tables thus : —
1868 1870 1873 1874
317,1331b. 276,6911b. 32.5,5721b. 514,0001b.
It is thus evident that the drug used in Great Britain is chiefl}^
Turkish. The import of opium from Persia has been very irregular.
In 1871, 21,894 ft), are reported as received from that country ; in
1872, none.
cent, of narcotine is contrary to the ex-
perience of all other chemist.?. The same
must be said of Mulder's assertion respect-
ing an opium giving 6 to 13 \>ev cent, of
narceine.
1 In selecting a sample for analysis, care
should be taken that it fairly represents
the bulk of the drug. We prefer to take
a little piece from each of several lumps,
mix them in a mortar, and weigh from the
mixed sample the required quantity.
^ See also Proctor, Pharm. Journ. vii.
(1876) 244, and Yearbook of Pharm. 1877.
528.
64
CRUCIFERiE.
Except that a little Malwa opium bas occasionally been imported,
it may be asserted the opium of India is entirely unknown in the
English market, and that none of it is to be found even in London
in the warehouse of any druggist.
As to other countries, we may point out that in 1876 the import of
opium (prepared) into the colony of Victoria was valued at £104,557.
Uses — Opium possesses sedative powers which are universally
known. In the words of Pereira, it is the most important and valuable
medicine of the whole Materia Medica ; and we may add, the source
by its judicious employment of more happiness and by its abuse of
more misery ^ than any other drug employed by mankind.
Adulteration — The manifold falsifications of opium have been
already noticed, and the method by which its more important alkaloid
may be estimated has been pointed out. Moreover as already stated,
neither tannic acid nor starch ever occur in genuine opium ; and the
proportion of ash left upon the incineration of a good opium does not
exceed 4 to 8 per cent, of the dried drug. Another criterion is afforded
by the amount soluble in cold water which ought to exceed 55 per cent,
reckoned on dry opium. Finally, if we are correct, the gum contained
in pure opium is distinct from gum arable, being precipitable by neutral
acetate of lead. If we exhaust with water opium falsified with gum
arable, the mucilage peculiar to opium will be precipitated by neutral
acetate of lead, the liquid separated from the precipitate will still con-
tain the gum arable which may be thrown down by alcohol. If gum
is present to some extent, an abundant precipitate is produced.
CRUCIFER^.
SEMEN SINAPIS NIGR^.
Black, Brown or Red Mustard; F. Moutarde voire ou grise; G.Schwarzer
Senf.
Botanical Origin — Brassica nigra Koch (Sinapis nigra L.).
Black Mustard is found wild over the whole of Europe excepting
the extreme north. It also occurs in Northern Africa, Asia Minor,
Mesopotamia, the Caucasian region, Western India, as well as in
Southern Siberia and China. By cultivation, which is conducted on a
large scale in many countries (as Alsace, Bohemia, Holland, England
and Italy), it has doubtless been diffused through regions where it did
not anciently exist. It has now become naturalized both in North
and South America.
History — Mustard was well known to the ancients. Theophrastus
mentions it as NctTri;, — Dioscorides as NaTrv or 'Llvrjin. Pliny notices
three kinds which have been referred by Fee- to Brassica, nigra Koch,
1 See Tingling, J. F. B., The poppy -
plaqiie and England's crime, London, 1876
(192 p.) ; Turner, F. S. (Secretary of the
Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression
of the Opium Trade), BritLsh Opium Policy
and its results to India and China. Lon-
don, 1876 (308 pages) ; Sir Edw. Fry,
Enyland, China, and Opium, 1878 (61 p.).
^ Botanique et Mati^re M6d. de Pline, ii,
(1833) 446.
SEMEN SINAPIS NIGM.
65
B. alha Hook. f. et Th., and to a South European species, Dlplotaxis
eruconhs DC. (Sinajjis erucoides L.). The use of mustard seems up to
this period to have been more medicinal than dietetic. But from an
edict of Diocletian, A.U. 301 ^ in which it is mentioned along with
alimentaiy substances, we must suppose it was then regarded as a con-
diment at least in the eastern pai-ts of the Roman Empire.
In Europe during the middle ages mustard was a valued accom-
paniment to food, especially to the salted meat which constituted a large
])ortion of the diet of our ancestors during the winter.- In the Welsh
" Meddygon Myddvai," of the 13th century, a paragraph is devoted to
the " Virtues of Mustard." In household accounts of the 13th and
1-ith centuries, mustard xmder the name of Senapium is of constant
occurrence.
Mustard was then cultivated in England, but not as it would seem
very extensively. The price of the seed between A.D. 1285 and 1395
varied from Is. Sd. to 6s. 8d. per quarter, but in 1347 and 1376 it was
as high as 15s. and 16.s.'' In the accounts of the abbey of St. Germain-
des-Pres in Paris, commencing A.D. 800, mustard is specifically men-
tioned as a regular part of the revenue of the convent lands.'*
The essential oil of mustard was, apparently, noticed about the year
KiGO by Nicolas Le Febvre (see in the article Had. Iuulae\ more dis-
tinctly in 1732 by Boerhaave. Its acridit}' and high specific gravit}'
were pointed out by Murray.* Thibierge in 1819 observed that sulphur
was one of the constituents of the oil, and Guibourf stated that it is
not pre-existing in the seed.
Production — Mustard is grown in England only on the richest
alluvial soils, and chiefly in the counties of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
Very good seed is produced in Holland.
Description — The pod of Brassica « igra is smooth, erect, and closely
pressed against the axis of the long slender raceme. It has a strong
nerve on each of its two valves and contains in each cell from 4 to 6
spherical or slightly oval seeds. The seeds are about of an inch in
diameter and of a grain in weight ; they are of a dark reddish-brown.
The sui'face is reticulated with minute pits, and often more or less
covered with a whitish pellicle which gives to some seeds a grey colour."
The testa which is thin, brittle and translucent encloses an exalbumi-
nous embryo having two short cotyledons folded together longitudinally
and forming a sort of trough in which the radicle lies bent up. The
embryo thus coiled into a ball completely fills the testa; the outer
cotyledon is thicker than the inner, which viewed in transverse section
seems to hold the radicle as a pair of forceps. The seeds when pul-
^ Mommsen inBerichtederscichs. Gesidhch.
(ler Wis.mischaften zu Leipzig, 1851. 1 — 80.
^Enclosed pasture land in England was
rare, and there was but scanty jsrovision
for preserving stock through the winter,
root crops being unknown. Hence in
November there was a general slauglitering
of sheep and oxen, the flesh of which was
salted for winter use. — See also Pliarm.
Journ. viii. (1876, April 27) 852.
^Rogers, Hisi. of Agriculture and Prices
in England, i. (186(5) 223.
Guerard, Pob/ptiqiie de VAhhi Irminon,
Paris, i. (1844) 715.
^ Apparatus medicaminum, ii. (1794) 399.
^ Journ. de Pharm. xvii. (1831) 360.
The grey colour of the seed, which is
attributed to rain during the ripening, is
very detrimental to its value. The great
aim of the grower is to produce seed of a
bright reddish brown, with no grey seed
intermixed.
G6
CRUCIFER^.
verized have a greenish yellow hue. Masticated they have for an
instant a bitterish taste which however quickly becomes pungent.
When triturated with water they afford a yellowish emulsion emitting
a pungent acrid vapour which affects the eyes, and has a strong acid
reaction. The seeds powdered dry have no such pungency. When the
seeds are triturated with solution of potash, the pungent odour is not
evolved; nor when they are boiled in water. Neither is the acridity
developed on triturating them with alcohol, dilute mineral acids, or
solution of tannin, or even with water when they have been kept in
powder for a long time.
Microscopic Structure— The whitish pellicle already mentioned,
which covers the seed, is made up of hexagonal tabular cells. The
epidermis consists of one row of densely packed brown cells, radiall}'
elongated and having strong lateral and inner walls. Their outer walls
on the other hand are thin and not coloured; they are not clearly
obvious when seen under oil, but swell up very considerably in pre-
sence of water, emitting mucilage.^ Seeds immersed in water become
therefore covered with a glossy envelope, levelling down the superficial
inequalities, so that the wet seed appears smooth. The tissue of the
cotyledons exhibits large drops of fatty oil and gi\anules of albumin.
Chemical Composition — By distilling brown mustard with water,
the seed having been previously macerated, the pungent principle.
Essential Oil of Mustard, is obtained.
The oil, which has the composition SCN(C^H°), (allyl isosulphocy-
anate), boils at 148° C. ; it has a sp. gr. of r017, no rotatory power,
and is soluble without coloration or turbidity in three times its weight
or more of cold strong sulphuric acid. To this oil is due the pungent
.smell and taste of mustard and its inflammatory action on the skin.
As already pointed out, mustard oil is not present in the dry seeds, but
is produced only after they have been comminuted and mixed with
water, the temperature of which should not exceed 50° C.
The remarkable reaction which gives rise to the formation of mustard
oil was explained by Will and Korner in 1863. They obtained from
mustard a crystallizable substance, then termed My ronate of potassium,
now called Sinigrin, It is to be regarded, according to the admirable
investigations of these chemists, as a compound of
Isosulphocyanate of allyl or mustard oil . ff NS
Bisulphate of potassium H KS 0^
Sugar (dextroglucose) IF 0"
so that the formula W KNS^ O^"
is that of sinigrin. It does in fact split into the above-mentioned three
substances when dissolved in water and brought into contact with
My rosin.
This albuminous body discovered by Bussy in 1839, but the com-
position of which has not been made out, likewise undergoes a certain
decomposition under these circumstances. Sinigrin may likewise be
decomposed by alkalis and, according to Ludwig and Lange, by silver
^ Most minutely described and figured suchunqen mif deni Gebieie des PJlanzen-
by F. von Hohnel, in Haberlandt's Unter- hams, i. (Vienna, 1875) 171 — 202.
SEMEN SINAPIS NIGR^.
67
nitrate. These chemists obtained sinigrin from the seeds in the pro-
portion of ()*5 per cent. ; Will and Koi-ner got O o to 0'6 per cent. The
extraction of the substance is therefore attended with great loss, as the
minimum yield of volatile oil, 0'42 per cent, indicates 2"36 of potassium
myronate.
The aqueous solution of myrosin coagulates at 60° C. and then
becomes inactive : hence mustard seed which has been heated to 100° C.
or has been roasted yields no volatile oil, nor does it yield any if
powdered and introduced at once into boiling water. The proportion of
myrosin in mustard has not been exactly determined. The total amount
of nitrogen in the seed is 2'9 per cent. (Hoffmann) which would corre-
spond to 18 per cent, of myrosin, supposing the proportion of nitrogen
in that substance to be the same as in albumin, and the total quantity
of nitrogen to belong to it. Sometimes black mustard contains so little
of it, that an emulsion of white mustard requires to be added in order
to develop all the volatile oil it is capable of yielding.
An emulsion of mustard or a solution of pure sinigrin brought into
contact with myrosin, frequently deposits sulphur by decomposition of
tlie allyl sulphocyanide, hence crude oil of mustard sometimes contains
a considerable proportion (even half) of Allyl cyanide, C^H°N, distin-
guished by its lower sp. gr. (0'839) and lower boiling point (118° C).
The seeds, roots, or herbaceous part of many other plants of the order
Ci'uciferce yield a volatile oil composed in part of mustard oil and in part
of allyl sulphide CH^S = psxr-, \ S, which latter is likewise obtainable
from the bulbs of garlic. Many C'r u ciferfe afford from their roots or seeds
chiefly or solely oil of mustard, and from their leaves oil of garlic. As
to other plants, the roots of Reseda lutect L. and It. luteola L. have
been shown by Volhaixl (1871) to afford oil of mustard.^ The strong-
smell given off by the crushed seeds or roots of several Mimoseaj, as for
instance, Alhlzzia lopJiantha Benth. {Acacia Willd.) is perhaps due to
some allied compound.
The artificial prepai'ation of mustard oil was discovered in 1855 by
Zinin, and at the same time also by Berthelot and De Luca. It may be
obtained in decomposing bromide of allyl by means of sulphocyanate
of ammonium : —
The liquid C^'ffSCN, boiling at 161', is sulphocyanate of allyl ; if
it is gently warmed with a little alcoholic potash, and then acidulated,
the red coloration of ferric sulphocyanate is produced on addition of
perchloride of iron, but by submitting the sulphocyanate of allyl to
distillation it is at once transformed in the isosulphocyanate, i.e. in
mustard oil ; the latter is not coloured by ferric salts, but it would
appear that in the cold emulsion of mustard, even at 0°, a little
sulphocyanate makes also its appearance.
Mustard submitted to pressure affords about 23 per cent.° of a mild-
tasting, inodorous, non-di-ying oil, solidifying when cooled to - 17'5° C,
and consisting of the glycerin compounds of stearic, oleic and Erucic
or Brassic Acid. The last-named acid, C"ff'0^, occurs also in the fixed
^ See also Radix Armoraciae, p. 68. per cent, by means of boiling ether. — •
- I liave obtained as much as 33 '8 F. A. P.
C^ffBr . SCN(Nff) = NffBr . OT'SCN.
68
CRUCIFERiE.
oil of white mustai'd and of rape, and is homologous with oleic acid.
Darby (1849) has pointed out the existence of another body, Hinapoleic
Acid, C'^ff^O', which occurs in the fixed oil of both black and white
mustard. Goldschmiedt, in 1874<, ascertained the presence also of
Beheiiic Acid, C"H**0" in black mustard. Sinigrin being not altered
by the extraction of the fatty oil, either by pressure or by means
of bisulphide of carbon, the powdered seed, deprived of fatty oil, still
yields the whole amount of the irritating " essential " oil. This
important fact has been ingeniously used by Rigollot^ for the pre-
paration of his mustard paper.
Mustard seed when ripe is devoid of starch ; the mucilage which its
epidermis affords amounts to 19 per cent, of the seed (Hoffmann). The
ash-constituents amounting to i per cent, consist chiefly of the phos-
phates of calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
Uses — Black mustard is employed in the form of poultice as a power-
ful external stimulant ; but it is rarel}^ used in its pure state, as the
Flour of Mustard prepared for the table, which contains in addition
white mustard, answers perfectly well and is at hand in every house.-
The essential oil of mustard dissolved in spirit of wine is occasional!}'
prescribed as a liniment.
Substitute — Brassica jvncm Hook. f. et Th. (Sinapis juncea L.) is
extensively cultivated throughout India(where B. vigra is i-arely grown),
Central Africa, and generally in warm countries where it replaces B.
nigra and is applied to the same uses. Its seeds constitute a portion of
the mustard of Europe, as we may infer from the fact that British India
exported in the year 1871-72, of " Mustard seed," 1418 tons, of which
790 tons were shipped to the United Kingdom, and 516 tons to France.'*
B. juncea is largely grown in the south of Russia and in the steppes
noi'th-east of the Caspian where it appears to flourish particularly well
in the saline soil. At Sarepta in the Government of Saratov, an esta-
blishment has existed since the beginning of the present century where
this sort of mustard is prepared for use to the extent of 800 tons of seed
annually. The .seeds make a fine yellow powder employed both for
culinary and medicinal purposes. By pressure they yield more than
20 i)er cent, of fixed oil which is used in Russia like the best olive oil.
The seeds closely resemble those of B. nigra and afford when distilled
the same essential oil ; it is largely made at Kiew.
SEMEN SINAPIS ALB.^:.
White Mustard ; F. Moutarde blanche ou Anglaise ; G. Weisser Sen/.
Botanical Origin — Brassica alba Hook. f. et Tb. (Sinapis alba L.)
This plant appears to belong to the more southern countries of Europe
and Western Asia. According to Chinese authors'* it was introduced
1 Jotirn. (If Pharm. vi. (1867) 269.
2 The best Flour of Mitstnrd such as is
made by the large manufacturers, contains
nothing butbrownand white mustard seeds.
But the lower and cheaper qualities made by
the same firms contain flour, turmeric, and
capsicum. Unmixed flour of Black Mus-
tard is however kept for those who care to
purchase it.
Annual Statement of the Trade and Kavi-
rjation of British India, Calcutta, 1872. 62.
Bretschneider, Study of Chinese Botan.
Works, 1870. 17.
SEMEN SINAPIS ALB^.
69
into C'hiiui from tlie latter region. Its cultivation in England is of
recent introduction, but is rapidly extending/ The plant is not
uncommon as a Aveed on cultivated land.
History — ^White mustard was used in former times indiscriminately
with the brown. In the materia medica of the London Pharmacoioceia
of 1720 the two sorts are separately prescribed. The important chemical
distinction between them was first made known in 1831 by Boutron-
Charlard and Robiquet.^
Production — White mustard is grown as an agricultural crop in
Essex and Cambridgeshire.
Description — Brassica alba differs from B. nigra in having the pods
bristly and spreading. They are about an inch long, half the length
being occupied by a fiat veiny beak. Each pod contains 4 to G yellowish
seeds about -^.j of an inch in diameter and yV of a grain in weight. The
brittle, nearly transparent and colourless testa encloses an embryo of a
bright pure yellow and of the same structure as that of black mustard.
The surface of the testa is likewise pitted in a reticulate manner, but so
finely that it appears smooth except under a high magnifying power.
AVhen triturated with water the seeds form a yellowish emulsion of
very pungent taste, but it is inodorous and does not under any circum-
stances yield a volatile oil. The powdered seeds made into a paste
with cold water act as a highly stimulating cataplasm. The entire seeds
yield to cold water an abundance of mucilage.
Microscopic Structure — The epidermal cells of white mustard
afford a good illustration of a mucilage-yielding layer such as is met
with, under many variations, in the seeds of numerous plants. The
cuticle consists of large vaulted cells, exhibiting veiy regular hexagonal
outlines when cut across.^ The inner layer of the epideimis is made up
of thin- walled cells, which when moistened swell and give off the muci-
lage. In the dry state or seen under oil, the outlines of the single cells
of this layer are not distinguishable. The tissue of the cotyledons is
loaded with drops of fatty oil and with granular albuminoid matter ;
starch wdiich is present in the seed while young, is altogether absent
when the latter reaches maturity.
Chemical Composition — White mustard deprived of fatty oil
yields to boiling alcohol colourless crystals of Sinalbin, an indifferent
substance, readily soluble in cold water but sparingly in cold alcohol.
From the able investigations of Will (1870) it follows, that it is to be
regarded as composed of three bodies, namely :
Sidphocyanate of Acrinyl N S O
Sulphate of Sinapine N S 0"
Sugar C W 0'
so that the formula C^" N"^ S" O^"
represents according to Will the composition of sinalbin. It is actually
resolved into these three substances when placed at ordinary tempera-
^ Morton's C'ycloped. of Agriculture, ii.
(1855) 440.
- Jourii. de Pharm. xvii. (1831) 279.
^ An interesting object for the polarizing
microscope.
70
CRUCIFER^.
tares, in contact with water and Myrosin, the latter of which is a con-
stituent of white mustard as well as of brown (p. G6). The liquid
becomes turbid, the fii'st of the above-named substances separates
(together with coagulated albumin) as an oily liquid, not soluble in
water, but dissolving in alcohol or ether. This Sidphocyanate of
Acrinyl is the rubefacient and vesicating principle of white mustard.
It does not pre-exist, as shown by Will, in the seed, and cannot be
obtained by distillation. By treating it with a salt of silver. Will
obtained crystals of cyanide of acrinyl, C^'TFNO : by warming it (or
sinalbin itself, or an alcoholic extract of the seed) with caustic potash,
sulphocyanide of potassium is produced. The presence of the latter
may be indicated by adding a drop of perchloride of iron, when a blood-
red coloration will be produced.^
Svdpltate of S'majyine imparts to the emulsion of white mustard, in
which it is formed, an acid reaction. Sinapiue is itself an alkaloid,
which has not yet been isolated, as it is very liable to change. Thus its
solution on addition of a ti'ace of alkali immediately assumes a bright
yellow colour indicating decomposition, and a similar colour is produced
in an aqueous extract of the seed.
The above statements show, that the chemical properties of sinalbin
and its derivatives correspond closely with those of sinigrin (p. 66) and
the substances which make their appearance in an emulsion of black
mustard.
The other constituents of white mustard seed are nearly the same
as those of black. The fat oil appears to yield in addition to the acids
mentioned at p. 67, Benic or Behenic Acid, C"H'"0'. White mustard
is said to be richer than black in myrosin, so that, as explained in the
previous article, the pungency of the latter may be often increased by
an addition of white mustard. By burning white mustard dried at
100° C, with soda-lime, we obtained from -i ^O to 4'30 per cent, of
nitrogen, answering to about 28 per cent, of protein substances.^ The
fixed oil of the seed amounts to 22 per cent. The mucilage as yielded
by the epidermis is precipitable by alcohol, neutral lead acetate, or
ferric chloride, and is soluble in water after diying.
Erucin and Siiia-pic Acid, mentioned by Simon (1838)' as peculiar
constituents of white mustard, are altogether doubtful, yet may deserve
further investigation. The sinapic acid of Von Babo and Hirschbrunn'*
(1852) is a product of the decomposition of sinapine.
Uses — White Mustard seed reduced to powder and made into a
paste with cold water act as a powerful stimulant when applied to the
skin, notwithstanding that such paste is entirely wanting in essential
oil. But for sinapisms they are actually used only in the foim of the
Flour of Mustard which is prepared for the table and which contains
also Bi'own Mustard seed.
1 The red compound thus formed with
sulpliocyanide is readily sohible in ether,
yet in the case of white mustard we find it
not to be so.
- Experiments j^erformed by Mr. Weppeu
in my laboratoi-y, 1869.— F. A. F.
'^Qsraelia, Chemistry, xiv. (1860) 521 and
529.
•*Ibid. 521.
EADIX ARMORACI^.
71
RADIX ARMORACI^.
Horse-radish ; F. Raifort {i.e. racine forte), Cran de Bretagne ;
G. Meerrettig.
Botanical Origin — CocJdearia Armoracia L., a common perennial
with a stout tapering root, large coarse oblong leaves with long stalks,
and erect flowering racemes 2 to 3 feet high. It is indigenous to the
eastern parts of Europe, from the Caspian through Russia and Poland
to Finland. In Britain and in other parts of Europe from Sicily to the
polar circle, it occurs cultivated or semi-wild; in the opinion of Schii-
beler^ it is not truly indigenous to Norway.
History — The vernacular name Armon is stated by Pliny' to be
used in the Pontic regions to desig-nate the Armoracia of the Romans,
the Wild Radish {pu(pavh ay pla) of the Greeks, a plant which cannot
be positively identified with that under notice.
Horse-radish is called in the Russian language CJo'en, in Lithuanian
Krenai, in lUyrian Kren, a name which has passed into several German
dialects, and as Cran ov Granson into French.
From these and similar facts, De Candolle^ has di'awn the con-
clusion that the propagation of the plant has travelled from Eastern to
Western Europe.
Both the root and leaves of horse-radish were used as a medicine
and also eaten with food in Germany and Denmark during the middle
ages.'* But the use of the former was not common in England until a
much later period. The plant is mentioned in the Meddygon Myddfai
and was known in England as Red-cole in the time of Turner, 1568,
but is not quoted by him'* as used in food, nor is it noticed by Boorde,"
1542, in his chapter on edible roots. Gerarde^ at the end of the 16th
century remarks that horse-radish — " is commonly used among the
Germans for sauce to eat fish with, and such like meats, as we do
mustard." Half a century later the taste for horse-radish had begun to
prevail in England. Coles ^ (1657) states that the root sliced thin and
mixed with vinegar is eaten as a sauce with meat as among the
Germans. That the use of horse-radish in France had the same origin
is proved by its old French name Moutarde des AUemands.
The root to which certain medicinal properties had always been
assigned, was included in the materia medica of the London Pharma-
copoeias of the last century under the name of Ra/pliamus rusticanus.
Description — The root which in good ground often attains a length
of 3 feet and nearly an inch in diameter, is enlarged in its upper part
into a crown, usually dividing into a few short branches each sur-
mounted by a tuft of leaves, and anuulated by the scars of fallen
foliage ; below the crown it tapers slightly, and then for some distance is
Pflanzenwelt Norwegens (1873) 296.
- Lib. xix. c. 26 (Littre's translation).
^ Giographie Botanique, ii. (1855) 655.
* Meyer, Oeschichte der Botanik, iii.
(1856) 531 ; also Scliubeler I.e. ; PfeifFer,
Buch der Natur von Konrad von Megenherg.
Stuttgart, 1861. 418.
''Herhall, part 2. (1568) 111.
« Dyetary of llelth, Early English Text
Society, 1870. 278.
Herball, edited by Johnson, 1636, 240.
^ Adam in Eden, or Ncdure's Paradise,
Lond. 1657. chap. 256.
72
CRUCIFER^.
often almost cylindrical, throwing oft" here and there filiform and long
slender cylindrical roots, and finally dividing into two or three branches.
The root is of a light yellowish brown ; internally it is fleshy and
perfectly white, and has a short non-fibrous fracture. Before it is
broken it is inodorous, but when comminuted it immediately exhales
its characteristic pungent smell. Its well-known pungent taste is not
lost in the root carefully dried and not kept too long.
A transverse section of the fresh root displays a large central
column with a radiate and concentric arrangement of its tissues, which
are separated by a small greyish circle from the bark, whose breadth is
from ^ to 2 lines. In the root branches there is neither a well-defined
liber nor a true pith. The short leaf-bearing branches include a large
pith surrounded by a circle of woody bundles. The bark adheres
strongly to the central portion, in which zones of annual growth are
easily perceptible, at least in older specimens.
Microscopic Structure — The corky layer is made up of small
tabular cells as usual in suberous coats. In the succeeding zone of
the middle bark, thick- walled yellow cells are scattered through the
parenchyme, chiefly at the boundary line of the corky layer. In the
root the cellular envelope is not strikingly separated from the liber,
whilst in its leafy branches this separation is well marked by wedge-
shaped liber bundles, which are accompanied by a group of the yellow
longitudinally-elongated stone cells. The woody bundles contain a few
short yellow vessels, accompanied by bundles of prosenchymatous, not
properly woody cells. The centre, in the root, shows these woody
bundles to be separated by the medullary parenchyma ; in the branches
the central column consists of an uniform pith without woody bundles,
the latter forming a circle close to the cambium. The parenchyma
of the whole root collected in spring is loaded with small starch
gianules.
Chemical Composition — Among the constituents of horse-radish
root (the chemical history of which is however far from perfect) the
volatile oil is the most interesting. The fresh root submitted to dis-
tillation with water in a glass retort, yields about 1 per mille of oil
which is identical with that of Black Mustard as proved in 1843 by
Hubatka. He combined it with aiimionia and obtained crystals of
thiosinammine, the composition of which agreed with the thiosinaramine
from mustard oil.
An alcoholic extract of the root is devoid of the odour of the oil,
but this is quickly evolved on addition of an emulsion of White Mustard.
The essential oil does not therefore pre-exist, but only sinigrin
(myronate of potassium) and an albuminoid matter (myrosin) b}' whose
mutual reaction in the presence of water it is formed (p. 66). This
process does not go on in the growing root, perhaps because the two
principles in question are not contained in the same cells, or else exist
together in some condition that does not allow of their acting on each
other, — a state of things analogous to that occurring in the leaves of
Laurocerasus.
By exhausting the root with water either cold or hot, the sinigrin
is decomposed and a considerable proportion of bisulphate is found in
the concentrated decoction. Alcohol removes from the root some fatty
CORTEX CANELLiE ALB.E.
73
matter and sugar (Wiiickler 184<9). Salts of iron do not alter thin
slices of it, tannic matters being absent. The presence of rnyrosin,
which at present has been inferred rather than proved, ought to be
further investigated. The root dried at 100° afforded 11"15 per cent, of
ash to Mutschler (1878).
Uses — An infusion or a distilled spirit of horse-radish is reputed
stimulant, diaphoretic, and diuretic, but is not often employed.
Substitute — In India the root of Moringa pterygosperma Gartn. is
considered a substitute for horse-radish. It yields by distillation an
essential oil of disgusting odour which Broughton, who obtained it in
minute quantity, has assured us is not identical with that of mustard or
of garlic.
CANELLACE^.
CORTEX CANELL^ ALB^E.
Ccmella Bark, Canella Alha Bark; F. Canelle blanche ;
G. Cavdla-Rinde.
Botanical Origin — Canella alha Murray/ a tree, 20 to 30 or even
50 feet in height, found in the south of Florida, the Bahama Islands
(whence alone its bark is exported), Cuba, Jamaica, Ste. Broix, Guada-
loupe, Martinique, Barbadoes and Trinidad.
History — The drug was first mentioned in 1605 by Clusius," who
remarks that it had been then newly brought to Europe and had received
the name of Canella alha (White Cinnamon). It was afterwards known
as Costiis Gorticosus, Costm dalcis, Cassia alha, Cassia lignea Jamai-
censis or Jamaica Winter's Ba)'k. Dale" writing in 1693 notices it as not
unfrequently sold for Wintei''s Bark. Pomet* (1694) describes it as
synonymous with Winter's Bark, and observes that it is common,
yet but little employed.
The drug is mentioned by most subsequent writers, some of whom
like Pomet probably confounded it with the bark of C innarnodendron
(p. 19). It is usually described as produced in Jamaica or Guadaloupe,
from which islands no Canella alba is now exported. On the other
hand. New Providence, one of the Bahamas whence the Canella alba of
the present day is shipped, is not named. Nor do we find any allusion
to the drug in the records of the Company (1630-50) which was formed
for the colonization of New Providence and the other islands of the
group, though their staple productions are frequently enumerated.'^
Canella alha Murr. was described and figured by Sloane (1707) and
still better by Patrick Brown in 1789, and Olaf Swartz in 179 1.«
Collection — In the Bahamas, where the drug is known as White
Wood Bark or Cinnamon Bark, it is collected thus : — preparatory to
1 Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Medic.
Plants, part 6 (1876).
^Exotica, 78.
^ Fharmacoloijia, 432.
^ Uht. des Di'og. part i. 130.
^ Calendar o/StatePapers, Colonial Series,
1584—1660, Lond. 1860.
^0. Swartz, Trans, of the Linnean Soc,
i. 96. See also Bonnet, Monographic des
CanelUes, 1876.
74
CANELLACE^.
being stripped from the wood, the bark is gently beaten with a stick,
which removes the suberous layer. By a further beating, the remain-
ing bark is separated, and having been peeled off and dried, is exported
without further preparation/
Description — Canella bark occurs in the form of quills, more or
less crooked and irregular, or in channelled pieces from 2 or 3 up to 6,
8, or more inches in length, | an inch to 1 or 2 inches in width, and a
line or two in thickness. The suberous layer which here and there has
escaped removal is silvery grey, and dotted with minute lichens.
Commonly, the external surface consists of inner cellular layers
(mesopJilceum) of a bright buff, or light orange-brown tint, often a
little wrinkled transversely, and dotted (but not always) with round
scars. The inner surface is whitish or cinnamon-coloured, either
smooth or with slight longitudinal striae. Some parcels of canella show
the bark much bruised and longitudinally fissured by the above-
mentioned process of beating. The bark breaks transversely with a
short granular fi'acture, which distinctly shows the three, or in uncoated
specimens the two, cortical layers, that of the liber being the largest,
and projecting by undulated rays or bundles into the middle layer,
which presents numerous large and unevenly scattered oil-cells of a
yellow colour.
Canella has an agreeable cinnamon-like odour, and a bitter, pungent
acrid taste.^ Even the corky coat is somewhat aromatic.
Microscopical Structure — The spongy suberous coat consists of
very numerous layers of large cells with thin walls, showing an
undulated rather than rectangular outline. The next small zone is
constituted of sclerenchymatous cells in a single, double, or triple row,
or forming dense but not very extensive groups. This tissue is some-
times (in unpeeled specimens) a continuous envelope, marking the
boundary between the corky layer and the middle portion of the
cellular layer; but an interruption in this thick-walled tissue often
takes place when portions of it are enveloped and separated by the
suberous layer.
The proper cellular envelope shows a narrow tissue with numerous
very large cells filled with yellow essential oil. The liber forming the
chief portion of the whole bark, exhibits thin prosenchymatous cells,
which on traverse section form small bands of a peculiar horny or
cartilaginous appearance, on which account they have been distin-
guished as horny liber {Homhast of German writers).' The liber-fibres
show reticulated marks due to the peculiar character of the secondary
deposits on their cell walls. The oil-cells in the liber are less numerous
and smaller ; the medullary rays are not very obvious unless on account
of the crystalline tufts of oxalate of calcium deposited in the latter.
This crystalline oxalate retains air obstinately, and has a striking dark
appearance.
^ Information communicated to me by
the Hon. J. C. Lees, Chief-Justice of the
Bahamas, The second beating would seem
to be not always required. — D. H.
- A specimen in Sloane's collection in the
BritishMuseumlabelled "Cortex Winteranus
of the Isles," but under the microscope seen
to be absolutely identical with canella alba,
still retains its proper fragrance after nearly
two centuries. — F. A. F.
'First figured and described by Oude-
maus, — Aanieekeniiigoi oj) het . . . . Ge.deelte
der Pharm. Neerlundica, 1854-56. 467.
SEMEN GYNOCARDI^.
75
Chemical Composition — The most interesting body in canella is
the volatile oil, examined in 1843 under Wohler's direction by Meyer
and Von Reiche, who obtained it in the proportion of 0 94 from 100
parts of bark. They found it to consist of four different oils, the first
being identical with the Eugenol or Eugenic Acid of oil of cloves ; the
second is closely allied to the chief constituent of eajuput oil. The other
oils require further examination.^
The bark, of which we distilled 20 lb., afforded 074! per cent, of oil.
This when distilled with caustic potash in excess was found to be
composed of 2 parts of the acid portion and 1 part of the neutral
hydrocarbon ; the latter has an odour suggesting a mixture of pepper-
mint and cajaput.
Meyer and Von Reiche evaporated the aqueous decoction of canella,
and removed from the bitter extract by alcohol 8 per cent, of mannite,
which they ascertained to be the so-called Canellin described in 1822
by Petroz and Robinet.
The bark yielded the German chemists G per cent, of ash, chiefly
carbonate of calcium. The bitter principle has not yet been isolated.
An aqueous infusion is not blackened by a persalt of iron.
Commerce — Canella alba is collected in the Bahama Islands and
shipped to Europe from Nassau in New Providence, the chief seat of
trade in the group. In 1876 the export of the bark amounted to
125 cwt.
Uses — The bark is an aromatic stimulant, now but seldom em-
ployed. It is used by the West Indian negroes as a condiment.
BIXINE^.
SEMEN GYNOCARDI^.
Ghaidmugra Seed.
Botanical Origin — Gynucardia odorata R. Br. (Chaidmoogra
Roxb., Hydnocarjms Lindl), a large tree^ with a globular fruit of the
size of a shaddock, containing numerous seeds immersed in pulp. It
grows in the forests of the Malayan peninsula and Eastern India as far
north as Assam, extending thence along the base of the Himalaya
westward to Sikkim.
History — The inhabitants of the south-eastern countries of Asia
have long been acquainted with the seeds of certain trees of the tribe
Pangieoi (ord. Bixinece) as a remedy for maladies of the skin. In
China a seed called Ta-fung-tsze is imported from Siam^ where it is
iGmelin, Chemistry, xiv. (1860) 210.
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Medic.
Plants, part. 26 (1877). Also in Christy,
New Commercial Plants, No. 2 (1878).
^ The Commercial Report from II.M.
Consul-General in Siam for the year 1871,
presented to Parliament, Aug. 1872, states
that 48 peculs (64001b.) of LuJcrabow seeds
were exported from Bangkok to China in
1871. Sir Joseph Hooker (Report on tlie
Royal Gardens at Kew, 1877, p. 33) has
been informed by Mr. Pierre, the director
of the Botanic Garden at Saigon, Cochin-
china, that the seeds have proved to derive
from a Hydnocarpus (Gynocardia). — See
also our article Semen Ignatii and Science
Papers, p. 235.
70
BIXINE^.
known as Lukmbo and used in a variety of cutaneous complaints.
The tree affording it, which is figured in the Pun-tasao {circa A.D.
1596) has not been recognised by botanists, but from the structure of
the seed it is obviousl}^ closely related to GynocarcUa}
The properties of G. odorata were known to Roxburgh "wdio,
Latinizing the Indian name of the tree, called it (1814) Chatdmougra
odorata. Of late years the seeds have attracted the notice of Euro-
peans in India, and having been found useful in certain skin diseases,
they have been admitted a place in the Pharmacopoiia of India.
Description — The seeds, 1 to \\ inches long and about half as
much in diameter, are of irregular ovoid form, and more or less angular
or flattened by mutual pressui-e ; they weigh on an average about 35
grains each. The testa is thin (about of an inch), brittle, smooth,
dull grey ; within there is a brown oily kernel, marked with a darker
colour at its basal end. The weight of the kernel is, on an average,
twice that of the testa. The former encloses in its copious, soft
albumen a pair of large, plain, leafy, heart-shaped cotyledons with a
stout radicle. The taste of the kernel is simply oily.
Microscopic Structure — The testa is chiefly formed of cylindrical
thick-walled cells. The albumen exhibits large angular cells containing
fatty oil, masses of albuminous matter and tufted ciystals of calcium
oxalate. Starch is not present.
Chemical Composition — The kernels afforded us by means of
ether 51*5 per cent, of fatty oil, which is almost colourless or some-
what brownish if the seeds are not fresh. Either extracted or
expressed it is of no peculiar taste. The pressed oil concretes at 17° C;
that extracted by ether or bisulphate of carbon requires for solidifica-
tion a lower temperature. The expressed oil is slightly fluorescent,
less so that extracted by means of bisulphide of carbon. If the oil,
either pressed or extracted, is diluted with the bisulphide, and then
concentrated sulphuric or nitric acid is added, no peculiar coloration is
jjroduced.
From the powdered kernels deprived of oil, water removes the
usual constituents, glucose, mucilage and albumin.
Uses — The seeds are said to have been advantageously used as an
alternative tonic in scrofula, skin diseases and rheumatism. They
should be freed from the testa, powdered, and given in the dose of 6
grains gradually increased. Reduced to a paste and mixed with
Simple Ointment, they constitute the Urigaentum, Gynocardica of the
Indian Pharmaco'poiia, which, as well as an expressed oil of the
seeds may be employed externally in herpes, tinea, &;c.^
Substitute — It has been suggested that the seeds of Hydnocarpus
Wightiana Bl., a tree of Western India, and of H. venenata Gartn.,
native of Ceylon, might be tried where those of Gynocardia are not
procurable. The seeds of both species of Hydnocarpus (formerly con-
^ Hanbuiy, Notes on Chinese Mat. Med.
(1862) 2-i.— Science Papers, 244. Dr.
Porter Smith assumes the Chinese drug
to be derived from G. odorata, but as I
have pointed out, the seeds have a much
stronger testa than those of that tree. —
D.H.
- For particulars see Christy's pamphlet
alluded to above, p. 75.
RADIX SENEGJE.
77
founded together as H. inebrians Vahl) afford a fatty oil which the
natives use in cutaneous diseases/
POLYGALE^.
RADIX SENEGA.
Radix Senekce; Senega or Senelu Root; F. Racine de Poly gala de
VIrginie; G. Senegavnirzel.
Botanical Origin — Polygala Senega L., a perennial plant with
slender ascending stems 6 to 12 inches high, and spikes of dull white
Howers resembling in form those of the Common Milkwort of Britain.
It is found in British America as for north as the river Saskatchewan,
and in the United States from New England to Wisconsin, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Vii'ginia and the upper parts of North Carolina, as well as
in Georgia and Texas, not in the Rocky Mountains.
The plant, which frequents rocky open woods and plains, has become
somewhat scarce in the Atlantic states, and as a drug is now chiefly
collected in the west, the plant growing profusely in Iowa and Min-
nesota, west of New York.
History — The employment of this root among the Seneca Indians
as a remedy for the bite of the rattle-snake attracted the notice of
Tennent, a Scotch ph3^sician in Virginia ; and from the good effects he
witnessed he concluded that it might be administered with advantage
in pleurisy and peripneumonia. The result of numerous trials made in
the years 1734- and 1735 proved the utility of the drug in these com-
plaints, and Tennent communicated his observations to the celebrated
Dr. Mead of London in the form of an epistle, afterwards published to-
gether with an engraving of the plant, then called the Seneca Rattle-
snake Rootr Tennent's practice was to administer the root in
powder or as a strong decoction, or more often infused in wine. The
new drug was favourably received in Europe, and its virtues discussed
in numerous theses and dissertations, one written in 1749 being by
Linnneus.^
Description — Senega root is developed at its upper end into a
knotty crown, in old roots as much as an inch in diameter, from which
spring the numerous wiry aerial stems, beset at the base with scaly
rudimentary leaves often of a purplish hue. Below the crown is a
simple tap-root of an inch thick, of contorted or somewhat
spiral form, which usually soon divides into 2 or 3 spreading branches
and smaller filiform rootlets.
The bark is light yellowish-grey, translucent, horny, shrivelled,
knotted and partially annulated. Very frequently a keel-shaped ridge
occurs, running like a shrunken sinew through the principal root; it
has no connexion with the wood, but originates in a one-sided develop-
ment of the liber-tissue. The bark encloses a pure, white woody column
1 Waring, Pharm. of India, 1868. 27. Virginia, &c., Ediiib. 1738.
- Tennent (John), Epistle to Dr. Richard ^ Anwenitates Academicce, ii. 126.
Mead concerning the epidemical diseases of
78
POLYGALEiE.
about as thick as itself. After the root has been macerated in water
the bark is easily peeled off, and the peculiar structure of the wood can
then be studied. The latter immediately below the crown is a cylin-
drical cord, cleft however by numerous, fine, longitudinal fissures.
Lower down these fissures increase in an irregular manner, causing: a
very abnormal development of the wood. Transverse sections of a root
therefore differ greatly, the circular wood}^ portion being either pene-
trated by clefts or wide notches, or one-half or even more is altogether
wanting, the space where wood should exist being in each case filled
up by uniform parenchymatous tissue.
Senega root has a short brittle fracture, a peculiar rancid odour, and
a very acrid and sourish taste. When handled it disperses in irritating-
dust.
Microscopic Structure — The woody part is built up of dotted
vessels surrounded by short porous ligneous cells ; the medullary rays
consist of one or two rows of the usual small cells. There is no pith in
the centre of the root. The clefts and notches are filled up with an
uniform tissue passing into the primary cortical tissue without a distinct
liber ; the large cells of this tissue are spirally striated. In the keel-
shaped rider the proper liber rays may be distinguished from the
medullary rays. The former are made up of a soft tissue, hence the
cortical part of the root breaks short together with the wood.
Neither starch granules nor crystals of oxalate of calcium are present
in this root ; the chief contents of its tissue are albuminoid granules
and drops of fixtty oil.
Chemical Composition — The substance to which the drug owes
its irritating taste was distinguished by the name of Senegin by Gehlen
as early as 1804, and is probably the same as the Polygalic Acid of
Quevenne (1836) and of Procter (1859). Christophsohn (1874) ex-
tracted it by means of boiling water, evaporated the solution and
exhausted the residue with boiling alcohol (0'853 sp. gr.). The liquid
after a day or two, deposits the crude senegin, which is to be washed
with alcohol (O SIS sp. gr.), and again dissolved in water, from which it
is precipitated by a large excess of hydrate of baryum. The baiytic
compound, dissolved in water, is decomposed by carbonic acid, by which
carbonate of baryum is separated, senegin remaining in solution. It is
lastly to be precipitated by alcohol. It is amorphous, insoluble in ether
and in cold water ; it forms with boiling water a frothing solution.
Like saponin, to which it is very closely allied, it excites violent
sneezing.
Dilute inorganic acids added to a warm solution of senegin throw
down a flocculent jelly of Sapogenin, the liquid retaining in solution
uncrystallizable sugar. Alkalis give rise to the same decomposition ;
but it is difficult to split up the senegin completely, and hence the for-
mulas given for this process are doubtful. Even the formula of senegin
itself is not definitely settled. According to Christophsohn, the root
yields about 2 per cent, of this substance ; according to earlier authori-
ties, who doubtless had it less pure, a much larger proportion. From
Schneider's investigations (1875) it would appear that the rootlets are
richest in senegin.
Senega root contains a little volatile oil, traces of resin, also gum.
RADIX KRAMERI^.
79
salts of malic acid, yellow colouring mattei", and sugar (7 per cent,
according to Rebling, 1855). The Virgi iiic Acid said by Quevenne to
be contained in it, and the bitter substance Isolusin mentioned by
Peschier, are doubtful bodies.
Uses — Senega is prescribed as a stimulating expectorant and
diuretic, useful in pneumonia, asthma and rheumatism. It is much
esteemed in America.
Adulteration — The drug is not liable to be wilfully falsified, but
through careless collecting there is occasionally a slight admixture of
other roots. One of these is American Ginseng (Panax quhxquefolium
L.) a spindle-shaped root which may be found here and there both in
senega and serpentaria. The rhizome of Cypripeclium puhesceii'is Willd.
has also been noticed ; it cannot be confounded with that of Polygala
Sene-ga. The same may be said with regard to the rhizome of Cynan-
ch am Vivcetoxictun R. Brown {Asclepias L., Vincetoxicum officinale
Monch).
RADIX KRAMERIiE.
Radix Ratanhioi, Rltatanhice v. Rathanice ; Rhatany or Rhatania
Root, Peruvian or Payta Rhatauy ; F. Racine de Ratanhia. ; G.
Ratanh^a^mr^el^
Botanical Origin — Kranierice triandra Ruiz etPav., a small woody
shrub with an upright stem scarcely a foot high and thick decumbent
branches 2 to 3 feet long." It delights in the barren sandy declivities
of the Bolivian and Peruvian Cordilleras at 3000 to 8000 feet above the
sea-level, often occurring in great abundance and adorning the ground
with its red starlike flowers and silver-grey foliage.
The root is gathered chiefly to the north, north-east, and east of
Lima, as at Caxatambo, Huanuco, Tarma, Jauja, Huarochiri and Canta ;
occasionally on the high lands about lake Titicaca. It appears likewise
to be collected in the northern part of Peru, since the di'Ug is now
frequently shipped from Payta.
History — Hipolito Ruiz,'' the Spanish botanist, observed in 1784
that the women of Huanuco and Lima were in the habit of usino- for
the preservation of their teeth a root which he recognized as that of
Krameria triandra, a plant discovered by himself in 1779. On his
return to Europe he obtained admission for this root into Spain in 1796,
whence it was gradually introduced into other countries of Europe.
The first supplies which reached England formed part of the cargo
of a Spanish prize, and were sold in the London drug sales at the com-
mencement of the present century. Some fell into the hands of Dr.
Reece who recommended it to the profession.''
About 20 years ago there appeared in the European market some
1 Rniz and Pavon state that the root is
called at Huanuco ratanlda. The deriva-
tion of the word which is of the Quichua
language is obscure.
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal
Plants, part 30 (1876).
il/e/ii. de la R. Acad, med. de Madrid,
i. (1797) 349—366.
Medicinal and Chirurgical Revieiv,
Lond., xiii. (1806) ccxlvi. ; also Reece,
Diet. ofDomest. Med., 1808.
80
POLYGALEiE.
other kinds of rliatany previously unknown : of these tiie more im-
portant are noticed at pp. 81, 82.
Description — The root which attains a considerable size in propor-
tion to the aerial part of the shrub, consists of a short thick crown,
sometimes much knotted and as large as a man's fist. This ramifies
beneath the soil even more than above, throwing out an abundance of
branching, woody roots (frequently horizontal) some feet long and \ to
.} an inch thick. These long roots used formerly to be found in com-
merce ; but of late years rhatany has consisted in large proportion
of the more woody central part of the root with short stumpy branches,
which from their broken and bruised appearance have evidently been
extracted with difficulty from a hard soil.
The bark which is scaly and rugged, and to of an inch in
thickness, is of a dark reddish brown. It consists of a loose cracked
cork-layer, mostly smooth in the smaller roots, covering a bright brown-
red inner bark, which adheres though not very firmly to a brownish
yellow wood. The bark is rather tough, breaking with a fibrous
fracture. The wood is dense, withoiit pith, but marked with thin
vessels arranged in concentric rings, and with still thinner, dark medul-
lary rays. The taste of the bark is purely astringent; the wood is
almost tasteless ; neither possesses any distinctive odour.
Kr. cistoidea Hook, a plant scarcely to be distinguished from Ki:
triandra, affords in Chili a rhatany very much like that of Peru. Its
root was contributed to the Paris Exhibition of 18G7.
Microscopic Structure — The chief portion of the bark is formed
of liber, which in transverse section exhibits numerous bundles of
yellow fibres separated by parenchymatous tissue and traversed by
narrow brown medullary rays. The small layer of the primary bark is
made up of large cells, the surface of the root of large suberous cells
imbued with red matter. The latter also occurs in the inner cortical
tissue, and ought to be removed by means of ammonia in oixlev to get a
clear idea of the structure. Many of the parenchymatous cells are
loaded with starch granules ; oxalate of calcium occurs in the neigh-
bourhood of the liber bundles. The woody portion exhibits no structure
of particular interest.
Chemical Composition — Wittstein (1854) found in the bark of
rhatany (the only part of the drug having active properties) about
20 per cent, of a form of tannin called RatavJiid-tamiic Acid, closely
related to catechu-tannic acid. It is an amorphous powder, the solution
of which is not affected by emetic tartar, but yields with ferric chloride
a dark greenish precipitate. By distillation Eissfeldt (1854) obtained
pyrocatechin as a product of the decomposition of ratanhia-tannic acid.
The latter is also decomposed by dilute acids which convert it into
crystallizable sugar and RatavJiia-red, a substance nearly insoluble in
water, also occurring in abundance ready formed in the bark.
Grabowski (1867) showed that by fusing ratanhia-red with caustic
potash, protocatechuic acid and phloroglucin^ are obtained. Ratanhia-
red has the composition C^^H-^O", the same, according to Grabowski, as
an analogous product of the decomposition of the peculiar tannic acid
occurring (as shown by Rochleder in 1866) in the horse-chestnut.
1 See art. Kino.
RADIX KRAMERI^.
81
The same red substance may also be obtained, as stated by Rembold
(18G8), from the tannic acid of the root of tormentil {PotentiUa
TormentUla L.).
As to rhatany root, Wittstein also found it to contain wax, gum and
uncrystallizable sugar (even in the wood! according to Cotton^). Cotton
fui ther pointed out the presence in very minute quantity of an odorous,
volatile, solid body, obtainable by means of ether or bisulphide of carbon;
it occurs in a somewhat more considerable amount in the other sorts of
rhatany. The root contains no gallic acid.
A dr}' extract of rhatany resembling kino used formerly to be
imported from South America, but how and where manufactui-ed we
know not. It is however of some interest as containing a crystalline
body wJiich Wittstein who discovered it (1854) regards as Tyrosin,
C^H"NO'', previously supposed to be exclusively of animal origin."
Stfidelerand Ruge (1862) assigned to it a slightly different composition,
C"'H"NO^ and gave it the name of Ratanhin. It dissolves in hot water
which is acidulated by a little nitric acid ; the solution on boiling turns
red, blue, and lastly green, and becomes at the same time fluorescent.
Kreitmair (1875) extracted 07 percent, of ratanhin from an old specimen
of commercial extract of rhatany ; but he did not succeed in obtaining
it from other specimens. He also showed that ratanhin is not a con-
stituent of the roots of Krameria. The same substance has been abun-
dantly found by Gintl (1868) in the natural exudation called Resina
d'Angelim jj^drtc^ which is met with in the alburnum of Ferreirea
spedabilis Allem., a large Brazilian tree of the order Legumrnosce
(tribe Sophorea;). Peckolt, who first extracted it, named it Angelin ;
it forms colourless, neutral crystals yielding compounds both with
alkalis and acids, which have been investigated by Gintl in 1869
and 1870.
Uses — Rhatany is a valuable astringent, but is not much employed
in Great Britain.
Other sorts of Rhatany — Of the 20 to 25 other species oi
Krameria, all of them belonwinfi to America, several have astring-ent
roots which have been collected and used in the place of the rhatany ot
Peru. The most important of these drugs is that known as —
Para Rhatany, — so called from having been shipped from Para in
Brazil. Berg who described it in 1865 termed it Brazilian Rhatany,
Cotton in 1868, Ratanhia des Antilles. It is a drug neaidy resembling
the following, but of a darker and less purple hue ; it is also in longer
sticks which are remarkably flexible, and covered with a thick bark
having numerous transverse cracks.* It is apparently derived from the
Krameria argentea of Martins,'^ the root of which is collected in the
dry districts of the provinces of Bahia and Minas Geraes, that plant
growing throughout north-eastern Brazil. It is also called Rhatany
from Ceard.
1 Etudes sur le Oenre Krameria (thfese), * For further particulars, see Fliickiger,
Paris, 1868. 83. Pharm. Journ., July 30, 1870. 84.
2 Gmelin, Chemistry, xiii. (1859) 358. » .^y.c,.^. Mat. Med. Bras., 1843. 51 ; Lang-
^ See Vogl's Paper on it in Pringsheim, gaard, Diccionario de Medicma, Rio de
Jahrhiicherfur wisscnschaflliche Botanik, ix. Janeiro, iii. (1865) 384. — Krameria argentea
(1874) 277 — 285. is figured in Flora Brasiliensis, Fascicul. 63
(1874, pg. 71) tab. 28.
82
POLYGALEiE.
Savanilla or New Granada Rliatany. The plant yielding it is
Krameria tomentosa St. Hil. (Kr. Ixina var. ^ granatensis Triana,
Kr. grandifolia Berg), a shrub 4 to 6 feet high covering lai-ge arid
tracts in the valley of Jiron between Pamplona and the Magdalena in
New Granada, in which locality the collection of the root was observed
by Weir in 1864!.' According to Triana it also grows at Socorro, south
of Jiron. The same plant is found near Santa Marta and Rio Hacha
in north-eastern New Granada, in British Guiana, and in the Brazilian
provinces of Pernambuco and Goyaz.
The stem or root-crown of Savanilla rhatany is never so knotty
and irregular as that of the Peruvian drug, nor are the roots so long or
so thick. Separate pieces of root of sinuous form, 4 to 6 inches long
and ^ to of an inch thick are most frequent. The drug is moreover
well distinguished by its dull purplish brown colour, its thick smooth
bark marked with longitudinal furrows, and here and there with deep
transverse cracks, and by the bark not easily splitting off as it does in
common rhatauy.
The anatomical difference depends chiefly upon the more abundant
development of the bark which in thickness is \ to \ the diameter of
the wood. In Peruvian rhatany the cortical layer attains only ^ to ^ of
the diameter of the woody column. The greater firmness of the
suberous coat in Savanilla rhatany is due to its cells being densely filled
with colouring matter.
Savanilla rhatany differs from the Peruvian root in its tannic matter.
This becomes evident by shaking the powdered root (or bark) with water
and iron reduced by hydrogen. The liquid filtered from the Savanilla
sort and diluted with distilled water exhibits an intense violet colour,
that from Peruvian rhatany a dingy brown ; the latter turns light red
by alkalis. Thin sections of the Peruvian root assume a greyish hue
when moistened with a ferrous salt ; Savanilla root by a similar treat-
ment displays the above violet colour. The Savanilla root is richer in
soluble matter and from the greater development of its bark may deserve
to be preferred for medicinal use.
In the English market, Savanilla root is of less frequent occuri-ence
than that of Para.
A kind of rhatany attributed to Krameria secundiflora DC, a
herbaceous plant of Mexico, Texas and Arkansas, was furnished to Berg
in 1854, but has not been in commerce. Its anatomical structure has
been described by Berg.^
^ Hanbury, Origin of Savanilla Rhaiany,
in Pharm. Journ. vi. (1865) 460. — Also
Science Papers, 333. — In that paper I re-
ferred the drug to a variety of Kr. Ixina
which M. Cotton has shown to differ in no
respect fx'om St. Hilaire's Kr. tomentosa,
a conclusion in which, after careful re-ex-
amination of specimens, I fully agree. —
D. H.
Fig. of Kr. Ixina in Bentley and Trimen,
Med. PL part 10.
2 Bot. Zeitumj, 14th Nov. 1856. 797
CAMBOGIA.
83
GUTTIFER^.
CAMBOGIA.
Gummi Gambogia, Gummi Gutti ; Gamboge ; F. Gomme Gutte ;
G. Gutti, Gummigutt.
Botanical Origin — Garcinia Morella Desrousseaux, var. ^. jjedi-
cellata, a dioecious tree/ with handsome laurel-like folliage and small
yellow flowers, found in Camhoja, Siam (province of Chantibun and the
islands on the east coast of the gulf of Siam), and in the southern parts
of Cochin China. It was introduced about thirty years ago into
Singapore where several specimens are still thriving (1873) on the
estate of Dr. Jamie. The finest is now a tree of 20 feet high, with a
trunk a foot in diameter, and a thick, spreading head of foliage.
G. Morella Desr. — The typical form of this tree having sessile male
flowers grows in moist forests of Southern India and Ceylon, and is
capable of aff'ording good gamboge.
G. pictoria Roxb., a large tree of Southern India, produces a sort of
gamboge found by Christian (1S4G) essentially the same as that of
Siam. It has been examined more recently by Broughton (1871) who
states it to be quite equal to that of G. Morella. We have also been
unable to flnd any diflerence between the product of G. pictoria as sent
from Ceylon and common gamboge. Garcinia pictoria moreover is
tliought by Sir Jos. Hooker to agree with G. Morella.
History — The Chinese had intercourse with Camboja as early as
the time of the Sung dynasty (A.D. 970 — 1127); and a Chinese traveller
who visited the latter country in 1295-97, describes gamboge and the
method of obtaining it by incisions in the stem of the tree.^ The cele-
brated Chinese herbal Pun-tsao, written towards the close of the 16th
century, mentions gamboge (Tang-Jnuang) and gives a rude figure of
the tree. The drug is regarded by the Chinese as poisonous, and is
scarcely employed except as a pigment.
The first notice of the occurrence of gamboge in Europe is in the
writings of Clusius'' who describes a specimen brought from China by
the Dutch Admiral, Jacob van Neck, and given to him in 1603, under
the name of Ghittaiemoa.* It appears that shortly after this time it
began to be employed in medicine in Europe, for in 1611, Michael
Reuden, a physician of Bamberg, made use of it as he stated in 1613.°
He termed the drug a "novum gummi purgans," or also, Gummi de
1 It has been named Oarcinia Hanburyi
by Sir Josejili Hooker (Journ. of the Lin-
netin Sue. xiv., 1873, 435), but I presume
my lamented friend Daniel Hanbury would
not have considered the plant under notice
as a distinct species. Consult also Bent-
Icy and Trimen, Med. Plants, part 30. —
F.A.F.
Description de Camhoge in Abel-Remu-
sat's Nouv. Milawjes asiaiiqties, i. (1829)
134. —The Chinese traveller calls the ex-
udation Kiang-hwang which is the name
for turmeric, but his description is unmis-
takeable.
3 Exotica (1605) 82.
■* Dr. R. Rost is of opinion that this word
is derived from the Malay (jutdh, gum, and
the J avanese Ja?HM signifying medicinal, such
mixing of the two languages being of com-
mon occurrence.
^ Denova gummi purgante, Lipsias, 1G14.
We have only seen the second edition pub-
lished at Leiden in 1625, its preface dating
from 1613.
8-t
GUTTIFER^.
Peru, the latter strange name no doubt being a corruption of the above
mentioned Ghitta-iemou. The appellation "gummi de Peru" is met with
in pharmaceutical tariffs during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Gamboge is one of the articles of the tariff of the phai'maceutical
shops of the City of Frankfort in 1612: "Gutta gemou, a strong purga-
tive dried juice, coming from the Kingdom of Patana in the East
Indies." Patana or Patani is the most populous province of the east
coast of the peninsula of Malacca. The Dutch established there a
factory in 1602, and were followed in 1612 by the English. The
settlement was abandoned in 1700 ; gamboge was probably brought
there from the opposite shore of the gulf of Siam.^
In 1615, a considerable quantity of gamboge was offered for sale in
London by the East Indian Company. The entry respecting it in the
Court Minute Books of the company under date October 13, 1615, is to
this effect:— Three chests, one rundlet, and a basket, containing 13,
14), or 15 hundredweights, more or less, of Camhogium " a drugge
unknotvn here," — the use of which was much commended as a "a gentle
jjurge," were offered for sale at 5s. per it)., but met with no purchaser.
Jacob Bontius,^ a Dutch physician, resident, towards 1629, in
Batavia, stated that " gutta Cambodja," as he termed the drug, came
from the country of the same name; he supposed it to be derived from an
Euphorbiaceous plant.
Parkinson,' who was an apothecary of London and wrote in 1640,
speaks of this " Canibugio," called by some Ca fharticum aureum, as a
drug of recent importation which arrived in the form of " ivreathes or
routes " yellow within and without.
In the London Pharmacopoeia of 1650, gamboge is called Gutta
Gamha* or Ghitta jeviou.
The mother plant of the drug was not fully examined and figured
until 1864 ; yet in 1677 already, Hermann, a German physician residing
in Ceylon, had pointed out that it was a Garcinia.'^
Secretion — We have examined a portion of a branch two inches in
diameter of the gamboge-tree,'' and have found the yellow gum-resin to
be contained chiefly in the middle layer of the bark in numerous ducts
like those occurring in the roots of Paula Pfelenium and other roots of
the same natural order. A little is also secreted in the dotted vessels
of the outermost layer of the wood, and in the pith. The wood, which
is white, acquires a bright yellow tint when exposed to the vapour of
ammonia or to alkaline solutions.
Production — At the commencement of the rainy season the gam-
boge-collectors start for the forest in search of the trees which in some
localities are plentiful. Having found one of the full size they make a
spiral incision in the bark round half the circumference of the trunk,
and place a joint of bamboo to receive the sap which slowly exudes for
1 Fluckiger, Documente zur Geschichte
(ler Pharmacie, 1876. 41.
^ De Medlcina Indorum, lib. iv. Lugdimi
Batav. (1642) 119. 150.
* Theatrum Botanicum (1640) 1575.
* This name is the Hindustani G6ld-
ganbd, signifying according to Moodeen
B\iev\S [Suppl. to Pharm. of India, SZ] juice
or extract of rhubarb. It is still applied to
gamboge.
^ Hanbury in Trans, of Linn. Soc. xxiv.
(1864) 487. tab. 50; also Science Pajicrtt,
1876. 326.
^ Obligingly sent to us by Dr. Jamie of
Singapore.
CAMBOGIA.
85
several months. Wheu it first issues from the tree, it is a yellowish
fluid, which after passing through a viscid state hardens into the
gamboge of commerce.
The trees grow both in the vaUeys and on the mountains and will
yield on an average in one season enough to fill three joints of bamboo
'20 inches in length by l-i- inches in diameter. The tree appears to
suffer no injury provided the tapping is not more frequent than every
other year.'
According to Di-. Jamie of Singapore, the gamboge-tree grows most
luxuriantly in the dense jungles. The best time for collecting is from
February to March or April. The trees, the larger the better, are
wounded by a parang or chopping-knife, in various parts of the trunk
and large branches, when prepared bamboos are inserted between the
root and the bark of the trees. The bamboo cylinders being tied or in-
serted, are examined daily till filled, which generally takes from 15 to
30 days. Then the bamboos are taken to a fire, over which they are
gradually rotated till the water in the gum-resin is evaporated and it
gets sufficiently hard to allow of the bamboo being torn off".^
Description — The drug arrives in the form of sticks or cylinders 1
to 2 1 inches in diameter, and 4 to 8 inches in length, striated lengthwise
with impressions from the inside of the bamboo. Often the sticks are
agglutinated, or folded, or the drug is in compressed or in shapeless
masses. It is when good of a I'ich brownish orange tint, dense and
homogeneous, breaking easily with a conchoidal fracture, scarcely trans-
lucent even in thin splinters. Touched with water it instantly forms a
yellow emulsion. Triturated in a mortar it affords a brilliant yellow
powder, slightly odorous. Gamboge has a disagreeable acrid taste.
Much of the gamboge shipped to Europe is of inferior quality, being
of a brownish hue or exhibiting when broken a rough, granulai-, bubbly
surface. Sometimes it arrives imperfectly dried and still soft.
Chemical Composition — Gamboge consists of a mixture of resin
with 15 to 20 per cent, of gum. The resin dissolves easily in alcohol,
forming a clear liquid of fine yellowish-red hue, and not decidedly acid
i-eaction. It forms darker-coloured solutions witli ammonia or the fixed
alkalis, and a copious precipitate with basic acetate of lead. Perchloride
of iron colours a solution of the resin deep blackish brown.
By fusing purified gamboge resin with potash, Hlasiwetz and Earth
(1866) obtained acetic acid and other acids of the same series, together
w'lih jMoroijluciii, C^}l^(011f, py7'otartaric acid, C^H^O^ aud isuvitinic
acid, C^ffCH'(COOH)'.
The gum which we obtained to the extent of 15'8 per cent, by
completely exhausting gamboge with alcohol and ether, was found
readily soluble in watei*. Tlie solution does not redden litmus, and is
not precipitated by neutral acetate of lead, nor by perchloride of iron,
nor by silicate or biborate of sodium. It is therefore not identical
with gum arable.
Commerce — The drug finds its way to Europe from Camboja by
Singapore, Bangkok, or Saigon. In 1877 the first place exported 240
1 Spenser St. John, Life in the Forests of - Fharm. Journ. iv. (1874) 803.
the Far Ea>it, Lond. 1862. ii'. 272.
86
GUTTIFER^.
peculs, Bangkok in 1875 no less than 346 peculs, value 48,835 dollars ;
irom Saigon there have of late been shipped from 30 to 40 peculs
annually (one pecul = 133-3 lbs. = 60'479 kilogrammes).^
Uses^ — Gamboge is a drastic purgative, seldom administered excei)t
in combination with other substances.
Adulteration — The Cambojans adulterate gamboge with rice flour,
sand, or the pulverized bark of the tree,'' which substances may be
easily detected in the residue left after exhausting the drug successively
by spirit of wine and cold water.
Other Sources of Gamboge — Although the gamboge of European
commerce appears to be exclusively derived from the form of the plant
named at the head of this article, Garcinia travancorica Beddome, is
capable of yielding a similar drug which may be collected to some
small extent for local use, but not for exportation. It is a beautiful
tree of the southern forests of Travancore and the Tinnevelly Ghats
(3,000 to 4,500 feet). According to its discoverer Lieut. Beddome,^ it
yields an abundance of bright yellow gamboge.
OLEUM GARCINIA.
Concrete Oil of Mangosteen, Kokum Bvbtter.
Botanical Origin. — Garcinia indica Choisy {G. purpureoj Eoxb.
Brindonia indica Dup. Th.), an elegant tree with drooping branches
and dark green leaves.* It bears a smooth round fruit the size of a
small apple, containing an acid purple pulp in which are lodged as
many as 8 seeds. The tree is a native of the coast region of Western
India known as the Concan, lying between Daman and Goa.
History — The fruit is mentioned by Garcia d'Orta (15G3) as known
to the Portuguese of Goa by the name of Brindones. He states that it
has a pleasant taste though very sour, and that it is used in dyeing ;
and further that the peel serves to make a sort of vinegar. Several
succeeding authors (as Bauchin and Ray) have contented themselves
with repeating this account.
As to the fruit jdelding a fatty oil, we find no reference to such fact
till about the year 1830, when it was stated in an Indian newspaper-^
that an oil of the seeds is well known at Goa and often used to adul-
terate ghee (liquid butter). It was aftervvai'ds pointed out as the result
of some experiments that the oil was of an agreeable bland taste and
well adapted for use in pharmacy. A short article on Kokum Butter
was published by Pereira'^ in 1851. With the view of bringing the
substance into use for pharmaceutical preparations in India, it has been
introduced into the Pharmacopoeia of India of 1868.
Preparation — The seeds are reniform, somewhat crescent-shaped
or oblong, laterally compressed and wrinkled, ^ to of an inch long
^Report from H.M. Consul-General in
Siamfor 1875. 9.
Spenser St. John, op. cii.
Flora Sylvatica, Madras, part xv. (1872)
tab. 173.
■* Fig. Bentley and Trimen, Medic. Plants,
part 31 (1878).
^ Quoted by Graham, Gatal. of Bomhay
Plants, 1839. 25.
^Pharm. Journ. xi. (1852) 65.
OLEUM GARCINIiE.
87
by about broad. Each seed weighs on an average about eight
grains. The thick cotyledons, which are inseparable/ have a mild oily
taste. Examination under the microscope shows them to be built up
of large reticulated cells containing a considerable proportion of
crystalline fat readily soluble in benzol. In addition globular masses
of albuminous matter occur which with iodine assume a brownish
5'ellow hue. With perchloride of iron the walls strike a greenish-
black.
The process followed by the natives of India (by whom alone the
oil is prepared) has been thus described : — The seeds liaviug been dried
by exposure for some days to the sun are bruised, and boiled in water.
The oil collects on the surface, and concretes when cool into a cake
which requires to be purified by melting and straining.
Description — Kokum Butter is found in the Indian bazaars in the
form of egg-shaped or oblong lumps about 4 inches long by 2 inches in
diameter, and weighing about a quarter of a pound. It is a whitish
substance, at ordinary temperatures, fii"m, dry, and friable, yet greasy
to the touch. Scrapings (which are even pulverulent) when examined
in glycerin under the microscope show it to be thoroughly crystalline.
They have a mild oily taste, yet redden litmus if moistened with
alcohol.
By filtration in a steam-bath, kokum butter is obtained perfectly
transparent and of a light straw-colour, concentrating again at 27'5°
C. into a white crystalline mass : some crystxls appear even at 30°.
Melted in a narrow tube, cooled and then wanned in a water bath, the
fat begins to melt at 4*2 5^ C, and fuses entirely at 45°. The residue
left after filtration of the crude fat is inconsiderable, and consists chiefly
of brown tannic matters soluble in spirit of wine.
When kokum butter is long kept it acquires an unpleasant rancid
smell and brownish hue, and an efflorescence of shining tufted crystals
appears on the surface of the mass
Chemical Composition — Purified kokum butter boiled with
caustic soda yields a fine hard soap which, when decomposed with sul-
phuric acid, affords a crystalline cake of fatty acids weighing as much as
the original fat. The acids were again combined with soda and the soap
liaving been decomposed, they were dissolved in alcohol of about 94 per
cent. By slow cooling and evaporation -crystals were first formed which,
when perfectly dried, melted at 69"5° C: they are consequently Stearic
Acid. A less considerable amount of crystals which separated subse-
quently had a fusing point of 55°, and may be referred to Myristu,
Acid.
A portion of the crude fat was heated with oxide of lead and water,
and the plumbic compound dried and exhausted with ether, which
after evaporation left a very small amount of liquid oil, which we i-efer
to Oleic Acid.
Finally the sulphuric acid used at the outset of the experiments was
saturated and examined in the usual manner for volatile fatty acids
(butyric, valerianic, &;c.) but with negative results.
^ The embryo, according to Bentley and
Trimen [I. c.) consists chiefly of the
thickened radicle, and is almost devoid of
cotyledons.
88
DIPTEROCARPEiE.
The fat of the seeds of G. indica was extracted by ether and examined
chemically in 1857 by J. Bouis and d'Oliveira Pimentel.^ It was
obtained to the extent of 30 per cent., was found to fuse at 40° C.
and to consist chiefly of stearin (tristearin). The seeds yielded 1'72 per
cent, of nitrogen. Their residue after exhaustion by ether afforded to
alkaline solutions or alcohol a fine red colour.
Uses — The results of the experiments above-noted show that kokum
butter is well suited for some pharmaceutical preparations. It might
also be advantageously employed in candle-making, as it yields stearic
acid more easily and in a purer state than tallow and most other fats.
But that it is possible to obtain it in quantities sufficiently large for
important industrial uses, appears to us very problematical.
DIPTEROCAKPE^.
BALSAMUM DIPTEROCARPI.
Balsamun Gurjmice; Gurjun Balsam, Wood Oil.
Botanical Origin— This drug is yielded by several trees of the
genus Dipterocarpus, namely —
D. turh'matm Gartn. f (D. IcBvis Ham., D. indicus Bedd), a native
of Eastern Bengal, Chittagong and Pegu to Singapore, and French
Cochin China.
D. incanus Roxb., a tree of Chittagong and Pegu.
D. alatus Roxb., growing in Chittagong, Burma, Tenasserim, the
Andaman Islands, Siam, and French Cochin China.
D. zeylanicus Thw. and D. Jdspidus Thw., indigenous to Ceylon.
D. crispalatus abounding, together with I), turhinatus and
D. alatus, in French Cochin China.
D. trinervis Bl., a native of Java and the Philippines, and D. gracilis
Bl., D. littoral'is Bl., D. rehisus BI. {D. Spanoghei BL), trees of Java
supply a similar useful product which as yet appears to be of less
commercial importance.^
The Gurjun trees are said by Hooker^ to be among the most
magnificent of the forests of Chittagong. They are conspicuous for
their gigantic size, and for the straightness and graceful form of their
tall unbranched trunk, and small symmetrical crown of broad glossy
leaves. Many individuals are upwards of 200 feet high and 15 feet in
girth.
History — Gurjun balsam was enumerated as one of the productions
of Ava by Francklin* in 1811, and in 1813 it was briefly noticed by
Ainslie.^ Its botanical origin was first made known by Roxburgh, who
also described the method by which it is extracted.
1 Comptes Rendus, xliv. (1857) 1355.
2 That of D. trinervis is especially used
in Java. Filet, Planikundig Woordenhoeh
voor Nederlandsch Indie, Leiden, 1876,
No. 6157.
^ Himalayan JoimiaJ, ed. 2, ii. (1855)
332.
* Tracts on the Dominions of Ava, Lond.
1811. 26.
^ In the Catalogue des Prodvlts des
BALSAMUM DIPTEEOCARPI.
89
The medicinal properties of Gurjun balsam wave pointed out by
O'Shaughnessy^ as entirely analogous to those of copaiba; and his
observations were confirmed by many practitioners in India. This has
obtained for the drug a place in the Pharmacopoeia of India (1868).
Extraction — A recent account of the production of this drug is
found in the Reports of the Jury of the Madras Exhibition of 1855.
It is there stated that Wood Oil, as the balsam is commonly called, is
obtained for the most part from the coast of Burma and the Straits, and
is procured by tapping the trees about the end of the dry season.
Several deep incisions are made with an axe into the trunk of the tree and
a good-sized cavity scooped out. In this, fire is jjlaced, and kept burn-
inor until the wood is somewhat scorched, when the balsam begins to
exude, and is then led away into a vessel of bamboo. It is afterwards
allowed to settle, when a clear liquid separates from a thick portion
called the " guad." The oil is extracted year after year, and sometimes
there are two or three holes in the same tree. It is produced in extra-
ordinary abundance; from 30 to 40 gallons according to Roxburgh may
sometimes be obtained from a single tree in the course of a season,
during which it is necessary to remove from time to time the old
charred surface of the wood and burn afresh.
If a growing tree is felled and cut into piece, the oleo-resin exudes
and concretes on the wood, very much, it is said, resembling camphor (?)
and having an aromatic smell.
Description — As Gurjun balsam is the produce of different trees as
well as of different countries, it is not surprising to find that it varies
considerably in its properties.
The following observations refer to a balsam of which 400 lb. were
recently imported from Moulmein for a London drug firm. It is a
thick and viscid fluid, exhibiting a remarkable fluorescence, so that
when seen by reflected light it appears opaque and of dingy greenish
grey; yet when placed between the observer and strong daylight
it is seen to be perfectly transparent and of a dark-reddish brown. ^
It has a weak aromatic copaiba-like odour and a bitterish aromatic taste
without the persistent acridity of copaiba. Its sp. gr. at 16"9° C. is
0-964.
With the following liquids Gurjun affords perfectly clear solutions
which are more or less fluorescent, namely pure benzol (from benzoate
of calcium), cumol, chloroform, sulphide of carbon, essential oils. On
the other hand, it is not entirely soluble in methylic, ethylic, or amylic
alcohol ; in ether, acetic ether, glacial acetic acid, acetone, phenol
(carbolic acid), or in caustic potash dissolved in absolute alcohol.
Many samples of commercial benzin also are not capable of dissolving
the oleo-resin perfectly, but we have not ascertained on what con-
stituent of such benzin this depends. We have further noticed that
that portion of petroleum which is known as Petroleum Ether, contain-
ing the most volatile hydrocarbons, does not wholly dissolve the oleo-
resin. One hundred parts of the balsam warmed and shaken with 1000
Colonies fran(;aises. Exposition Universelle
de 1878, p. 175, it is stated that the
balsam of Z>. alatus iu French Cochin
China is preferred, being a " liuUc bhinche."
1 Mat. Med. of Hindoostan, Madras,
1813. 186.
^ Bengal Dispensatory, 1842. 22.
90
DIPTEEOCARPE^.
parts of absolute alcohol yielded on cooling a precipitate of resin
amounting when dried to IS'o parts. All concentrated solutions of the
balsam are precipitated by amylic alcohol.
If the balsam is kept for a long time in a stoppered vessel at 100°
C. it simply becomes a little turbid; but about 130° C. it is transformed
into a jelly, and on cooling does not resume its former fluidity. Balsam
of copaiba heated in a closed glass tube to 220° C. does not at all lose
its fluidity, whereas Gurjun balsam becomes an almost solid mass.
Chemical Composition — Of the balsam 6 99 grammes dissolved
in benzol and kept in a water bath until the residue ceased to lose
weight, j'ielded 3'80 grammes of a dry, transparent, semi-fluid resin,
corresponding to .5-t'44 per cent., and 45 56 of volatile matters expelled
by evaporation. But another sample afforded us much less residue.
By submitting larger quantities of the above balsam to the usual
process of distillation with water in a large copper still, 37 per cent, of
volatile oil were easily obtained. The water passing over at the same
time did not redden litmus paper. A dark, viscid, liquid resin remained
in the still.
The essential oil is of a pale straw-colour and less odorous than most
other volatile oils. Treated with chloride of calcium and again distilled,
it begins to boil at 210° C. and passes over at 255° — 260^ C, acquiring a
somewhat empyreumatic smell and light yellowish tint. The purified
oil has a sp. gr. of 0 915 ;^ it is but sparingly soluble in absolute alcohol
or glacial acetic acid, but mixes I'eadily with amylic alcohol.
According to Werner (1862) this oil has the composition C^^^H"^^
like that of copaiba. He says it deviates the ray of polarized light to
the left, but that prepared by one of us deviated strongly to the right,
the residual resin dissolved in benzol being wholly inactive. The oil
does not form a crystalline compound with dry hydrochloric acid, which
colours it of a beautiful blue.'^ De Vry^ states that the essential oil
after this treatment deviates the ray to the right.
The resin contains, like that of copaiba, a small proportion of a
crystallizable acid which may be removed by warming it with ammonia
in weak alcohol. That part of the resin which is insoluble even in absolute
alcohol,'* we found to be un crystallizable. The Gurgunic Acid, as the
cr^'stallized resinous acid is called by Werner,^ but which it is more
correct to write Gurjmiic, may consequently be prepared by extract-
ing the resin with alcohol ('838) and mixing the solution with ammonia.
From the ammoniacal solution gurjunic acid is precipitated on addition
of a mineral acid, and if it is again dissolved in ether and alcohol it
may be procured in the form of small crystalline crusts. From the
specimen under examination we were not successful in obtaining in-
dubitable crystals.
Guijunic acid, C'^^H^'^O^ according to Werner, melts at 220° C, and
concretes again at 180° C; it begins to boil at 260° C, yet at the same
time decomposition takes place. By assigning to this acid the formula
C"H*^*0^-)-3H-0, which agrees well with Werner's analytical results, we
1 0'944 according to Werner ; 0'931
O'Shaughnessy ; 0-928 De Vry (1857).
^ This magnificent colouring matter is
not dissolved by ether.
3 Pharm. Journ. xvi. (1857) 374,
■* The sample of gurjun balsam examined
by Werner as well as the resin it contained
were entirely soluble in boiling potash lye.
^ Gmelin, Chemistry, xvii. 545.
BALSAMUM DIPTEROCARPI.
91
may regard ifc as a hydrate of abietinic acid, the chemical behaviour of
which is perfectl3' analogous. Gurjuuic acid is soluble in alcohol 0 838,
but not in weak alcohol ; it is dissolved also by ether, benzol, or sulphide
of carbon (Werner).
In copaiba from Maracaibo, Strauss (1865j discovered Metacopaivic
Acid which is probably identical with gurjunic; the former, however,
fuses at 206° C.
The amorphous resin forming the chief bulk of the residue of the
distillation of the balsam, has not yet been submitted to exact analj'-sis.
We find that after complete desiccation it is not soluble in absolute
alcohol. A crystallized constituent of Gurjun, which we obtained from
a balsam of unknown origin, has been shown^ to answer to the formula
Q2SJJ46Q2 j^g crystals, belonging to the asymmetric system, melt at
126° — 130°C.; they are entirely devoid of acid character. A comparative
examination of the product of each of the above named species of
Dipterocarpus would be highly desirable.
Commerce — Gurjun balsam is exported from Singapore, Moulmein,
Akyab and the Malayan Peninsula, and is a common article of ti-ade
in Siam. It is likewise produced in Canara in Southern India. It is
occasionally shipped to Europe. More than 2000 lb. were ofiered for sale
in London under the name of East India Balsam Gapivi, 4th October
1855; and in October 1858, a no less quantity than 45 casks appeared
in the catalogue of a London drug-broker. It is now not unfrequent
in the London drug sales.
Uses — In medicine it has hitherto been employed only as a substi-
tute for copaiba, and chiefly in the hospitals of India.
In the East its great use is as a natural varnish, eitlier alone or
combined with pigments ; and also as a substitute for tar as an applica-
tion to the seams of boats, and for preserving timber from the attacks
of the white ant. To the fii'st application it is often made better
appropriated ^ by boiling it, so that the essential oil is evaporated.
Wood Oil of China — -The oleo-resiu of Dipterocarpus must not be
confounded with the so-called Wood Oil of China, which is of a totally
different nature. The latter is a fatty oil expressed fi-ora the seeds of Aleu-
rites cordata Miill. Arg. (Dryandra cordata Thunb. Elaeococca Vernicia
Sprgl. Prodromus xv. part 2, p. 724), the well-known Tung tree of
the Chinese. It is a large tree of the order Ewphorbiacca^, found in
China and Japan. The oil is an article of enormous consumption
among the Chinese, who use it in the caulking and painting of junks
and boats, for preserving woodwork, varnishing furniture, and also in
medicine. In the commercial reports of H.M. Consuls in China (No. 5,
1875, p. 3, 26) we find that this oil is largely exported from Hankow :
199'654 peculs in 1874, and forms an article of import at Ningpo : 15-123
peculs in 1874 (pecul==133'33 lb. avoirdupois). It is, however, not
shipped to foreign countries. The oil of the Tung tree is also ex-
tremely remarkable on account of its chemical properties as shown
by Cloez (1875—1877).
1 Flilckiger, P/iam. Journ. (1878) 725, with ^ Catalogue of the French Colonies, Paris
fig. Exhibition, 1878, 101, quoted above.
92
MALVACEyE.
MALVACE^.
RADIX AI^THJE/E
ilarshmallow Root; F. Racine de Guimauve ; 0. Ehischxvurzel.
Botanical Origin — Althcm officmalis L., the marshmallow, grows
in racist places throughout Europe, Asia Minor, and the temperate
parts of Western and Northern Asia, but is by no means universal!}'
distributed. It prefers saline localities such as in Spain the salt
marshes of Saragossa, the low-lying southern coasts of France near
Montpellier, Southern Russia, and the neighbourhood of salt-springs in
Central Europe. In southern Siberia AlthfBa has been met with by
SemenofF (1857) ascending as high as 3,000 feet in the Alatau mountains,
south of the Balkash Lake.
In Britain it occurs in the low grounds bordering the Thames below
London, and here and there in many other spots in the south of Eng-
land and of Ireland.
The cultivated marshmallow thrives as far north as Throndhjem in
Norway, and has been naturalized in North America (salt marshes of
New England and New York) and Australia. It is largely cultivated
in Bavaria and Wiirtemberg.
History — Marshmallow had manj" uses in ancient medicine, and is
described by Dioscorides as 'AXOala, a name derived from the Greek
verb aXOeiv, to heal.
The diffusion of the plant in Europe during the middle ages was
promoted by Charlemagne who enjoined^ its culture (a.d. 812) under
the name of " Mismalvas, id est alteas quod dicitur ibischa."
Description — The plant has a perennial root attaining about a foot
in length and an inch in diameter. For medicinal use the biennial
roots of the cultivated plant are chieHy employed. When fresh they
are externally yellowish and wrinkled, white within and of tender
tlesh}^ texture. Previous to diying, the thin outer and a portion of the
middle bark are scraped off, and the small root filaments are removed.
The drug thus prepared and dried consists of simple whitish sticks
G to 8 inches long, of the thickness of the little finger to that of a quill,
deeply furrowed longitudinally and marked with brownish scars. Its
central portion, which is pure white, breaks with a short fracture, but
the bark is tough and fibrous. The dried root is rather flexible and
easily cut. Its transverse section shows the central woody column
of undulating outline separated from the thick bark by a fine dark out-
line shaded off outwards.
The root has a peculiar though very faint odour, and is of rather
mawkish and insipid taste, and very slimy when chewed.
Microscopic Structure — The greater j)art of the bark consists of
liber, abounding- in long soft fibres, to which the toughness of the
cortical tissue is due. They are branched and form bundles, each con-
' Pertz, Monumenta Gerrnanice historica, Legum tom. i. (1835) }S\.— Ibischa from
the Greek IptaKos.
RADIX ALTKMM.
93
taining from 3 to 30 fibres separated by parenchymatous tissue. Of
the cortical parenchyme mari}^ cells are loaded with starch granules,
others contain stellate groups of oxalate of calcium, and a considerable
number of somewhat larger cells are filled with mucilage. The last-
named on addition of alcohol is seen to consist of different layers.
The woody part is made up of pitted or scalariform vessels, accom-
panied by a few ligneous cells and separated by a parenchymatous
tissue, agreeing with that of the bark. On addition of an alkali,
sections of the root assume a bright yellow hue.
Chemical Composition — The mucilage in the dry root amounts
to about 25 per cent, and the starch to as much more. The former
appears from the not very accordant analysis of Schmidt and of Mulder
to ao-ree witli the fornuila C''^ti'""0"', thus differing from the mucilao^e
of gum arable by one molecule less of water. It likewise differs in
being precipitable by neutral acetate of lead. At the same time it
does not show the behaviour of cellulose, as it does not turn blue l)y
iodine when moistened with sulphuric acid, and it is not soluble in
ammoniacal solution of oxide of copper.
The root also contains pectin and sugar (cane-sugar according to
Wittstock), and a trace of fatty oil. Tannin is found in very small
quantity in the outer bark alone.
In 182G Bacon, a pharmacien of Caen, obtained from althfea root
crystals of a substance at first regarded as peculiar, but subsequently
identified with Asparagin, C^H^N^O'', H'^0. It had been previously
prepared (1805) by Vauquelin and Robiquet from Asparagus, and is now
known to be a widely-diff'used constituent of plants.^ Mar.shmallow
root does not yield more than 0'8 to 2'0 per cent. Asparagin crystal-
lizes in large prisms or octohedra of the rhombic system ; it is nearly
tasteless, and apptears destitute of physiological action. Its relation to
succinic acid may be thus represented : —
Succinic acid : C^H* | qqq j][ ; Asparagin : C^H^(NH2) | qqq^ •
Asparagin is quite permanent whether in the solid state or dissolved,
but it is easily decomposed if the solution contains the albuminoid con-
stituents of the root, which act as a ferment. Leguminous seeds,
yeast or decayed cheese induce the same change, the final product of
which is succinate of ammonium, the asparagin taking the elements of
water and hydrogen set free by the fe •'mentation, thus —
C4H«N20' -I- H^O + 2H =2NH^eH^0*
Asparagin. Succinate of Ammonium.
Under the influence of acids or bases, or even by the prolonged
boiling of its aqueous solution, asparagin is converted into Aspartate
o/ ^TJiTOonmrn, C'*H^(NH'*)N0^ of which the hydrated asparagin con-
tains the elements.
These transformations, especially the former, are undergone by the
asparagin in the root, if the latter has been imperfectly dried, or has
1 It plays an interesting part in the ger- the juice by means of the microscope and
mination of the seeds of papilionaceous absolute alcohol, in which latter aspai'agin
and other plants. It is abundant in the is insoluble. See PfefTer in Pringsheim's
young plants, but in most it speedily dis- Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot. 1872. 533 — 564. —
appears. Its presence can be proved in 'BovoAvo.in Bot. Zeitung, 1878. SOlandseq.
94
MALVACE^.
been kept long, or not very dry. Under such conditions, the asparagin
gradually disappears, and the root then yields a brownish decoction,
sometimes having a disagreeable odour of butyi'ic acid. There is no
doubt that a protein-substance here acts as a ferment. The sections of
the root when touched with animonia or caustic lye should display a
bright yellow, not a dingy brown, colour.
The peeled root dried at 100° C. and incinerated afforded us 4-88 of
ash, rich in phosphates.
Uses — Althaea is taken as a demulcent; it is sometimes also applied
as an emollient poultice. It is far more largely used on the continent
than in England
FRUCTUS HIBISCI ESCULENTI.
Capsulae Hihisci esculenti ; UeJiha, Okro, Okra, Bendi-kai^ ;
F. Oombo (in the French Colonies).
Botanical Origin — Hibiscus esculentus h. (Abelmoschus esculentus
Guill. et Perr.) an herbaceous annual plant 2 to 3 or even 10 feet high,
indigenous to the Old World. ''^ It has been found growing abundantly
wild on the White Nile by Schweinfurth, and also in 1861 by Col.
Grant in Unyoro, 2° N. lat., near the lake Victoria Nyanza, where it is
known to the natives as Bameea.
The plant is now largely cultivated in several varieties in all tropical
countries.
History— The Spanish Moors appear to have been well acquainted
with Hibiscus esculentus, which was known to them by the same name
tliat it has in Persian at the present day — Bdmiyah. Abul- Abbas el-
Nebati, a native of Seville learned in plants, who visited Eg3'pt in
A.D. 1216, describes^ in unmistakeable terms the form of the plant, its
seeds and fruit, which last he remarks is eaten when young and tender
with meat by the Egyptians. The plant was figured among Egytian
plants in 1.592 by Prosper Alpinus,^ who mentions its uses as an ex-
ternal emollient.
The powdered fruits as imported from Arabia Felix were known for
some time (about the year 1848) in Europe as Nafe of the Arabs.
They are noticed in the present work from the circumstance that they
have a place in the Pharmacopoeia of India.
Description — The fruit is a thin capsule, 4 to 6 or more inches long
and about an inch in diameter, oblong, pointed, with 5 to 7 ridges cor-
responding to the valves and cells, each of which latter contains a single
row of round seeds. It is covered with rough hairs and is green or
l)urplish when fresh ; it has a slightly sweet mucilaginous taste and a
weak herbaceous odour. Like many other plants of the order, Hibiscus
esculentus abounds in all its parts with insipid mucilage.
1 Uehka in Arabic, according to
Schweinfurth. Okro or Okra are common
names for the plant in the East and West
Indies. Bendikai, a Canarese and Tamil
word, is used by Europeans in the South
of India. Gijambo in Cura9ao.
^ Fig. Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Plants, part 35 (1878).
' Ibn Baytar, Sontheimer's translation, i.
118 ; WUstenfeld, Oeschichie der Arab.
Aerzte etc. 1840. 118.
^ De plant. J<:gypt., Venet. 1592. cap. 27.
OLEUM CACAO.
95
Microscopic Structure — A characteristic" part for microscopic
examination are the hairs of the fruit. They exhibit at the base one
large cell, but their elongated and often slightly curved end is built
up at a considerable number of small cells, without any solid contents.
The middle and outer zone of the pericarp shows enormous holes filled
up with colourless mucilage. In polarized light it is easily seen to be
composed of successive hxyers.
Chemical Composition — It is probable that the fruits con-
tain the same mucilage as AWicea, but we have had no opportunity of
investigating the fact. Landrin^ says it turns violet with iodine
and yields no mucic acid when treated with nitric acid. Popp, who
examined the green fruits in Egypt, states^ that they abound in pectin,
starch and mucilage. He found that when dried they afforded 2 to 2-4
per cent, of nitrogen, and an ash rich in salts of lime, potash and
magnesia. The ripe seeds gave 2-4 — 2-5 per cent, of nitrogen ; their ash
24 per cent, of phosphoric acid.
Uses — The fresh or dried, unripe fruits are used in tropical countries
as a demulcent like marshmallow, or as an emollient poultice, for which
latter purpose the leaves may also be employed. They are more im-
portant from an economic point of view, being much employed for
thickening soups or eaten boiled as a vegetable. The root has been
recommended as a substitute for that of Althoia? The stems of the
plant yield a good fibre.
STERCULIACEyE.
OLEUM CACAO.
Butyrum Cacao, Oleum Theohromatis ; Cacao Butter, Oil ofTheohroma;
F. Beurre de Cacao ; G. Cacaobutter, Cacaotalg.
Botanical Origin — Cacao seeds (from which Cacao Butter is ex-
tracted) are furnished by Theobroma Cacao L., and apparently also by
Th. leiocarpum Bernoulli, Th. penfagonum Bern., and Th. Salzmav-
vianum Bern.'* These trees are found in the northern parts of South
America and in Central America as far as Mexico, both in a wild
state and in cultivation.
History — Cacao seeds were first noticed by Capitan Gonzalo
Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes (1514-1523), who stated^ that they had
been met with by Columbus, being used among the inhabitants of
Yucatan instead of money. They were likewise pointed out to Charles
v., by Cortes in one of his letters to the Emperoi', dated Temixtitan,
Woiirn. de Pharm. 22 (1875) 278.
' Archiv der Pharmacie, cxcv. (1871)
142.
Delia Sudda, Rip. de Pharm., Janvier,
1860. 229.
* Bernoulli, Ueherskhl der hisjetzt bekann-
ten Artenvon Tfieohroma. — Reprinted from
Denlcscliriften der Schweizerkchen Oesell-
schaft fiir Natiirwissenschaften, xxiv.
(Zurich, 1869) 4°. 376.
^ Historia general y natural de las Indias
islas y ticrra firme del mar oceano, iii.
(Madrid, 1853) 253.
STERCULIACEiE.
Sept. 3rd 1526.^ The tree as well as the seeds aud their uses, were at
length described by Benzoni,^ who lived in the new world from 1541 to
1555. Clusius figured the seeds in his " Notfe in GarciiB Aromatum
historiam," Antwerpipe, 1582.
Cacao butter was prepared aud described by Homberg'* as early as
1695, at which time it appears to have had no particular application,
but in 1719 it was recommended by D. de Quelus^ both for ointments
and as an aliment.
An essay published at Tubingen in 1735 called attention to it as
" novum atque comviendatissimum medicamevtum." A little later it
is mentioned by Geoffroy** who says that it is obtained either by boiling
or by expressing the seeds, that it is recommended as the basis of cos-
metic pomades and as an application to chapped lips and nipples, and
to haemorrhoids.
Production — Cacao butter is procured for use in pharmacy from
the manufactui'ers of chocolate, who obtain it by pressing the warmed
seeds. These in the shelled state yield from 45 to 50 per cent, of oil.
The natural seeds consist of about 12 per cent, of shell (testa) and 88
of kernels (cotyledons).
Description — At ordinary temperatures cacao butter is a liglit
yellowish, opaque, dry substance, usually supplied in the form of oblong
tablets having somewhat the aspect of white Windsor soap. Though
unctuous to touch, it is brittle enough to break into fragments when
struck, exhibiting a dull waxy fractui'e. It has a pleasant odour of
chocolate, and melts in the mouth with a bland agreeable taste. Its
sp. gr. is 0-961 ; its fusing point 20° to 30° C.
Examined under the microscope by polarized light, cacao butter is
seen to consist of minute crystals. It is dissolved by 20 parts of boiling-
absolute alcohol, but on cooling separates to such an extent that the
liquid retains not more than 1 per cent, in solution. The fat separated
after refrigeration is found to have lost most of its chocolate flavour.
Litmus is not altered by the hot alcoholic solution.
Cacao butter in small fragments is slowly dissolved by double its
weight of benzol in the cold (10° C), but by keeping partially separates
in crystalline warts.
Chemical Composition — The fat under notice is composed, in
common with others, of several bodies which by saponification furnish
glycerin and fatty acids. Among the latter occurs also oleic acid,"
contained in that part of the cacao butter which remains dissolved in
cold alcohol as above stated. In fact by evaporating that solution a
soft fat is obtained. But the chief constituents of cacao butter appear
to be stearin, palmitin, and another compound of glycerin containing
^ Vedia, Cartas de relacion en.viadas al
emperador Carlos V. desde Nueva Espaiia.
Madrid, 1852. T. 1.
2 Chaweton (Urbaia) Hist. nouv. du
Nouveau Monde .... extraite del' italien
de M. JJierosme Benzoni Milanais. 1579.
p. 504.
^ Hist. d. I'Acad. Boy. des Sciences, tome
ii. depuis 1686 jusqu'4 1699, Paris, 1733.
p. 248.
* Hist. vat. du Cacao et du Sucre, Paris,
1719. (According to Haller, Bibl. Bot. ii.
158.)
^ B. D. Mauchart prseside — dissertatio :
Butyrum Cacao. Resp. Tbeopli. Holf-
mann.
6 Tract, de Mat. Med. ii. (1741) 409.
" See article A mygdalcB didces.
SEMEN LINI.
97
probably an acid of the same series richer in carbon, — perhaps arachic
acid, C'"H""'0', or " theobromic acid," C^H'^'O', as suggested in 1877 by
Kingzett.
Uses — Cacao butter, which is remarkable for havino- but little ten-
dency to rancidity, has long been used in continental pharmacy ; it was
introduced into England a few years ago as a convenient basis for
suppositories and pessaries.
Adulteration — The description given of the di-ug sufficiently indi-
cates the means of ascertaining its purity.
LINE^.
SEMEN LINI.
Linseed, Flax Seed ; F. Semence de Lin; G. Leinsamen, Flachssamen .
Botanical Origin — Linum usitatissimum L., Common Flax, is an
annual plant, native of the Old World, where it has been cultivated from
the I'emotest times. It sows itself as a weed in tilled ground, and is
now found in all temperate and tropical regions of the glube. Heer
regards it as a variety evolved by cultivation from the perennial X.
angustifolium Huds.
History — The history of flax, its textile fibre and seed, is intimately
connected with that of human civilization. The whole process of con-
verting the plant into a fibre fit for weaving into cloth is frequently
depicted on the wall-paintings of the Egyptian tombs.^ The grave-
clothes of the old Egyptians were made of flax, and the use of the fibre
in Egypt may be traced back, according to linger,'' as far as the 23rd
century B.C. The old literature of the Hebrews'* and Greeks contains
frequent reference to tissues of flax ; and fabrics woven of flax have
actually been discovered together with fruits and seeds of the plant
in the remains of the ancient pile-dwellings bordering the lakes of
Switzerland.''
The seed in ancient times played an important part in the alimenta-
tion of man. Among the Greeks, Alcman in the 7th centur}'' B.C., and
the historian Thucydides, and among the Romans Pliny, mention linseed
as employed for human food. The roasted seed is still eaten by the
Abyssinians."
Theophrastus expressly alludes to the mucilaginous and oily
properties of the seed. Pliny and Dioscorides were acquainted with
its medical application both external and internal. The latter, as
well as Columella, exhaustively describes flax under its agricultural
aspect. In an edict of the Emperor Diocletian De pretiis rerum vena-
lium^ dating a.d. 301, linseed is quoted 150 denarii, sesame seed 200,
^Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, iii. (1837)
138, &c.
Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Alcademif,
Juni 1866.
^Exod. ix. 31 ; Lev. xiii. 47, 48; Isaiah
xix. 9.
■'Heer in Trimen's Journ. of Bot. i.
(1872) 87.
^ A. de Candolle, Giogr. Botanique, 835.
—A. Braun, Flora, 1848. 94.
^ See p. 65, note 1.
G
98
LINE.E.
hemp seed 80, and poppy seed 150, the moditis castrensis, equal to about
880 cubic inches/ The propagation of flax in Northern Europe as of
so many other useful plants was promoted by Charlemagne.'^ It seems
to have reached Sweden and Norway before the 12th century.^
Description — The capsule which is globose splits into 5 carpels,
each containing two seeds separated by a partition. The seeds are of
flattened, elongated ovoid form with an acute edge, and a slightly
oblique point blunt at one end. They have a brown, glossy, polished
surface which under a lens is seen to be marked with extremely fine
pits. The hilum occupies a slight hollow in the edge just below the
apex. The testa which is not very hard encloses a thin layer of
albumen surrounding a pair of large cotyledons having at their ])ointed
extremity a straight embryo. The seeds of difi'erent countries vaiy
from I to ^ of an inch in length, those produced in warm regions being-
larger than those grown in cold. We find that 6 seeds of Sicilian
linseed, 13 of Black Sea and 17 of Archangel linseed weigh respectively
une gra in.
When immersed in water, the seeds become surrounded by a thin,
slippery, colourless, mucous envelope, which quickly dissolves as a
neutral jelly, while the seed slightly swells and loses its polish. The
seed when masticated has a mucilaginous oily taste.
Microscopic Structure — On examining the testa under almond
oil or oil of turpentine, the outlines of the epidermal cells are not dis-
tinctly visible. But under dilute glycerin or in water the epidermis
quickly swells up to 3 or 4 times its original thickness ; on warming,
the entire epidermis is resolved into mucilage, except a thin skeleton
of cell- walls, which withstands even the action of caustic lye. The for-
mation of the mucilage may be conveniently studied by the use of a
solution of ferrous sulphate, with which thin sections of the testa
should be moistened. Other structural peculiarities may be seen if
they are imbued with concentrated sulphuric acid, washed and then
moistened Avith a solution of iodine. The application of polarized light
is also useful. By the latter means cr^^stalloid granules of albumi-
noid matter become visible if the sections are exauiined under oil.
The tissue of the albumen and the cotyledons abounds in drops of
fatty oil.
Chemical Composition — The constituent of chief importance is
the fixed oil which the seed contains to about i of its weight. The
proportion obtained by pressure on a large scale is 20 to 30 per cent,
varying with the quality of the seed. The oil when pressed with-
out heat and when fresh has but little colour, is without unpleasant
taste, and does not solidify till cooled to - 20° C. The commercial
oil however is dark yellow, and has a sharp repulsive taste and
odour. On exposure to the air, especially after having been heated
with oxide of lead, it quickly dries up to a transparent varnish con-
sisting chiefly of Linoxyn, C^'H'^O". The crude oil increases in weight
'The English imperial (jallon = 277 "27
cubic iuches.
- For further historical information on
flax ill ancient times, we may refer to Hehii,
K ulfAirpJlanzmund Hmistlucre . . . Berlin,
1870. 97, 430.
^Schiibeler, Die Pflanzeiiwelt. Norwajens,
Christiania, 1873— 1"875. p. 332.
SEMEN LINI.
99
11 to 12 percent., although at the same time its glycerin is destroyed by
oxidation.
By saponification, linseed oil yields glycerin, and 9o per cent, of
fatty acids, consisting chiefly of Linoleic Acid, C^''H"''0', accompanied
by some oleic, palmitic, and myristic acid. The action of the air
transforms linoleic acid into the resinoid Oxylinoleic Acid, C^"H'^'*0'.
Linoleic acid appears to be contained in all di'ying oils, notably in
tliat of poppy seed. It is not homologous either with ordinary fatty
acids or with the oleic acid of oil of almonds, C"'H''^0". The chemistry
of the drying oils, especially those of linseed and poppy, has been parti-
cularly investigated by Mulder.^
The viscid mucilage of linseed cannot be filtered till it has been
boiled. It contains in the dry state more than 10 per cent, of mineral
substances, when freed from which and dried at 110^ C. it corre-
sponds, like althtea-nmcilage, to the foi-mula The seeds by
exhaustion with cold or warm water afi:brd of it about 15 per cent.
By boiling nitric acid it yields crystals of mucic acid ; by dilute mineral
acids it is broken up into dextrogyre gum and sugar and cellulose.^
Linseed contains about 4 per cent, of nitrogen corresponding to
about 25 per cent, of protein-substances. After expression of the oil
these substances remain in the cake so com|)letely that the latter con-
tains 5 ])er cent, of nitrogen, and constitutes a very important article
for feeding cattle.
In the ripe state linseed is altogether destitute of starch, though
this substance is found in the immature seed in the very cells which
subsequently yield the mucilage. The latter may be regarded as in
analogous cases to be a [jroduct of the transformation of starch.
The amount of water retained by the air-diy seed is about
!) i)er cent.
The mineral constituents of linseed, chiefly phosphates of potas-
sium, magnesium, and calcium, amount on an average to 3 per cent.,
and pass into the mucilnge. By treating thin slices of the testa and
its adhering inner membrane with ferrous sulphate, it is seen that this
integument is the seat of a small amount of tannin.
Production and Commerce — Flax is cultivated on the largest
scale in Russia, from Avhich country there was imported into the
United Kino;dom in 1872 linseed to the value of 3 millions sterlino-.
The shipments were made-in about equal proportion from the northern
and the southern ports of Russia.
The imports from India in the same year amounted in value to
£1,144,942, and from Germany and Holland to £144,108. The total
import in 1872 was 1,514,947 quarters, value £4,513,842.
The cultivation of flax in Great Britain appears to be declining.
The area under this crop in 1870 was 23,957 acres ; in 1871, 17,366
acres; in 3 872, 15,357 acres; and in 1873, 14,683 acres. The last-
named area reckoning the yield at 2 to 2h quarters of seed per acre
would represent a production of about 30,000 to 38,000 quarters.
' His numerous investigations on this
siibject have been published in a separate
pamphlet, of which we have before us a
German translation : G. .T. Mulder. Die
C/iemie dar austrochnenden Ovh . . Berlin,
1867, pp. 255.
- Kirchner and Tollens, Annaltu der
C'hewie, 175 (1874) 215.
100
ZYGOPHYLLEJi:.
In English price-currents, eiglifc sorts of linseed are enumerated,
namely, English, Calc\itta, Bombay, Egyptian, Black Sea and Azof,
Petersburg, Riga, Archangel. The first three appear to fetch the
highest prices.
Uses — In medicine, linseed is chiefly used in the form of poultice
which may be made either of the seed simply ground or of the pulver-
ized cake. In either case the powder should not be long stored, as the
oil in the comminuted seed is i'a])idly oxidized and fatty acids produced.
An infusion of the seeds called Linseed Tea is a common popular
demulcent remedy.
Adulteration — Linseed is very liable to adulteration with other
seeds, especially when the commodity is scarce. The admixture in
question is due in part to careless harvesting and in part to intentional
additions. In 1864 the impure condition of the linseed shipped to the
Enfjlish market had become so detrimental to the trade that the im-
porters and crushers founded an association called The Linseed Asso-
ciation of London, hy v^^hlch they hound themselves to refuse all lin-
seed containing more than 4 per cent, of foreign seeds, and this step
very rapidly improved the quality of the article.^
As the druggist has to purchase linseed meal, he must of neces-
sity rely to some extent on the character of the oil-presser from whom
he derives his supplies. The presence of the seeds of Crucifera: (as
rape and mustard) which is common, may be recognized by the pun-
gent odour of the essential oil which they develope in contact with
water. The introduction of cereals would also be easily discovered by
iodine, which strikes no blue colour in a decoction of linseed. The
microscope will also afford important aid in the examination of linseed
cake or meal.
ZYGOPHYLLE^.
LIGNUM GUAIACI.
Lignum sanctum ; Guaiaciim Wood,, Lignum Vita' ; F. Bois de
Game; G. GnaiaJcholz, Pockholz.
Botanical Origin^ — This wood is furnished by two West Indian
species of Guaiacum, namely : —
1. G. offi^cinale L., a middle-sized or low evergreen tree, with light
blue flowers, paripinate leaves having ovate, very obtuse leaflets in 2,
less often in 3 pairs, and 2-celled fruits. It grows in Cuba, Jamaica
(abundantly on the arid plains of the south side of the island), Les
Gonaives in the N.W. of Hayti (plentiful), St. Domingo, Martinique,
St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Trinidad, and the northern coast of the South
American continent. This tree affords the Lignum Vitas of Jamaica
(of which very little is imported), a portion of that shipped from the
ports of Hayti, and probably the small quantity exported by the United
States of Colombia.
2. G. sanctum L., a tree much resembling the preceding, but distin-
guishable by its leaves having 3 to 4 pairs of leaflets which are very
1 Greenish in Yearbook of Pkarmaaj, 1871. 590; Pharm. Journ. Seijfc. 9, 1871. 211.
LIGNUM GUAIACI.
101
obliquely obovate or oblong, passing into rhomboid-ovate, and mucronu-
late ; and a 5-celled fruit. It is found in Southern Florida, the Bahama
Islands, Key West, Cuba, St. Domingo (including the part called Hayti)
and Puerto Rico, and is certainly the source of the small but excellent
Lignum Vitfe exported from the Bahamas as well as of some of that
shipped from Hayti.
History — There can be no doubt but that the earliest importations
of Lignum VittB were obtained from St. Domingo, of which island,
Oviedo' who landed in America in 1514 mentions the tree, under the
name of Gimyacnn, as a native. He points out its fruits as yellow and
resembling two joined lupines, which could only be said with reference
to G. ojfichiale, and would not apply to the ovoid five-cornered fruits of
G. sanctiLm. Oviedo appears however to have been aware of two species,
one of which he found in Espaiiola (St. Domingo) as well as in Nagrando
(Nicai-agua) and the other in the island of St. John (Puerto Rico),
whence it was called Lignum sanctum.
The first edition of Oviedo was printed in 1526; but some years
before this the wood must have been known in Germany, as is evident
by the treatises written in 1517, 1518, and 1519 by Nicolaus Poll,"^
Leonard Schmaus'' and Ulrich von Hutten.'* The last which gives a
tolerable description of the tree, its wood, bark, and medicinal pro-
perties, was translated into English in 1533 by Thomas Paynel, canon
of jNIerton Abbey, and published in London in 153G under the title —
" Of the tvood called Guaiacum that healeth the Frenche Pockes and
also helpcth the gout in the feete, the stoone, the palsey, lepree, dropsy,
fcdlynge euyll, and other dyseases." It was several times reprinted.
In the old pharmacy the products of destructive distillation of
guaiacum wood were known as Oleum lig^ni sancti. It must have
consisted of the substances which we mention further on in the following
article.
Description — The wood (always known in commerce as Lignum
Vitce) as imported consists of pieces of the stem and thick branches,
usually stripped of bark, and often weighing a hundredweight each.
It is remarkably heavy and compact. Its sp. gr. which exceeds that of
most woods is about 1'3.
Lignum Vitfe is mostly imported for turnery,' and the chips, raspings
and shavings are the only form in whic'i it is commonly seen in phar-
macy. A stem 7 to 8 inches in diameter cut transversely exhibits a
light-3'ellowish zone of .sapwood about an inch wide, enclosing a sharply
defined heartwood of a dark greenish brown. Both display alternate
lighter and darker laj^ers, which especiallj' in the sapwood are further
distinguished by groups of vessels. In this manner are formed a large
1 Natural Hystoria de las Indias, Toledo,
1526. fol. xxxvii.
- Decura Morbi Gallicipcr Lir/num Guaya-
canum lihellus, printed in 1535 but dated
19 Dec. 1517, 8 pages 8°.
3 De Morho GaUico tractatm, Salisburgi,
November 1518, — reprinted in the Aphro-
dixiacus of Luisinus, Lugd. Bat. 1728. 383.
— We have only seen the latter.
* Ulrichl de Hutten equiti-i de Guaiaci
medicina et morho gallico liher %mu^, 4°. (26
chapters) Moguntise, 1519.
^ It is much used for the wheels (techni-
cally "sheaves") of ships' blocks (jjulleys),
the circumference of which ought to consist
of the white sapwood. It is also required
for caulking mallets, skittle balls and for
the large balls used in American bowling
alleys, for which jjurposes it should be as
sound and homogeneous as possible.
102
ZYGOPHYLLE^.
number of circles resembling annual rings, the general form of which is
evident, though the individual rings are by no means well defined.
More than 20 such rings may be counted in the sapwood of a log such
as we have mentioned, and more than 30 in the heartwood. The pith-
less centre is usually out of the axis. The medullary rays are not
visible to the naked eye, but may be seen by a lens to be very numerous
and equidistant. The pores of the heartAvood may be distinguished as
containing a brownish resin, while those of the outermost layer of sap-
wood are empty.
In the thickest pieces sapwood is wanting, and even in stems of
about a foot in diameter it is reduced to I of an inch. It is of looser
texture than the heartwood and floats on water, whereas the latter sinks.
Both sapwood and heartwood owe their tenacity to an extremely peculiar
zigzag arrangement^ of the Avoody bundles. The sapwood is tastless.
The heartwood has a faintly aromatic and slightly irritating taste, and
when heated or rubbed emits a weak ao-reeable odour.
The bark which was formerly officinal but is now almost obsolete,
is very rich in oxalate of calcium and affords upon incineration not less
than 23 per cent, of ash. It contains a resin distinct from that of the
wood, and also a bitter acrid principle.^
The Lignum Vitfe of Jamaica ((?. ojfic'male) and that of the Bahamas
{G. sanctum), of which authentic specimens have been kindly placed at
our disposal by Mr. G. Shadbolt, display the same appearance as well
as microscopic structure.^
Microscopic Structure — The wood consists for the most part of
pointed, not very long, ligneous cells (libriform), traversed by one-celled
rows of medullary rays. There are also thin layers of parenchymatous
tissue, to which the zones apparent in a transverse section of the drug
ai'e due. The pitted vessels are comparatively large but not very
numerous. The structure of the sapwood is the same as that of the
heartwood, but in the latter the ligneous cells are filled with resin.
The parenchymatous cells contain crystals of oxalate of calcium.
Chemical Composition — The only constituent of any interest is
the resin which the heartwood contains to the extent of about a fourth
of its weight. The sapwood afforded us 0"91 and the heartwood 0'60
per cent, of ash.
Commerce — Lignum VitfB varies much iji estimation, according to
size, soundness, and the cylindrical form of the logs. The best is
exported from the city of Santo Domingo, whither it is brought from the
interior of the island. The quantity shipped from this port during 1871
was 1494 tons;"* 220 tons were exported in 1877 from Puerto Plata on
' It has been remarkably well pointed
out already by Valerius Cordus [obiit 1544).
See Gesner's edition of his Hint. Stiriiiina
Arf/aUorat., 1561. 191.
- See also Oberlin et Schlagdenhauffen,
Joimi. de Pharm. 28 (1878) 246 and plate
vi.
^ That of Guaiaciim arhoreum DC. is
appai'ently very different. This tree, oc-
curring in New Granada, has already been
noticed (1671 — 1577) by Francisco Hernan-
dez (Nova plantarum, animal, et mineral.
mexica.nor. hist., Romae 1651, fol. 63)
under the name of Gua ijacan. He mentions
its large umbels with yellow flowers, those
of Guaiacum officinale, the " Honxacan " or
Lignum sanctum, being blue. In the Pro-
dromns Floras Neo-Granatentis (A nn.Scienc.
nat. XV., 1872. p. .361) J. E. Planchon also
describes Guaiacum arboreum, known there
as Guayacan poivillo ; its wood is of an
almost pvdverulent fracture.
■* Gonsular Meports presente<l to Parlia-
ment, Aug. 1872.
RESINA GUAIACI.
103
the northern coast of the island. The wood obtained from the Haytian
ports (of the western part of the same island) is much less esteemed in
the London market.
Some small wood of good quality comes from the Bahamas, and an
ordinary quality, also small, from Jamaica. From the latter island, the
(juantity exported in 1871 was only 14 tons from the Bahamas in the
same year 199 tons.^ Lignum Vit[i3 was shipped from Santa Marta in
1H7'2 to the extent of 115 tons.^
Hamburg is also an important place for the wood under notice ; in
1877 there were imported 2:2,404 centners from S. Domingo and 3551
centnei's from Venezuela.
Uses — Guaiacum wood is only retained in the pharmacopoeia as an
ingredient of the Compound Decoction of Sarsaparilla. It is probably
inert, at least in the manner in which it is now administered.*
Adulteration — In purchasing guaiacum chips it is necessary to
observe that the non-resinous sapwood is absent, and still more that
there is no admixture of an}^ other wood. A spurious form of the drug
seems to be by no means rare in the United States.^
RESINA GUAIACI.
Guaiacum Resin ; F. Besine de Galac ; G. Giudakharz.
Botanical Origin — Guaiacum officinale L., see preceding article.
History — Hutten*" in 1510 stated that guaiacum wood when set on
fire exudes a blackish resin which quickly hardens, but of which he
knew no use. The resin was in fact introduced into medicine much
later than the wood. The first edition of the London Pharmacopoeia
in which we find the former named is that of 1677.
Production" — In the island of St. Domingo, whence the supplies of
guaiacum resin are chiefly derived, the latter is collected from the stems
of the trees, in part as a natural exudation, and in part as the result of
incisions made in the bark. In some districts as in the island of
Cxonave near Port-au-Prince, another method of obtaining it is adopted.
A log of the wood is supported in a horizontal position above the
ground by two upright bars. Each end of the log is then set on fire,
and a large incision having been previously made in the middle, the
melted resin runs out therefrom in considerable abundance. 30,350 lbs.
of it have been exported in 1875 from Port-au-Prince.
The resin is collected chiefly from G. officinale, which affords it in
greater plenty than G. sanctum.
1 Blue. Book — Island of Jamaica for 1871.
- Blue Book for Colony of Bahamas for
1871.
Consular Beportg, Aug. 1873. 746.
* The ancient treatment of syjiliilis by
guaiacum which gained for the drug such
immense reputation, consisted in the ad-
ministration of vast quantities of the decoc-
tion, the patient being shut up in a warm
room and kept in bed. — See Hutten's
jiamphlet quoted before, and its nvimerous
reprints and translations.
Schulz, in the (Chicago) Pharmacint,
Sept. 1873.
I* Op. fit. at p. 101.
We have to thank Mr. Eugene Nau of
Port-au-Prince for the information given
under this head, as well as forsome interest-
ing specimens.
104
ZYGOPHYLLE^.
Description — The resin occurs in globular tears -?r an inch to 1 inch
in diameter, but much more commonly in the form of large compact
masses, containing fragments of wood and bark. The resin is brittle,
breaking with a clean, glassy fracture ; in thin pieces it is transparent
and appears of a greenish bi'own hue. The powder when fresh is
grey, but becomes green by exposure to light and air. It has a slight
balsamic odour and but little taste, yet leaves an irritating sensation
in the throat.
The resin has a sp. gr. of about 12. It fuses at 85° C, emitting a
peculiar odour somewhat like that of benzoin. It is easily soluble in
acetone, ether, alcohol, amylic alcohol, chloroform, creasote, caustic alka-
line solutions, and oil of cloves ; but is not dissolved or only partially
by other volatile oils, benzol or bisidphide of carbon. By oxidizing
agents it acquires a fine blue colour, well shown when a fresh alcoholic
solution is allowed to dry up in a very thin layer and this is then
sprinkled with a dilute alcoholic solution of ferric chloride. Reducing
agents of all kinds, and heat produce decoloration. An alcoholic solu-
tion may be thus blued and decolorized several times in succession, but
it loses at length its susceptibility. This remarkable property of
guaiacum was utilized by Schonbein in his well-known researches on
ozone.
Chemical Composition — The composition of gviaiacum resin was
ascertained by Hadelich (1862) to be as follows : — ■
Guaiaconic Acid, . . . . . . . . 70*3 per cent.
(iiiaiaretic Acid, . . . . . . . . 10"5 ,,
Ouaiac Beta-resin, . . . . . . . 9 8
Gum, 37 ,,
Ash constituents, . . . . . . . .08 ,,
Guaiacic Acid, colouring matter (Guaiac yellow), and } ^.^
impurities, ....... ^ ' >>
If the mother liquor obtained in the preparation of the potassium
salt of guaiaretic acid (vide infra) is decomposed by hydrochloric acid,
and the precipitate washed with water, ether will extract from the mass
Guaiaconic Acid, a compound discovered by Hadelich, having the
formula C^ff^O'". It is a light brown, amorphous substance, fusing at
100° C. It is without acid reaction but decomposes alkaline carbonates,
forming uncrystallizable salts easily soluble in water or alcohol. It is
insoluble in water, benzol, or bisulphide of carbon, but dissolves in
ether, chloroform, acetic acid or alcohol. With oxidizing agents it
acquires a transient blue tint.
Guaiaretic Acid, C""H'''^0^ discovered by Hlasiwetz in 1859, maybe
extracted from the crude resin by alcoholic potash or by quicklime.
With the former it produces a crystalline salt ; with the latter an amor-
phous compound : from either the liquid, which contains chiefly a salt
of guaiaconic acid, may be easily decanted. Guaiaretic acid is obtained
by decomposing one of the salts referred to with hydrochloric acid, and
crystallizing from alcohol. The crystals, which are soluble also in ether,
benzol, chloroform, carbon bisuljDhide or acetic acid, but neither in
ammonia nor in water, melt below 80° C, and may be volatilized with-
out decomposition. The acid is not coloured blue by oxidizing agents.
By exhausting guaiacum resin with boiling bisulphide of carbon a
slightly yellowish solution is obtained (containing chiefly guaiaretic
RESINA GUAIACI.
105
acid ?), which, on addition of concentrated sulphuric acid, turns
beautifully red.
After the extraction of the guaiaconic acid there remains a substance
insoluble in ether to which the name Guaiac Beta-resin has been
applied. It dissolves in alcohol, acetic acid or alkalis, and is precipitated
by ether, benzol, chloroform or carbon bisulphide in brown flocks, the
composition of which appears not greatly to difier from that of guaia-
conic acid.
Giiaiacic Acid, C''H"'0^ obtained in 1841 by Thierry from guaiacum
wood or from the resin, crystallizes in colourless needles. Hadelich was
not able to obtain more than one pai't from 20,000 of guaiacum resin.
Hadelich's Guaiac-yelloiu, the colouring matter of guaiacum resin,
first observed by Pelletier, crystallizes in pale yellow quadratic octo-
hedra, having a bitter taste. Like the other constituents of the resin,
it is not a glucoside.
The decomposition-products of guaiacum are of peculiar interest.
On subjecting the resin to dry distillation in an iron retort and rectify-
ing the distillate, Guaiacene (Guajol of Volckel), C''H**0, passes over
at 118° C. as a colourless neutral liquid having a burning aromatic
taste.
At 205° — 210° C, there pass over other products, Guaiacol,
CH^OCHIOH, (methylic ether of pyrocatechin), and Kreosol
C''H'\OH(CH^)'. Both are thickish, aromatic, colourless liquids, which
become green by caustic alkalis, blue by alkaline earths, and are similar
in their chemical relations to eugenic acid. Guaiacol has been prepared
sjTithetically by Gorup-Besanez (1868) by combining iodide of methyl,
CH'I, with pyrocatechin, G'W{011)\
After the removal by distillation of the liquids just described, there
sublime upon the further application of heat pearly crystals of Pyro-
(jaaiacin, C^*H**0^ an inodorous substance melting at 180° C. The
same compound is obtained together with guaiacol by the dry distilla-
tion of guaiaretic acid. Pyi-oguaiacin is coloured green by ferric
chloride, and blue by warm sulphuric acid. The similar reactions of
the crude resin are probably due to this substance (Hlasiwetz).
Beautiful coloured reactions are likewise exhibited by two new acids
which Hlasiwetz and Barth obtained (1864) in small quantity together
with traces of fatty volatile acids, by melting purified resin of guaiacum
with potassium hydrate. One of them is isomeric with pyrocatechuic
acid.
Uses — Guaiacum resin is reputed diaphoretic and alterative. It is
frequently prescribed in cases of gout and rheumatism.
Adulteration — The drug is sometimes imported in a very foid con-
dition and largely contaminated with impurities arising from a careless
method of collection.
1()()
RVTACEM.
BUT ACE yE.
CORTEX ANGOSTURA.
Cortex Cuspariie ; Angosfara Bark, Gas^xirut Bark, Carony Bark;
F. Ecorce d'Angustiwe de Colomhie ; (i. Angostiira-Rinde.
Botanical Origin — G(di/>e(t Cusparia St. Hilaire (G. offi.chi(dis
Hancock, Bovp/andia frifoltata Willd., Cmparia trifolUda, Engler
1874, Flora Brasil. 113), a small tree, 12 to 15 feet high, with
a trunk 3 to 5 inches in diameter, growino- in abundance on the
mountains ot San Joaquin de Caroni in Venezuela, between 7° and 8"
N. lat., also according to Bonpland^ near Cumana. According to
Hancock,^ who was well acquainted with the tree, it is also found
in the Missions of Tumeremo, Uri, Alta Gracia, and Cupapui, districts
lying eastward of the Caroni and near its junction with the Orinoko.
The bark is brought into commerce by way of Trinidad.
History — Angostura Bark is said to have been used in Madrid by
Mutis as early as 1759^ (the year before he left Spain for South
America,) but it was certainly unknown to the rest of Europe until
much later. Its real introducer was Brande, apothecary to Queen
Charlotte, and father of the distinguished chemist of the same name,
Mdio drew attention to some parcels of the bark imported into England
in 1788.'' In the same year a quantity was sent to a London drug firm
by Dr. Ewer of Tiinidad, who describes it^ as brought to that island
from Angostura by the Spaniards. The drug continued to arrive in
Europe either by way of Spain or England, and its use was gradually
diffused. In South America it is known as Qmva de Caroni and
Cascardla del Angostura.
Description — The bark occurs in fiattish or channelled pieces, or
in quills rarely as much as 6 inches in length and mostly shorter. The
flatter pieces are an inch or more in width and ^ of an inch in thick-
ness. The outer side of the bark is coated with a yellowish-grey corky
layer, often soft enough to be removeable with the nail, and then dis-
playing a dark brown, resinous under surface. The inner side is light
brown with a rough, slightly exfoliating surface indicating close adhe-
sion to the wood, strips of which are occasionally found attached to it ;
the obliquely cut edge also shows that it is not very easily detached.
'Humboldt, AV/.se in die Aeqxdnodial-
f/er/mden ties ncuen Continents, iv. (Stutt-
gart, 1860), 252. — Humboldt and Bonpland
in 1804 obtaining, from the Caroni river,
flowering branches of the " Cttxj)a" [I.e. 1.
300) or " CiiHpare," as it is called by the
Indians, believed it to constitate a new
genus. In 1824 St. Hilaire ascertained it
to belong to the genus Galipea.
The tree is figured in Bentley and
Trimen, Med. Plants, part 26 (1877).
- Otinervatiom on the Orai/uri or Angus-
tura Baric Tree, — Trans, of jSI edico-Botani-
cal Society, 1827-29. — Hancock endeavoured
to prove his tree distinct from G. Ciispnria
8t. Hil., but Farre and Don who subse-
quently examined his specimens decided
that the two were the same. \Yith the
assistance of Prof. Oliver, I also have
examined (1871) Hancock's plant, com-
paring it with his figure and other speci-
mens, and liave arrived at the conclusion
that it is untenable as a distinct species.
— D. H.
3 Martiny, Enri/Hopa,Jie, i. (184.3) 242.
^ Brande, Jixperimrnln and Oliservaiions
on the Angustura Bark. 1791. 2nd ed. 1793.
5 London Med. Journ. x. (1789) 154.
CORTEX ANGOSTURA.
107
The bark has a shoi't, resinous fracture, and displays on its transverse
edge sharply defined white points, due to dejDosits of oxalate of calcium.
It has a bitter taste and a nauseous musty odour.
Microscopic Structure — The most striking peculiai-ity is the great
)\umber of oil-cells scattered through the tissue of the bark. They
are not much larger than the neighbouring parenchymatous cells, and
are loaded with yellowish essential oil or small granules of resin.
Numerous other cells contain bundles of needle-shaped crystals of
oxalate of calcium or small starch granules. The liber exhibits bundles
of yelloAv fibres, to which the foliaceous fracture of the inner bark is
due. The structure of the bark under notice has been very minutely
described and figured by Oberlin and Schlagdenhauffen.^
Chemical Composition — Angostura bark owes its peculiar odour
to an essential oil which it Avas found by Herzog ^ to yield to the extent
of f per cent. It is probably a mixture of a hydrocarbon (C^"H"')
with an oxygenated oil. Its boiling f)oint is 26(3° C. Oberlin and
ISchlagdenhautfen obtained 0"19 per cent, of the oil, and found it to
1 >e slightly dextrogyre ; it assumes a fine red colour when shaken
with aqueous ferric chloride, and turns yellow with concentrated
sulphuric acid.
The bitter taste of the bark is attributed to a substance pointed out
in 1833 by Saladin and named Cusparin. It is said to be crystalline,
neutral, melting at 45° C, soluble in alcohol, sparingly in water, pre-
cipitable by tannic acid. The bark is stated to yield it to the extent
of 1"3 per cent. Herzog endeavoured to prepare it but without success,
nor have Oberlin and Schlagdenhaufien met with it. The lattei;
chemists, on the other hand, isolated an alkaloid Angosturivr
-g prisms, melting at 85° and yielding a crystal-
lized chlorhydrate or sulphate. Angosturine turns red when touched
with concentrated sulphuric acid, or green if nitric acid or iodic acid,
or other oxydizing substances, have been previously mixed with the
sulphuric acid. The alcoholic solution of the alkaloid is of decidedly
alkaline reaction. A cold aqueous infusion of angostura bark yields
an abundant red-brown precipitate Math ferric chloride. Thin slices
of the bark are not coloured by solution of ferrous sulphate, so that
tannin appears to be absent.
Uses — Angostura bark is a valuable tonic in dyspepsia, dysentery
and chronic diarrhoea, but is falling into disuse.
Adulteration — About the year 1804, a quantity of a bark Avhich
proved to be that of Strychnos Nux Voviica reached Europe from
India, and was mistaken for Cusparia. The error occasioned great
alarm and some accidents, and the use of angostura was in some coun-
tries even prohibited. The means of distinguishing the two barks
(which are not likely to be again confounded) are amply contained in
the above-given descriptions and tests, and at length pointed out by
Oberlin and Schlagdenhauffen. They also described the bark of
Esenbeclcia febrifuga Martins {Evodia fehrifuga Saint Hilaire), a
1 Journ. de Phnrni. et de CJirmte, 28 is also figured by Berg, Auatomi.^cJifr
(1877), 226 ; plates I., II., III. The bark Atlas, Tab. 37.
2 Aichivd. Pharm. xcii. (1858) 14G.
108
RUTACE^.
Brazilian tree belonging to the same natural order. Maisch ' Avas the
first to draw attention to this " nevj false Avgostura hark." It is at
once distinguished hj being devoid of aromatic properties ; its taste is
purely bitter.
FOLIA BUCHU.
Folia Buveo; Bachii, Bucchu, Bucha or Buha Leaves; F. Feuilles de
Bucco; G. Bukuhldtter.
Botanical Origin — The Buchu leaves are afforded by three species
of Barosma} The latter are erect shrubs some feet in heio^ht, with
glabrous rod-like branches, opposite leaves furnished with conspicuous
oil-cells on the toothed margin as well as generally on the under
surface. The younger twigs and several parts of the flower are also
provided with oil-cells. The white flowers with 5-partite calyx, and
the fruit formed of five erect carpels, are often found, together with
small leafy twigs, in the drug of commerce.
The leaves of the three species referred to may be thus distin-
giiished: —
1. Barosrna crenulata Hook. (B. crenata Kunze). — Oblong, oval,
or obovate, obtuse, narrowed towards the base into a distinct petiole;
margin serrulate or crenulate; dimensions, | to 1^ inches long, -{\^ to
of an inch Made.
2. B. serratifolia Willd. — Linear-lanceolate, equally narrowed to-
wa^rds either end, three-nerved, apex truncate always furnished with
an oil-cell; margin sharply serrulate; 1 — 1^ inches long by about -f^ of
an inch wide.
3. B. hetulina Bartling. — Cuneate-obovate, apex recurved; margin
sharply denticulate, teeth spreading; J- to | of an inch long by f'^^ to
yV wide. Substance of the leaf more harsh and rigid than in the pre-
cedinof.
B. cremdata and B. hehdina grow in the Divisions of Clanwilliam
and Worcester, north and north-east of Cape Town, and the former even
on Table Mountain close to the capital; B. serratifolia is found in the
Division of Swellendam farther south.
History — The use of Buchu leaves was learnt from the Hottentots
by the colonists of the Cape of Good Hope. The first importations of
the drug were consigned to the house of Reece & Co., of London, who
introduced it to the medical profession in 1821.^ The species appears
to have been B. cremdata.
Description — In addition to the characters already pointed out, wc
may observe that buchu leaves of either of the kinds mentioned are
smooth and glabrous, of a dull yellowish-green hue, somewhat paler
on the under side, on which oil-cells in considerable number are per-
ceptible.
The leaves of B. creimlata vary in shape and size in different parcels,
in some the leaves being larger and more elongated than in others, pro-
bably according to the luxuriance of the bushes in particular localities.
1 Am. Journ. of Pharm. 1874. 50 ;
also Yearbook of Pharm. 1874. 91.
^ From fiapii^, heavy, and o(r/ij;, odour.
3 R. Reece, Monlldii Gazette of Health for
Feb. 1821. 799.
FOLIA BUCHU.
109
Those of B. serratifolia and B. hetidma present but little variation.
Each kind is always imported by itself. Those of B. hetidina are the
least esteemed, and fetch a lower price than the others, yet appear to
be qviite as rich in essential oil.
Buchn leaves have a penetrating peculiar odour and a strongly
aromatic taste.
Microscopic Structure — The essential oil is contained in large
cells close beneath the epidermis of the under side of the leaf. The oil-
cells are circular and surrounded by a thin layer of smaller cells; they
consequently partake of the character of the oil-ducts in the aroinatic
roots of Umbellifercii and Compositcn. The latter, however, are
elongated.
The upper side of the leaf of B<irosma exhibits an extremely
interesting peculiarity.^ There is a colourless layer of cells separating
the epidermis from the green inner tissue (mesophyllum). If the leaves
are examined under alcohol or almond-oil the colourless layer is seen to
be very naii'ow, and the thin walls of its cells shrunken and not clearly
distinguishable. If the transverse sections are examined under water,
these cells immediately swell up, and become strongly distended, giving
off an abundance of mucilage, the latter being afforded by the solution
of the very cell- walls. The mucilage of buchu leaves thas originates
in the same way as in flax seed or quince seed, but in the former the
epidermis is thrown off without alteration. We are not aware that
other mucilaginous leaves possess a similar structure, at least not those
of Alflicea ofjicivdlis and of Scmmnm which we examined.-
Chemical Composition — The leaves of B. hdidhia afforded us by
distillation per cent, of volatile oil,'* which has the odour rather of
peppermint than of buchu, and deviates the ray of polarized light
considerably to the left. On exposure to cold it furnishes a camphor
which, after re-solution in spirit of wine, crystallizes in needle-shaped
forms. After repeated purification in this manner, the crystals of
Bdvosma Camphor have an almost pure peppermint odour; they fuse
at 85° C, and begin to sublime at 110° C. After fusion they again
solidify only at 50° C. Submitted to elementary analysis, the
crystals yielded us 74"08 per cent, of carbon and from 9 to 10 per cent,
of hydrogen.* Barosma camphor is abundantly soluble in bisulphide
of carbon.
The crude oil from which the camphor has been separated has
a boiling point of about 200° C, quickly rising to 210° or even higher.
That which distilled between these temperatures was treated with
sodium, rectified in a current of common coal gas and submitted to
elementary analysis, afibrded us 77'8G per cent, of carbon and 10"58
of hydrogen. The formvda C^'^H^'^O would require 78"94' of carbon and
10"53 of hydrogen.
Wayne's experiments® appear to indicate that the oil also contains
^ Fliickiger in Schweiz. Wochenxrhrift f iir
Phnrm. Dec. 1873, with plate.
- See also Radlkofer, Monogi-aphie der
Sapindaceen-Onttumj Serjania, Mtinchen,
1875, p. 100-105.
^ Messrs. Allen, and Hanburys operating
on larger quantities obtained 1 '63 per cent.
— Barosma serratifoUa appears to be less
rich, according to Bedford (1863).
■* Our supply of the substance having been
exhausted by two analyses we cannot re-
gard the above figures as sufficient for the
calculation of a formula.
5 Am. Journ. of Pharm. 1876. 19.
no
RUTACE^.
a substance capable of being converted into salicylic ncid. An aqueous
infusion of buchu leaves turns beautifully yellow if it is mixed with
alkali.
On addition of perchloride of iron the infusion assumes a dingy
brownish-green colour changing to red by an alkali. The infusion
added to a concenti'ated solution of acetate of copper causes a yellow
precipitate^ which dissolves in caustic potash, alfording a green solution.
This may be due to the presence of a substance of the quercitiin ov
rutin class.
When the leaves are infused in warm water, the mucilage noticed
under the microscope may easily be pressed out. It requires for
precipitation a large amount of alcohol, being readily miscible with
dilute alcohol. Neutral acetate of lead produces a yellow precipitate
in an infusion of the leaves; the liquid attbrds a precipitate by a sub-
sequent addition of hai<ic acetate of lead. The latter precipitate is
(probably) due to the mucilage, that afforded by neutral acetate partly
to mucilage and partly, we suppose, to rutin or an allied substance.
Yet the mucilage of buchu leaves is of the class which is not properly
dissolved by water, but only swells up like tragacanth.
The leaves of B. crcvidaia afforded us upon incineration 4"7 per
cent, of ash. Jones (1879) obtained on an average 4'54i per cent, from
the same species; 5"27 from B. serratifuUa; and 4'49 from B. hduliwi.
He pointed out the presence of manganate in this ash.
The Diutimin of Landerer' is entirely xniknown to us.
Commerce — The export of buchu from the Cape Colony in 1872
was 379,125 lb., about one-sixth of which quantity vv^as shipped direct
to the United States.''
Uses — Buchu is principally administered in disorders of the urino-
genital organs. It is reputed diuretic and diaphoretic. In the Cape
Colony the leaves are much employed as a popular stimulant and
stomachic, infused in water, sherry, or brandy. They are also exten-
sively used in the United States, both in regular medicine and by the
vendors of secret remedies.
Substitutes — The leaves of Empleurum serrulatum Ait., a small
shrub of the same order as Barosmcc and growing in the same
localities, have been imported rather frequently of late and sold as
Buchu. They have the same structure as regards mucilage, and nearly
the same fomi as those of B. seri'df 't folia, but are easily distinguished.
They are still narrower, and often longer than those of B. ser rati folia,
devoid of lateral veins, and terminate in an <(cufe point without an oil-
dart. They have a bitterish taste and a less powerful odour than those
of Barosma, even in fresh leaves as imported in London. The odour of
Eriipleufuoii is moreover distinctly different from that of the leaves of
Barosma. The flowers of Erivpleiirarn. are still more distinct, for they
are apetalous and reddish brown. The fruit consisting of a single,
compressed, oblong carpel, terminated by a flat-shaped horn, is quite
inilike that of buchu.
The leaves of BarosDia Ecldoniana Berg (regarded by Sonder"* as
* It seems t/reen as long as it is in the ^ /?ooZ' published atCape Town, 1873.
l^lue cupric liquid. Harvey and Souder, Flora Capemh, i,
- Gmelin's Chcmisiri/, xviii. 194. (1859-60) 393.
RADIX TODDALI^.
Ill
a form of B. crenaUtta) have to our knowledge been imported on one
occasion (1873). They are nearly an inch long, oval, rounded at
the base, strongly crenate, and grow from jx-i-besccnt shoots.
We have seen other leaves which had been imported from South
Africa and offered as huchu ; but though probably derived from allied
genera they were not to be mistaken for the geruiine drug.
RADIX TODDALIiE.
Botanical Origin — Toddidia, aculeuta Pers., a ramous prickly
bu.sh,^ often climbing over the highest trees, conunon in the southern
pp.rts of the Indian Peninsula as the Coromandel Coast, South Concans,
and Canara, also found in Ceylon, Mauritius, the Indian Archipelago
and Southern China.
History — The pungent aromatic properties which pervade the
plant, but especially the fresh root-bark, are well known to the natives
of India and have been utilized in their medical practice. They have
also attracted the attention of Europeans, and the root of the plant is
now recognized in the Fliannacopa^ia uf India.
It is from this and other species of Todd<dia, or from tlie aliieil
genus Zn)d}iuxj/himi" that a drug is derived which under the name of
Lojyez Root had once some celebrity in Europe. This drug which was
more precisely termed Radix Indica Lopeziana or Root of Juan Lopez
Pigneiro, was first made known by the Italian physician Redi ; ^ who
described it in 1671 from specimens obtained by Pigneiro at the mouth
of the river Zambesi in Eastern Africa, — the very locality in which
in our times ToddaiUc laiiccolata Lam. has been collected by Dr. Kii-k.'*
It was actually introduced into European medicine by Gaubius in
1771 as a remedy for diarx-hoea, and acquired so much reputation that
it was admitted to the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia of 1792. The root
appears to have been sometimes imported from Goa, but its place of
growth and botanical origin were entirely unknown, and it was always
extremely rare and costly.'' It has long been obsolete in all countries
except Holland, where until recently it was to be met with in the
shops. The Fharmaco'poeia Neeiiandica of 1851 says of it " Oriyo
botanica perquum dubia — Patria Malacca 1 "
Description — The specimen of tl e root of Toddalia, acideata
which we have examined was collected for us by Dr. G. Bidie of Madi'as
whose statements regarding the stimulant and tonic action of the drug
may be found in the Pha.rmacopxjeia of India, p. 442. It is a dense
woody root in cylindrical, flexuous pieces, which have evidently been
of considerable length and are from \ to li- inches in diameter, covered
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, pait 18.
- The root of a ZantJio.ii/! urn sent to us
from Java bj'^Mr. Binnendyk of the Biiiten-
zorg Botanical Garden has exactly the aspect
of that of Tuddalia. The root of Z. Bunr/ci
which we have examined in the fresh state
is also completely similar. It is covered
with a soft, corky, yellow bark having a
very bitter taste with a strong pungency
like that of pellitory.
E-tperienze iiiforno a diverse cose, natu-
rail, Firenze, 1671. 121.
Oliver, Flor. of Trop. AJ'ncu, i. (1868)
307.
Adversaria, Leidae, p. 78.
" Our friend Dr. de Vry informs us
that he remembers the price in Holland
in 1828 being equivalent to about 24-s.. the
ounce !
112
RUTACEiE.
«
with bark -^jy to xV ^-n inch in thickness. The bark has a soft, dull
yellowish, suberous coat, wrinkled longitvidinally, beneath which is a
very thin layer of a bright yellow colour, and still lower and constitu-
ting two-thirds or more of the whole, is the firm, brown middle cortical
layer and liber, which is the part chiefly possessing the characteristic
pungency and bitterness of the di'ug. The yellow corky coat is how-
ever not devoid of bitterness. The wood is hard, of a pale yellow, and
without taste and smell. The pores of the wood, which are rather
large, are arranged in concentric order and traversed by numerous
narrow medullary rays.
In a letter which Frappier^ wrote to Guibourt from the island of
Reunion where TodddUd acideata is very common, he states that the
roots of the plant are of enormous length (longueur incroyable) and
rather difficult to get out of the basaltic rock into the fissures of
which they penetrate. Mr. J. Horne of the Botanical Garden,
Mauritius, has sent us a specimen of the root of this plant, the bark
of which is of a dusky brown, with the suberous layer but little
developed.
Microscopic Structure — We have examined the root for
which we are indelited to Dr. Bidie, and may state that its cortical
tissue is remarkable by the number of large cells filled with resin and
essential oil ; they are scattered through- the whole tissue, the cork
excepted. The parenchymatous cells are loaded with small starch
granules or with crystals of oxalate of calcium. The vessels of younger
roots abound in yellow resin.
Chemical Composition — None of the constituents of the Toddalia
root of India have yet been satisfactorily examined. The bark con-
tains an essential oil, which would be better extracted from fresh than
from dry material. The tissue of the bark is but little coloured by
salts of iron. In the aqueous infusion, tannic acid produces an abun-
dant precipitate, probably of an indifferent bitter principle rather than
of an alkaloid. We have been unable to detect the presence in the
bark of berberine.
Lopez root was examined in Wittstein's laboratory by Schnitzer '
who found that the bark contains in addition to the usual substances a
large proportion of resin, — a mixture probably of two or three different
bodies. The essential oil afforded by the bark had an odour resembling
cinnamon and melissa.
Uses — The drug has been introduced into the Pharmacopoeia of
India chiefly upon the recommendation of Dr. Bidie of Madras, who
considers it of great value as a stimulating tonic. The bark rasped or
shaved from the woody root is the only part that should be used.
1 Jnurn. ch Phar. v. (1867) 403.
- Wittstein's Vierteljahresschrift fiir
pralci. Pharm. xi. (1862) i. — The drug exa-
mined was the Lopez root sold at that
period at Amsterdam.
FOLIA PILOCARPI.
113
FOLIA PILOCARPI.
Fol I'a Jaborandi.
Botanical Origin — Pilocarjnis 'pennatifolius^ Lemaire, a slightly
branched shinib, attaining about 10 feet in height. It is distributed
through the eastern provinces of Bi'azil.
Pilocarpus Sellounus'^ Engler, occurring in Southern Brazil and Para-
guay, appears to be not considerably different from P. pennatifolius.
History^ — Piso'' recommended an infusion made with Ipecacuanha
and Jaborandi. Plumier,* who also mentioned this, figured under the
name of Jaborandi two plants of the order Piperaceas. The introduc-
tion of the leaves oi Pilocarpus p>ennatifolhis into medical use is due to
Dr. Coutinho of Pernambuco, 1874. The plant has been cultivated in
European greenhouses since about the year 1847 ; we have repeatedly
seen it flowering at Strassburg. Baillon in 1875 showed the fragments
of Jaborandi as supplied by Coutinho to belong to P. 'pennatifolhts,
which had been described in 18.52 by Lemaire. Holmes (1875) in
examining the drug as imported from Pernambuco came to the same
conclusion.
Description — The leaves of the species under examination ai-e long-
stalked, imparipennate, the opposite leaflets in 2 to 5, in cultivated
plants most connnonly in 2 pairs, the terminal one longer stalked, while
the others are provided with a petiole attaining 1| inch in length or
remaining much shorter. The whole leaf is freqviently 11 feet long,
the leaflets being often as much as 5 inches long by 2 inches wide.
The latter are entire oblong, tapering or rounded at the base, tapering
or obtuse or even emarginate at the apex. The leaflets are coria-
ceous, with a slightly revolute margin and a prominent midrib
below. In transmitted light they show very numerous pellucid oil
glands.
The taste of the leaves of Pilocarpus is at fix'st bitterish and
aromatic ; they subsequently produce a tingling sensation in the
mouth and an abundant flow of saliva.
Microscopic Structure ^ — The oil glands consist of large cells of
the same structure as those occurring generally in the leaves of Rutacese,
Aurantiacea3, Myrtace®. In Pilocarpus they are largely distributed in
the tissue covered on both sides of the leaf by the epidermis; the oil
cells are also abundantly met with in the petiole and in the bark of the
stems and branches.
Chemical Composition — The active principle of Jaborandi is the
alkaloid PUocariy'me, C''H''N-'0' -|- 40H', discovered in 1875 by Hardy.
It is an amorphous soft mass, but yielding crystallized salts, among
which the hydrochlorate and the nitrate are now more frequently
1 Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med. ^ Lib. iv. cap. 57, 59, and v. cap. 19,
Plants, part 32 (1878). p. 310, of the work quoted in the appendix.
^ Fig. by Engler in Flora BrasU. fasc. 65 * Description des Plantes de VAm6rique,
(1874) tab. 30. Pilocarpus paucijlorus St. 1693. 58. PI. Ixxv. and Ixxvi.
Hilaire (Flora Brasilim meridionaUs, i. ^ Stiles, P/tar?». /. vii. (1877) 629 ; also
1824. tab. 17) appears also to be very Lanessau's French translation of the P/ta?--
similar, macographia, i. (1878) 253.
H
114
AURANTIACE^.
used than the drug itself. The leaves afibrd about | per cent, of the
nitrate.
The occurrence of another peculiar alkaloid in Pilocarpus has been
asserted, but not ultimately proved.
The leaves contain about ^ per cent, of essential oil, the prevailing
constituent of it being a dextrogyrate terpene, C'H'^ boiling at 178",
which forms a crystallized compound C^'H'" + 2HC1 melting at
49°-5 C.
Uses — Pilocarpine being a powerful diaphoretic and sialagogue,
the leaves of Jaborandi are used to some extent in pharmaceutical
preparations.
Other Kinds of Jaborandi — This name, as above stated, has
originally been given to plants of the order Piperaceae, some of which
are still known in Brazil under the name Jaborandi. The following-
may be quoted as being used at least in that country : Sevronia
Jaborandi^ Gaudichaud, Piper reticulatum L. (Enckea Miquel), Piper
citrifoliuvi Lamarck (Steffensia Kunth), Piper nodulosum Link,
Artanthe mollicoma Miq.
Aubletia trifolia- Richard (Monniera L.) and Xanthoxylum elegans
Engler, belonging to the same order as Pilocarpus itself, are also some-
times called Jaborandi.
We are not aware that other leaves than those of Pilocarpus are
imported to some extent in Europe under the name of Jaborandi.
AUKANTIACE^.
FRUCTUS LIMONIS.
Lemon; F. Citron, Limon; G. Citrons, Limone.
Botanical Origin — Citrus Limonum Risso (6*. Medica var. ^ Linn.),
a small tree 10 to 15 feet in height, planted here and there in gardens
in many sub-tropical countries, but cultivated as an object of industry
on the Mediterranean coast between Nice and Genoa, in Calabria,
Sicily, Spain, and Portugal.
The tree which is supposed to represent the wild state of the lemon
and lime, and as it seems to us after the examination of numerous
specimens in the herbarium of Kew, of the citron {Citrus Medica Risso)
also, is a native of the forests of Northern India, where it occurs in the
valleys of Kumaon and Sikkim.
The cultivated lemon-tree is of rather irregular growth, with foliage
somewhat pallid, sparse, and uneven, not forming the fine, close head
of deep green that is so striking in the orange-tree. The young shoots
are of a dull purple; the flowers, which are produced all the year
except during the winter, and are in part hermaphrodite and in part
unisexual, have the corolla externally purplish, internally white, and a
delicate aroma distinct from that of orange blossom. The fruit is pale
yellow, ovoid, usually crowned by a nipple.
' Already known to Piso. ing to Peckolfc. DragendorflPs Jalireshericht,
2 The original Jaborandi of Piso, accord- ] 875. 1 63.
FRUCTUS LIMONIS.
115
History — The name of the lemon in Sanskrit is Nimhuka; in Hin-
dustani, Limbu, Limu, or Ninhu. It is probably originally a Cash-
mere word, which was transferred to the Sanskrit in comparatively
modern times, not in the antiquity.^ From these sounds the Arabians
formed tlie word Limun, Avhich has passed into the languages of
Europe.
The lemon was unknown to the inhabitants of ancient Greece and
Rome; but it is mentioned in the Book of Nabathtean Agriculture,^
which is supposed to date from the 3rd or 4th century of our era. The
introduction of the tree to Europe is due to the Arabians, yet at what
precise period is somewhat doubtful. A ranee and Limone are men-
tioned by an Arabic poet living in the 11th century, in Sicily, quoted
by Falcando.^ The geographer Edrisi,* who resided at the court of
Roger II., king of Sicily, in the middle of the 12th century, mentions
the lemon (Ibnoivna) as a very sour fruit of the size of an apple which
was one of the productions of Mansouria on the Mahran or Indus; and
he speaks of it in a manner that leads one to infer it was not then
known in Em'ope. This is the more probable from the fact that there
is no mention either of lemon or orange in a letter written A.D. 1239
concerning the cultivation of the lands of the Emperor Frederick II. at
Palermo,* a locality in wliieh these fruits are now produced in large
quantity.
On the other hand the lemon is noticed at gi-eat length by Ibn
Baytar of Malaga, who flourished in the first half of the 13th century,
but of its cultivation in Spain at that period there is no actual mention.^
In 1369 at least citron trees, " arbores citronorum," were planted in
Genoa,'' and there is evidence that also the lemon-tree was grown on
the Riviera di Ponente about the middle of the 15th century, since
Limones and also Cifri are mentioned in the manuscript Livi'C
d' Administration of the city of Savona, under date 1486.^ The lemon
was cultivated as early as 1494 in the Azores, whence the fruit used
to be largely shipped to England; but since the year 1838 the exporta-
tion has totally ceased."
Description — The fruit of Citrus Limonum as found in the shops^"
is from about 2 to 4 inches in length, egg-shaped with a nipple more or
less prominent at the apex; its surface, of a pale yellow, is even or
rugged, covered with a polished epidermis. The parenchyme within
the latter abounds in large cells filled wi!h fragrant essential oil. The
roughness of the surface of the rind is due to the oil-cells. The peel,
which varies considerably in thickness but is never so thick as that of
the citron, is internally white and fibrous, and is adherent to the pale-
yellow pulp. The latter is divided into 10 or 12 segments each contain-
1 Dr. Eice iu yew Eemedle.% 1878, 263 ;
also private information.
- Meyer, Oeschichte der Botanik, iii. (185C)
68.
^ Amari, Storia dei Mumlmani di Sicilia,
ii. (1858) 444.
* G^ographie d'EdrUi, traduite par Jau-
hert, i. (1836) 162.
Huillard-Breliolles, Historia diploma-
tka Fr'iderici secundi, Paris, v. (1857) 571.
^ Heil- und Nahrungmiiitiel von Ebn Bai-
thar, ubersetztvonSonthe;mer,ii. (1842)452.
" Belgrano, Vita privata dei Genovesi,
Geneva (1875) 1.58.
8 Gallesio, TraiM du Citrus (1811) 89,
103.
^ Consul Smallwood, in Consular Reports,
Aug. 1873. 986.
^'^ There are many kinds of lemon as well
as of orange which are never seen in com-
merce. Risso and Poiteau enumerate 25
varieties of the former and 30 of the lat-
ter. See also Alfonso, Coltivazione degli
Agrumi, Palermo, 2nd edition, 1875.
116
AURANTIACEvE.
ing 2 or 3 seeds. It abounds in a pale-yellow acid juice having a
pleasant sour taste and a slight peculiar odour quite distinct from that
of the peel. When removed from the pulp by pressure, the juice appeal's
as"a rather turbid yellowish fluid having a sp. gr. which varies from
1"040 to 1'04.5, and containing in each fluid ounce from 40 to 46 grains
of citric acid, or about 9| per cent.^ In Italy all the fine and perfect
fruit is exported; the windfalls and the damaged fruit are used for the
production of the essential oil and the juice. Abovit 13,000 lemons of
this kind yield one pipe (108 gallons) of raw juice. Sicilian juice in
November will contain about 9 ounces of citric acid per gallon, but
6 ounces when afforded by the fruit collected in April. The juice is
boiled clown in copper vessels, over an open fire, till its specific gravity
is about 1'239.''^ Lemon juice (Succus limonis) for administration as a
medicine should be pressed as wanted from the recent fruit whenever
the latter is obtainable.
The peel {Cortex limovifi) cut in somewhat thin ribbons from the
fresh fruit is used in pharmacy, and is far preferable to that sold in a
dried state.
Microscopic Structure of the Peel. — The epidermis exhibits
numerous stomata; the j^arenchyme of the pericarp encloses large oil-
cells, surrounded by small tabular cells. The inner spongy tissue is
built up of very remarkable branched cells, separated by large inter-
cellular spaces. A solution of iodine in iodide of potassium imparts to
the cell-walls a transient blue coloration. The outer layers of the
parenchymatous tissue contain numerous yellowish lumps of a substance
which assumes a brownish hue by iodine, and yields a yellow solution
if potash be added. Alkaline tartrate of copper is reduced by this sub-
stance, which probably consists of hesperidin. There also occur large
crystals of oxalate of calcium, belonging to the monoclinic system. The
interior tissue is irregularly traversed by small vascular bundles.
Chenmical Composition — The peel of the lemon abounds in essen-
tial oil, which is a distinct article of commerce, and will be described
hereafter.
Lemons, as well as other fruits of the genus Citrus, contain a bitter
principle, Hes'peridin, of which E. Hoffinann'^ obtained 5 to 8 per cent,
from unripe bitter oranges. He extracted them with dikite alcohol,
after they had previously been exhausted by cold water. The alcohol
should contain about 1 per cent, of caustic potash; the liquid on cool-
ing is acidulated with hydrochloric acid, when it yields a yellowish
crystalline deposit of hesperidin, Avhich may be obtained colourless and
tasteless by recrystallization from boiling alcohol. By dilute sulphuric
acid (1 per cent.) hesperidin is broken up as follows: —
C22H26012 ^ Cl<'H"0'5 .
Hesperidin. Hesperetin. Glucose.
Hesperidin is very little soluble even in boiling water or in ether, but
dissolves readily in hot acetic acid, also in alkaline solutions, the latter
then turning soon yellow and reddish. Pure hesperidin, as presented
^ Stoddart, in P/(ar7)i. Journ. x. (1869)203. ^ Beric/tte der DeniscJien Chemisctien Geaell-
2E. Warington, Pliarm. Journ. v. (1873) schaft (1876) 26, 685, 693.
385.
FRUCTUS LIMONIS.
117
to one of us by Hoifinann, darkens when it is shaken with alcoholic per-
chloride of iron, and turns dingy blackish l^rown when gently warmed
with the latter.
Hesperetin forms crystals melting at 223° C, soluble both in alcohol
or ether, not in water ; they taste sweet. They are split up by potash
in Phloroglucin and Hesperetic acid, C'''H'"0^
On addition of ferric chloride, thin slices of the peel are darkened,
owing probably to some derivative of hesperidin, or to hesperidin
itself.
The name hesperidin had also been applied to yellow crystals
extracted from the shaddock, Citncs decumana L., the dried flowers of
which afford about 2 per cent, of that substance. It is, as shown in
1879 by E. Hoffinann, quite different from hesperidin as described above ;
he calls it Narwgin and assigns to it the formula C"^ff''0''^ + 40Hl
Naringin is readily soluble in hot water or in alcohol, not in ether or
chloroform. Its solutions turn brown red on addition of ferric
chloride.
Lemon juice, some of the characters of which have been already
Qoticed, is an important article in a dietetic point of view, being largely
consumed on shipboard for the prevention of scurvy. In addition to
citric acid it contains 3 to 4 per cent, of gum and sugar, and 2'28 per
cent, of inorganic salts, of which according to Stoddart only a minute
proportion is potash. Cossa' on the other hand, who has recently
studied the prochicts of the lemon tree with much care, has found that
the ash of dried lemon juice contains 54 per cent, of potash, besides 15
per cent, of phosphoric acid.
Stoddart has pointed out the remarkable tendency of citric acid to
undergo decomposition,' and has px'oved that in lemons kept from
February to Jvdy this acid generally decreases in quantity, at first
■ilowly, but afterwards rapidly, until at the end of the period it entirely
ceases to exist, having been all split up into glucose and carbonic acid.
A.t the same time the sp. gr. of the j nice was found to have undergone
but slight diminution: — thus it was 1-044 in February, 1-041 in May,
ind 1027 in July, and the fruit had hardly altered in appearance.
Lemon juice may with some precautions be kept unimpaired for months
3r even years. Yet it is capable of undergoing fermentation by reason
Df the sugar, gum, and albuminoid matters which it contains.
Commerce — Lemons are chiefly impcrted from Sicily, to a smaller
3xtent from the Riviera of Genoa and from Spain. From the published
■statistics of trade, in which lemons are classed tog-ether with ox'ang'es
under one head, it appears that these fruits are being imported in
increasing quantities. The value of the shipments to the United King-
:lom in 1872 (largely exceeding those of any previous year) was
£1,154,270. Of this sum, £986,796 represents the value of the oranges
and lemons imported from Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands and
Azores; £155,330 the shipments of the same fruit from Italy; and
£3,825 those from Malta.
Of concentrated lemon juice there were exported in 1877 from
Messina 1,631,332 kilogrammes, valued at 2,446,996 lire. The value of
^ Gazetta Chimica lialiana, ii. {1872) S85 ; added to lemon juice, oxaZic acid may be
Tourn. of Chem. Soc. xi. (1873) 402. detected in tlie mixture after a few days, is
- Stoddart's statement that if X50 bash be not supported by our observations.
118
AURANTIACE^.
concentrated lime juice exported in 1874 from Montserrat was £3,390.
From Dominica, 11,285 gallons, value £1,825, were shipped in 1875.
Uses — Lemon peel is used in medicine solely as a flavouring
ingredient. Freshly prepared lemon juice is often administered with
an alkaline bicarbonate in the form of an effervescing draught, or in a
free state.
Concentrated lemon juice is imported for the purpose of making
citric acid ; it is derived not only from the lemon, but also, to a smaller
extent, from the lime and bergamot. Lime juice of the West Indies is
chiefly used as a beverage ; small quantities of it are also exported for
the manufacture of citric acid. The culture of Citrus Limetta Risso,
the lime, was introduced in Montserrat in 1852.
OLEUM LIMONIS.
Oleum Lmtonum ; Essential Oil or Essence of Lemon ; F, Essence de
Citron; G. Citronendl.
Botanical Origin — Citrus Limonum Risso (see p. 114).
History — -The chemists of the 16th century were well acqviainted
with the method of extracting essential oils by distillation. Besson in
his work L'art et moyen jyarfaict de tirer huyles et eaux de tous medi-
caments simples et oleogineux, published at Paris in 1571, mentions
lemon- (citron) and orange-peel among the substances subjected to this
process. Giovanni Battista Porta,^ a learned Neapolitan writer,
describes the method of preparing Oleum ex corticihus Citri to consist
in removing the peel of the fruit with a rasp and distilling it so com-
minuted with water ; and adds that the oils of lemon and orange may
be obtained in the same manner. Essence of lemon of two kinds,
namely expressed and distilled, was sold in Paris in the time of Pomet,
1692.
Production — Essential oil of lemon is manufactured in Sicily, at
Reggio in Calabria, and at Mentone and Nice in France.
The lemons are used while still rather green and unripe, as being-
richer in oil than when quite mature. Only the small and irregular
fruit, such as is not worth exporting, is employed for affording the
essence.
The process followed in Sicily and Calabria may be thus described;"
it is performed in the months of November and December.
The workman first cuts oft" the peel in three thick longitudinal slices,
leaving the central pulp of a three-cornered shape with a little peel at
either end. This central pulp he cuts transversely in the middle, throw-
ing it on one side and the pieces of peel on the other. The latter are
allowed to remain till the next day and are then treated thus : — the
workman seated holds in the palm of his left hand a flattish piece of
1 MagioR Naturalis Ubri xx. Neapoli.
1589. 188.
" Through the kindness of Sigiior Mal-
landrino of Giampilieri near Messina, I had
the pleasure of seeing how the essence is
made. Though the time of my visit
(13 May 1872) was not that of the manu-
facture. Signer M. sent for one of his work-
men, and having procured a few lemons,
set him to work on them in order that I
might have ocular demonstration of the
process. — D. H.
OLEUM LIMONIS.
119
sponge, wrapping it round his fore-finger. With the other he places on
the sponge one of the slices of peel, the outer surface downwards, and
then presses the zest-side (which is uppermost) so as to give it for the
moment a convex instead of a concave form. The vesicles are thus
ruptured, and the oil which issues from them is received in the sponge
with which they are in contact. Four or five squeezes are all the work-
man gives to each slice of peel, which done he throws it aside. Though
each bit of peel has attached to it a small portion of pulp, the workman
contrives to avoid pressing the latter. As the sponge gets saturated
the workman wrings it forcibly, receiving its contents in a coarse
earthen bowl provided with a spout ; in this rude vessel, which is
capable of holding at least three pints, the oil separates from the watery
liquid which accompanies it and is then decanted.
The yield is stated to be very variable, 400 fruits affording 9 to 14
ounces of essence. The prisms of pulp and the exhausted pieces of
peel are submitted to pressure in order to extract from them lemon
juice, and are said to be also subjected to distillation. The foregoing
is termed the sponge- procesa ; it is also applied to the orange. It
appears rude and wasteful, but when honestly performed it yields an
excellent product.
Essence of lemon is prepared at Mentone and Nice by a different
method. The object being to set free and to collect the oil contained in
the vesicles of the peel, an apparatus is employed, which may be thus
described : — a stout saucer or .shallow basin of pewter, about 8 J inches
in diameter with a lip on one side for convenience of pouring. Fixed
in the bottom of this saucer are a number of stout, sharp, brass pins,
standing up about half an inch ; the centre of the bottom is deepened
into a tube about an inch in diameter and five inches in length, closed
at its lower end. This vessel, which is called an ecuelle d piquer, has
therefore some resemblance to a shallow, dish-shaped funnel, the tube
of which is closed below.
The workman takes a lemon in the hand, and rubs it over the sharp
pins, turning it round so that the oil-vessels of the entire surface may
be punctured. The essential oil which is thus liberated is received in
the saucer whence it flows down into the tube ; and as this latter
becomes filled, it is poured into another vessel that it may separate
from the turbid aqueous liquid that accompanies it. It is finally
faltered and is then known as Essence de Citron au zeste. A small
additional produce is sometimes obtained by immersing the scarified
lemons in warm water and separating the oil which floats off.
A second kind of essence termed Essence de Citron distillee is
obtained by rubbing the surface of fresh lemons, or of those which
have been submitted to the process just described, on a coarse grater of
tinned iron, by which the portion of peel richest in essential oil is
removed. This grated peel is subjected to distillation with water, and
yields a colourless essence of very inferior fragrance, which is sold at a
low price.
Description' — The oil obtained by the sponge process and that of
^ For specimeus of the Essence au zeste tiller of essences, Mentone ; and Messrs. G.
and of the Essence distillee of guaranteed Pannucio e figli, for an authentic sample of
purity we have to thank M. Medecin, dis- the essence made hy the sponge process in
120
AURANTIACE^.
the ^ctielle d ^^iquer are mobile liquids of a faint yellow colour, of ex-
quisite fragrance and bitterish aromatic taste.
The different specimens which we have examined are readily mis-
cible with bisulj)hide of carbon, but dissolve sparingly in spirit of wine
(0'830). An equal weight of the oil and of spirit of wine forms a
turbid mixture. No peculiar coloration is produced by mixture with
perchloride of ii-on.
The oils are dextrogyre, but differ in their rotatory power, as may be
illustrated by the following results, which we obtained by examin-
ing them in a column 50 millimetres long in the polaristrobometer of
Wild. The oil of Signori Panuccio, due to the sponge-process (p.
118, note 2), deviated 20"9°, that of Monsieur Medecin {Essence de
Citron au zeste) obtained by the ^cuelle d inqiier deviated 33'4° and
his distilled oil 28-3°.
Chemical Composition — The prevailing portion of most essential
oils of the Aiivantiaceo} agrees with the formula C^^H^^ ; the differ-
ences which they exhibit chiefly concern their optical properties,
odour, and colour. The boiling point mostly varies from about 170°
to 180° C, f-he sp. gr. between 0'83 and 0"88. These oils are a
mixture of isomeric hydrocarbons, and also contain a small amount
of cymene, C^°H", and of oxygenated oils, not yet well known ;
of these we may infer the presence either from analytical results
or simply from the fact that the crude oils are altered by metallic
sodium. If they are purified by repeated rectification over that
metal, they are finally no longer altered by it. Oils thus purified
cease to possess their original fragrance, and often resemble oil of
turpentine, with which they agree in composition and general
chemical behaviour.
As to essential oil of lemons, its chief constituent is the terpene, C^"ff
which, like oil of turpentine, easily yields crystals of terpin, C'"H^''30H".
There is further present, according to Tilden (1879) another hydro-
carbon, C"!!"', which already boils at 160° C, whereas the foregoing
boils at 176° C. Lastly a small amount of cymene and of a compound
acetic ether, C^H^O(C'"H'''0), would appear to occur also in oil of
lemons. The crvide oil of lemons already yields the crystalline com-
pound C"H^'' -H 2HC1, when saturated with anhydrous hydrochloric gas,
whereas by the same treatment oil of tvirpentine affords the solid com-
pound C'-Hio + HCl.
Essential oil of lemons (not the distilled) when long kept deposits
a greasy mass, from which we have obtained small crystals apparently
of Bergaptene (p. 123).
Commerce— Essence of lemons is shipped chiefly from Messina
and Palermo, packed in copper bottles called in Italian ramiere and by
English druggists "jars," holding 25 to 50 kilo, or more ; sometimes in
tin bottles of smaller size. The quantity of essences of lemon, orange
and bergamot exported from Sicily in 1871 was 368,800 lb., valued at
£144,520, of which about two-thirds were shipped to England.^ In
their establishment at Reggio. We have Consul Dennis, On the Commerce, Ac. of
also had a small quantity prepared by the Sicily in 1869, 1870, 1871. (Reports from
Sctielle hy one of ourselves near Mentonp, H.M. Consuls. No. 4. 1873.
15th June 1872.— D. H.
OLEUM BERGAMOTT^.
121
1877 the export of these essential oils from Messina anionnted to
oOG,948 kilogrammes, valued at 6,130,960 lire.
Uses — Essence of lemon is used in perfumery, and as a flavouring
ingredient ; and though much sold by druggists is scarcely employed
in medicine.
Adulteration — Few drugs are more rarely to be found in a state
of purity than essence of lemon. In fact it is stated that almost all
that comes into the market is more or less diluted with oil of turpen-
tine or with the cheaper distilled oil of lemons. Manufacturers of the
essence complain that the demand for a cheap article forces them to
this falsification of their product.
OLEUM BERGAMOTTiE.
Oleum Bergamii ; Essence or Essential Oil of Bergamot ; F. Essence
de Bergamotte ; G. Bergamottdl.
Botanical Origin — -Citrus Bergamia var. vulgaris Risso et
Poiteau/ a small tree closely resembling in flowers and foliage the
Bitter Orange. Its fruit is 2i to 3 inches in diameter, nearly spherical,
or slightly pear-shaped, frequently crowned by the persistent style ; it
is of a pale golden yellow like a lemon,^ with the peel smooth and thin,
abounding in essential oil of a peculiar fragrance ; the pulp is pale
yellowish green, of a bitterish taste, and far less acid than that
of the lemon.
The tree is cultivated at Reggio in Calabria, and is unknown in a
wild state.
History — The bergamot is one of the cultivated forms which
abound in the genus Citrus, and which constitute the innumerable
varieties of the orange, lemon and citron. Whether it is most nearly
related to the lemon or to the orange is a point discussed as early as
the beginning of the last century. Gallesio'* remarks that it so evi-
dently combines the characters of the two that it should be regarded
as a hybrid between them. The bergamot first appeared in the
latter part of the l7th century. It is not mentioned in the grand
work on orange trees of Ferrari,* published at Rome in 1646, nor in
the treatise of Commelyn^ (1676), noi in the writings of Lanzoni
(1690),'' or La Quintinie (1692).'^ So far as we know, it is first noticed
in a little book called Le Parfumeiur Frangois, printed at Lyons in
1693. The author who calls himself Le Sieiir Barbe, 'p((i'fumeur, says
that the Essence de Cedra on Berga-motte is obtained from the fruits
of a lemon-tree which has been grafted on the stem of a bergamot
1 Ilistoire natureUe des Orangers, Paris,
1818. p. 111. tab. 53, or the same work,
new edition, by Dubrenil, 1873, p. 82.
We accept the name given by these
authors for the sake of convenience and
definiteness, and not because we concur
in their opinion that the Bergamot de-
serves to be ranked as a distinct botanical
sjiecies.
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Plants, part 31.
3 Traile du Citrus, 1811. 118.
■* Hesperides, seu de mcdorum, aureorum
cidtura et usu.
^ Nederlantze Hesjjei'ides, Amsterd. 1676.
fol. (an English translation in 1683).
Citrologia, Ferrarioe, 1690.
'' histruction pour les Jardins fruitiers...
auec vn traitd des Oranrjers, ed. 2, 1692.
122
AURANTIACE^.
pear ; he adds that it is got by squeezing small bits of the peel
with the fingers in a bottle or globe large enough to allow the
hand to enter.
Volkamer of Nuremberg, who produced a fine work on the Citron
tribe in 1708, has a chapter on the Limon Bergamotta, which he
describes as gloria limonum et fructus inter omnes nobilissimus. He
states that the Italians prepare from it the finest essences, which are
sold at a high price.'
But, as shown by one of us,'^ the essential oil of bergamot had
already, in 1688, a place among the stores of an apothecary of the
German town of Giessen.
The name Bergamotta was originally applied to a large kind of
pear, called in Turkish " beg-armudi," i.e. prince's pear.^
Production — The bergamot is cultivated at Reggio, on low ground
near the sea, and in the adjacent villages. The trees are often inter-
mixed with lemon and orange trees, and the soil is well irrigated and
cropped with vegetables.
The essential oil (Oleum Bergamottce) is obtained from the full-
grown but still unrij)e and more or less green fruits, gathered in the
months of November and December. They are richer in oil than any
one of the allied fruits. It was formerly made like that of lemon by
the sponge-process, but during the last 20 years this method has been
generally superseded by the introdviction of a special machine for the
extraction of the essential oil. In this machine the fruits are placed in
a strong, saucer-like, metallic dish, about 10 inches in diameter, having
in the centre a raised opening which with the outer edge forms a
broad groove or channel ; the dish is fitted with a cover of similar
form. The inner surface both of the dish and cover is rendered rough
by a series of narrow, radiating metal ridges of blades which are
about ^ of an inch high and resemble the backs of knifes. The dish is
also furnished with some small openings to allow of the outflow of
essential oil ; and both dish and cover are arranged in a metallic cylin-
der, placed over a vessel to receive the oil. By a simple arrangement
of cog-wheels moved by a handle, the cover, which is very heavy, is
made to revolve rapidly over the dish, and the fruit lying in the groove
between the two is carried round, and at the same time is subjected to
the action of the sharp ridges, which, rupturing the oil-vessels, cause
the essence to escape, and set it free to flow out by the small openings
in the bottom of the dish. The fruits are placed in the machine, 6, 8,
or more at a time, according to their size, and subjected to the rotatory
action above described for about half a minute, when the machine is
stopped, they are removed, and fresh ones substituted. About 7,000
fruits can thus be worked in one of these machines in a day. The
yield of oil is said to be similar to that of lemon, namely 2+ to 3 ounces
from 100 fruits.
Essence of bergamot made by the machine is of a greener tint than
that obtained by the old sponge-process. During some weeks after
^ Hesperides Norimbergenses, 1713. lib. 3.
cap. 26. and p. 156 b. (We quote from
the Latin edition. )
^ Fliickiger, DocumentezurGeschichteder
Pharmacie, Halle, 1876. 72.
^ Information, for which I am indebted
to Dr. Eice. — The name has no reference
to the town of Bergamo, where bergamots
cannot succeed. — F.A.F.
OLEUM BERGAMOTT^.
123
extraction it gradually deposits a quantity of white greasy matter
(bergaptene), which, after having been exhausted as much as possible
by pressure, is finally subjected to distillation with water in order to
separate the essential oil it still contains.
The fruits from which the essence has been extracted are submitted
to pressure, and the juice, which is much inferior in acidity to lemon
juice, is concentrated and sold for the manufacture of citric acid.
Finally, the residue from which both essence and juice have been
removed, is consumed as food by oxen.
Description ' — Essential oil of bergamot is a thin and mobile fluid
of peculiar and very fragnant odour, bitterish taste, and slightly acid
reaction. It has a pale greenish yellow tint, due to traces of chloro-
phyll, as may be shown by the spectroscope. Its sp. gr. is 0'86 to 0'88;
its boiling point varies from 183° to 195° C.
The oil is miscible with spirit of wine (0"83 sp. gr.), absolute alcohol,
as well as with crystallizable acetic acid. Four parts dissolve clearly
one part of bisulphide of carbon, but the solution becomes turbid if a
larger proportion of the latter is added. Bisulphide of carbon itself
is incapable of dissolving clearly any appreciable quantity of the oil.
A mixture of 10 drops of the oil, 50 drops of bisulphide of carbon and
one of strong sulphuric acid has an intense yellow hue. Perchloride of
iron imparts to bergamot oil dissolved in alcohol a dingy brown
colour.
Panuccio's oil of bergamot examined in the same way as that of
lemon (p. 120) deviates 7° to the right, and has therefore a dextrogyre
power very inferior to that of other oils of the same class.^ But it
probably varies in this respect, for commercial specimens which we
iudged to be of good qviality deviated from 6'8° to 10'4° to the right.
Chemical Composition — If essential oil of bergamot is submitted
to rectification, the portions that successively distill over do not accord
in rotatory power or in boiling point, a fact which proves it to be a
mixture of several oils, as is further confirmed by analysis. It appears
to consist of hydrocarbons, C^°H^^ and their hydrates, neither of which
have as yet been satisfactorily isolated. Oil of bergamot, like that of
turpentine, yields crystals of the composition C"H^'' + SH^O, if 8 parts
are allowed to stand some weeks with 1 part of spirit of wine, 2 of
nitric acid (sp. gr. 1"2) and 10 of water, the mixture being frequently
shaken. No solid compound is produced by saturating the oil with
anhydrous hydrochloric gas.
The greasy matter that is deposited from oil of bergamot soon after
its extraction, and in small quantity is often noticeable in that of
commerce, is called Bergaptene or Bergamot Camphor. We have ob-
tained it in fine, white, acicular crystals, neutral and inodorous, by
repeated solution in spirit of wine. Its composition according to the
analysis of Mulder (1837) and of Ohme (1839) answers to the formula
C^H^'O^, which in our opinion requires further investigation. Crystal-
lized bergaptene is abundantly soluble in chloroform, ether, or
^ The characters are taken from some
Essence of Bergamot presented to one of us
(15 May 1872) as a type-sample by Messrs.
G. Panuccioefigli, manufacturers of essences
at Reggio and also large cultivators of the
bergamot orange.
2 See however Oleum Neroli, p. 127.
124
AURANTIACE.E.
bisulphide of carbon; the alcoholic solution is not altered by ferric
salts.
Commerce — Essence of bergamot, as it is always termed in trade,
is chiefly shipped from Messina and Palermo in the same kind of bottles
as are used for essence of lemon.
Uses — Much employed in perfumery, but in medicine only occa-
sionally for the sake of imparting an agreeable odour to ointments.
Adulteration — Essence of bergamot, like that of lemon, is exten-
sively and systematically adulterated, and very little is sent into the
market entirely pure. It is often mixed with oil of turpentine, but a
finer adulteration is to dilute it with essential oil of the leaves or with
that obtained by distillation of the peel or of the residual fruits. Some
has of late been adulterated with petroleum.
The optical properties, as already mentioned, may afford some assist-
ance in detecting^ fraudulent admixtures, thouo-h as reafards oil of tur-
pentine it must be borne in mind that there are levogyre as well as
dextrogyre varieties. This latter oil and likewise that of lemon is less
soluble in sjoirit of wine than that of bergamot.
CORTEX AURANTII.
Bitter Orange Peel; F. Ecorce on Zestes d'O ranges wnteres ;
G. Pomeranzenschale.
Botanical Origin — Citrus vidgaris Risso {C. Aurantium var. (c
(Minura Linn., C. Bigaradia Duhamel).
The Bitter or Seville or Bigarade Orange, Bigaradier ' of the
French, is a small tree extensively cultivated in the warmer parts of
the Mediterranean region, especially in Spain, and existing under
many varieties.
Northern India is the native country of the orange tree. In
Gurhwal, Sikkim, and Khasia there occurs a wild orange which is
the supposed parent of the cultivated orange, whether Sweet or
Bitter.
The Bitter Orange reproduces itself from seed, and is regarded, at
least by cultivators, as quite distinct from the Sweet Orange, from which
however it cannot be distinguished by any important botanical char-
acters. Generally speaking, it differs from the latter in having the
fruit rugged on the surface, of a more deep or reddish-orange hue,
with the pulp very sour and bitter. The peel, as well as the flowers
and leaves, are more aromatic than the corresponding parts of the
Sweet Orange, and the petiole is more broadly winged.
History — The orange was unknown to the ancient Greeks and
Romans; and its introduction to Europe is due to the Arabs, who,
according to Gallesio,^ appear to have established the tree first in Eastern
Africa, Arabia, and Syria, whence it was gradually conveyed to Italy,
Sicily, and Spain. In the opinion of the writer just quoted, the bitter
orange was certainly known at the commencement of the 10th century
^ From the Basque "bizarra" = beard the Sanskrit Bijouri (?).
(Rice, New Remedies, 187S. 231), or from ^ Traitd du Citrus, Paris, 1811. 222.
CORTEX AURANTII.
125
to the Arabian physicians, one of whom, Avicenna,^ employed its juice
in medicine.
There is strong evidence to show that the orange first cultivated in
Europe was the Bitter Orange or Bigarade. The orange tree at Rome,
said to have been planted by St. Dominic about A.D. 1200, and which
still exists at the monastery of St. Sabina, bears a hitter fruit; and the
ancient trees standing in the garden of the Alcazar at Seville are also
of this variety. Finally, the oranges of Syria {ah indi gents Orenges
nuncwpati) described by Jacqvies de Vitri, Bishop of Aeon (oh. A.D.
1214) were acidi seu 2'>ontici sa-porisP'
The Sweet Orange began to be cultivated about the middle of the
15th century, having been introduced from the East by the Portuguese.
It has probably long existed in Southern China, and may have been
taken thence to India. In the latter country there are but few dis-
tricts in which its cultivation is successful, and the Bitter Orange is
hardly known at all. The name it has long borne of Ch ina^ or Portugal
Ora nge indicates what has been the usual opinion as to its origin. It
probably alludes more exactly to a superior variety brought about 1G30
from China to Portugal.*
One of the first importations of oranges into England occurred in
A.D. 1290, in which year a Spanish ship came to Portsmouth, of the
cargo of which the queen of Edward I. bought one frail of Seville figs,
one of rasins or grapes, one bale of dates, 230 pomegranates, 15 citrons,
and 7 oranges {" 'poriai de orenge").^
Description — The Bitter Orange known in London as the Seville
Orange is a globular fruit, resembling in size, form, and structure the
common Sweet Orange, but having the peel much rougher, and when
mature of a somewhat deeper hue. The pulp of the fruit is filled with
an acid bitter juice. The ripe fruit is imported into London; the peel
is removed from it with a sharp knife in one long spiral strip, and
quickly dried, or it is sold in the fresh state. It is the more esteemed
when cut thin, so as to include as little as possible of the white inner
layer.
Well-dried orange peel should be externally of a bright tint and
white on its inner surface; it should have a grateful aromatic smell
and bitter taste. The peel is also largely imported into London ready
dried, especially from Malta. We have observed it from this latter
place of three qualities, namely in elliptic pieces or quarters, in broad
curled strips, and lastly a very superior kind, almost wholly free from
white zest, in strips less than ^ of an inch in width, cut apparently by a
machine. Such needless subdivision as this last has undergone must
greatly favour an alteration and waste of the essential oil. Foreign-
dried orange peel fetches a lower price than that dried in England.
Microscopic Structure — There is no difierence between the tissues
of this drug and those of lemon peel.
1 Opera, ed. Valgrisi 1564. lib. v. sum. 1.
tract. 9. p. 289. — The passage, which is the
following, seems rather inconclusive : —
". . succi acetositatis citri et succi acetosi-
tatis citranguli."
^ Vitriaco, Hist, orient, et Occident. 1597.
cap. 86.
^ Hence the Dutch Sinaasappel or Appel-
sina and the German Apfelsine.
■* Goeze, Beiirag ziir Kenntniss der Oran-
(lengnvdckse, Hamburg, 1874. 29.
^ Manners and Household Expenses of
England in the \Wi and 15th centimes,
Lond. (Eoxburghe Club) 1841. xlviij.
126
AURANTIACEtE.
Chemical Composition — The essential oil to which the peel of the
orange owes its fragrant odour, is a distinct article of commerce, and
will be noticed hereafter under a separate head. The other constituents
of the peel probably agree with those of lemon peel. The substance
mentioned under the name of Hesperidin (p. 116) particularly abounds
in unripe bitter oranges.
Uses — Bitter orange peel is much used in medicine as an aromatic
tonic.
OLEUM NEROLI,
Oleum Aiirantii Jlornm ; Oil or Essence of Neroli ; F. Essence de
Neroli ; G. Neroliol.
Botanical Origin — Citrus vulgaris Risso. (See page 124.)
History — Porta, the Italian philosopher of the 16th century referred
to (p. 118), was acquainted with the volatile oil of the flowers of
the citron tribe (" Oleum ex citriorum fioribus"), which he obtained
by the usual process of distillation, and describes as possessing the
most exquisite fragrance. That distilled from orange flowers ac-
quired a century later (1675-168.5) the name of Essence of Neroli
from Anne-Marie de la Tremoille-Noirmoutier, second wife of Flavio
Orsini, duke of Bracciano and prince of Nerola or Neroli. This
lady employed it for the perfuming of gloves, hence called in Italy
Quanti di Keroli} It was known in Paris to Pomet, who says^ the
perfum.ers have given it the name of Neroli, and that it is made in
Rome and in Provence.
Production — Oil of Neroli is prepared from the fresh flowers of the
Bigarade or Bitter Orange by the ordinary process of distillation with
water, conducted in small copper stills. The flowers of all the allied
plants are far less aromatic. The water which distills over with the
oil constitutes, after the removal of the latter from its surface, the
Orange Flower Water {Aqua aurantii fiorum vel Aqua NaiothcBf of
commerce. The manufacture is carried on chiefly in the south of
France at Grasse, Cannes, and Nice. The yield is about 0"6 to 0'7 per
cent, of oil from fresh flowers, as stated by Poiteau et Risso.^ The
flowers of the sweet orange aff"ord but half that amount of oil.
Description and Chemical Composition — Oil of Neroli as found
in commerce is seldom pure, for it generally contains an admixture of
the e.ssential oil of orange-leaf called Essence of Petit Grain.
By the kind assistance of Mr. F. G. Warrick of Nice, we have
obtained a sample of Bigarade Neroli of gviaranteed purity, to which
the following observations relate. It is of a brownish hue, most
fragrant odour, bitterish aromatic taste, and is neutral to test-paper.
Its sp. gr. at 11° C. is 0'889. When mixed with alcohol, it displays a
bright violet fluorescence, quite distinct from the blue fluorescence of a
^Menagio, Origini della Lingua lialiaiia,
1685 ; Diet, de Trivoux, Paris, vi. (1771)
178. — The town of Nerola is about 16 miles
north of Tivoli.
- Hi»toire de.s Drogues, 1694. 2.34:. ii.
' Naphe or Naphore — according to
Poiteau et Eisso, tiist. Nat. des Orangers
1873. 211, these names perhaps originated
in Languedoc.
^ L.c. 211.
OLEUM NEROLI.
127
solution of quinine. In oil of Neroli the phenomenon may be shown
most distinctly by pouring a little spirit of wine on to the surface of
the essential oil, and causing the liquid to gently undulate. The oil is
but turbidly miscible with bisulphide of carbon. It assumes a very
pure, intense, and permanent crimson hue if shaken with a saturated
solution of bisulphide of sodium. Examined in a column of 100 mm.
we observed the oil to deviate the ray of polarized light 6° to the
right.
Subjected to distillation, the larger part of the oil passes over at
185°-195° G. ; we found this portion to be colourless, yet to display in a
marked manner the violet fluorescence and also to retain the odour of
the original oil. The portion remaining in the retort was mixed with
about the same volume of alcohol (90 per cent.) and some drops of
water added, yet not sufficient to occasion turbidity. A very small
amount of the crystalline Keroli Camphor then made its appearance,
floating on the surface of the liquid ; by re-solvition in boiling alcohol
it was obtained in crystals of rather indistinct form. The re-di.stilled
oil gave no camphor whatever.
Neroli Camphor was first noticed by Boullay in 1828. According
to our observations it ,is a neutral, inodorous, tasteless substance,
fusible at 55" C, and forming on cooling a crystalline mass. The
crystallization should be effected by cooling the hot alcoholic solution,
no good crystals being obtainable by slow evaporation or by sublima-
tion. The produce was extremely small, about (50 grammes of oil
having yielded not more than 0"1 gramme. Perhaps this scantiness of
produce was due to the oil being a year and a half old, for according to
Plisson' the camphor diminishes the longer the oil is kept." We were
unable to obtain any similar substance from the oils of bergamot, petit
grain, or orange peel.
Orange Floirer Water is a considerable article of manufacture
among the distillers of essential oils in the south of Europe, and is
imported thence for use in pharmacy. According to Boullay' it is
frequently acid to litmus when first made, — is better if distilled in
small than in large quantities, and if made from the petals per se,
rather than from the entire flowers. He also states that only 2 lb. of
water should be drawn from 1 lb. of flowers, or 3 lb. if petals alone are
placed in the still. As met with in commerce, orange flower water is
colourless or of a faintly greenish yellow tinge, almost perfectly trans-
parent, with a delicious odour and a bitter taste. Acidulated with
nitric acid, it acquires a pinkish hue more or less intense, which dis-
appears on saturation by an alkali.
Uses — Oil of Neroli is consumed almost exclusively in perfumery.
Orange flower water is frequently used in medicine to give a pleasant
odour to mixtures and lotions.
Adulteration — The large variation in value of oil of Neroli as
shown by price-currents* indicates a great diversity of quality. Besides
being very commonly mixed, as already stated, with the distilled oil of
> Jo7irn. de Pharm. xv. (1829) 152.
^ Yet we extracted it from an old sample
labelled " Essence de Neroli Portugal —
Af^ro."
3 Bulletin de Pharm, i. (1809) 337-341.
* Thus in the price-list of a firm at Grasse,
Neroli ia quoted as of /our qualities, the
lowest or "commercial" being less than half
the price of the finest.
128
AURANTIACE^.
the leaves (Essence de Petit Grain)} it is sometimes reduced by addition
o£ the less fragrant oil obtained from the flowers of the Portugal or
Sweet Orange. In some of these adulterations we must conclude that
orange flower water participate ; metallic contamination of the latter
is not imknown.
Other Products of the genus Citrus.
Essence or Essential Oil of Petit Grain — was originally ob-
tained by subjecting little immature oranges to distillation (Pomet —
1692); but it is now produced, and to a large extent, by distillation of
the leaves and shoots either of the Bigarade or Bitter Orange, or of the
Portugal or Sweet Orange. The essence of the former is by far the
more fragrant, and commands double the price. Poiteau and Risso ^
state that the leaves of the Brigaradier with bitter fruit are by far the
richest in essential oil among all the allied leaves ; they are obtained in
the lemon-oTowincf districts of the Mediterranean where the essence is
manufactured. Lemon-trees being mostly grafted on orange-stocks,
the latter during the summer put forth shoots, which are allowed to
grow till they are often some feet in length. The cultivator then cuts
them off", binds them in bundles, and conveys them to the distiller of
Petit Grain. The strongest shoots are frequently reserved for walking-
sticks. The leaves of the two sorts of orange are easily distinguished
by their smell when crushed. Essence of Petit Grain, which in odour
has a certain resemblance to Neroli, is used in perfumery and especially
in the manufacture of Eau de Cologne.
According to Gladstone (1864) it consists mainly of a hydrocarbon
probably identical with that from oil of Neroli.
Essential Oil of Orange Peel — is largely made at Messina and
also in the south of France. It is extracted by the sponge-, or by the
eciidle-])xocQ^s, and partly from the Bigarade and partly from the
Sweet or Portugal Orange, the scarcely ripe fruit being in either case
employed. The oil made from the former is much more valuable than
that obtained from the latter, and the two are distinguished in price-
currents as Essence de Bigarade and Essence de Portugal.
These essences are but little consumed in England, in liqueur-
making and in perfumery. For what is known of their chemical
nature, the reader can consult the works named at foot.^
Essence of Cedrat — The true Citron or Cedrat tree is Citrus
medica Risso, and is of interest as being the only member of the
Orange tribe the fruit of which was known in ancient Rome. The
tree itself, which appears to have been cultivated in Palestine in the
time of Josephus, was introduced into Italy in about the 3rd century.
^ We have been informed on good authority
that the Neroli commonly sold contains f of
Essence of Petit Grain, and J of Essence
of Bei-gamot, the remaining f being true
Neroli.
2 Loc. €., edition of 1873. 211.
3 Gmelin, Chemktry, xiv. (ISGO) 305.
306 : Gladstone, Joiirn. of Chem. Soc. xvii.
(1864) 1 : Wright (and Piesse) in Year-
hook of Pharmaoj, 1871. 546 ; 1873. 518 ;
Joiirn. of Chem. Soc. xi. (1873) 552, &c.
We may moreover point out the existence
of a ci'ystallized constituent of the oil of
orange peel from the island of Curacao. It
was noticed as long ago as the year 1771
by Gaubiiis : " Sal aromaticus, nativus, ex
oleo corticum mali aurei Curassavici," in
his book, " Adersariorum varii argumenti,
lib. unus." Leidae, 1771. 27.
FRUCTUS BEL^.
129
In A.D. 1003 it was much grown at Salerno near Naples, whence its
fruits were sent as presents to the Norman princes/
At the present clay, the citron appears to be nowhere cultivated
extensively, the more prolific lemon tree having generally taken its
place. It is however scattered along the Western Riviera, and is also
gTown on a small scale about Pizzo and Paola on the western coast of
Calabria, in Sicily, Corsica, and Azores. Its fruits, which often weigh
several pounds, are chiefly sold for being candied. For this purpose
}he peel, which is excessively thick, is salted and in that state shipped
;o England and Holland. The fruit has a very scanty pulp.^
Essence of Cedi'at which is quoted in some price-lists may be pre-
pared from the scarcely ripe fruit by the sponge-process ; but as it is
nore profitable to export the frvxit salted, it is very rarely manufactured,
md that which bears its name is for the most part fictitious.
FRUCTUS BELiE.
Beta ; Bael Fruit, Indian Bael, Bengal Quince.
Botanical Origin — ^^gle Marmelos^ Correa (Cratceva Marmelos L.),
L tree found in most parts of the Indian peninsula, which is often
)lanted in the neighbourhood of temples, being esteemed sacred by the
Hindus. It is truly wild in the forests of the Coromandel Ghats and
)f the Western Himalaya, ascending often to 4,000 feet and growing
jregarious when wild.
It attains a height of 30-40 feet, is usually armed with strong sharp
horns and has trifid leaves, the central leaflet being petiolate and
arger than the lateral. The fruit is a large berry, 2 to 4 inches in diameter,
variable in shape, being spherical or somewhat flattened like an orange,
•void, or pyriform,* having a smooth hard shell ; the interior divided
nto 10-15 cells each containing several woolly seeds, consists of a
aucilaginous pulp, which becomes very hard in drying. In the
resh state the fruit is very aromatic, and the juicy pulp which it
ontains has an agreeable flavour, so that when mixed with water and
weetened, it forms a palatable refrigerant drink. The fruit is never
aten as dessert, though its pulp is sometimes made into a preserve
i^ith suofar.
The fruit of the wild tree is described as small, hard, and flavourless,
emaining long on the tree. The bark of the stem and root, the
lowers and the expressed juice of the leaves are vised in medicine by
he natives of India.
History — The tree under the name of Bilva^ is constantly alluded
0 as an emblem of increase and fertility in ancient Sanskrit poems.
iGallesio, Traite du Citrm, 1811. 222.
- Oribasius accurately describes the
itron as a fruit consisting of three parts,
amely a central acid puljD, a thick and
eshy zest and an aromatic outer coat. —
[edicinalia coUecta, lib. i. c. 64.
^ ^gle, one of the Hesperides. — Mar-
leloes from the Portuguese marmelo, a
uince. — Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, part
•* In the Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg
in Java, three varieties are grown, namely —
fructibus nhlongU, fnictihus suhglohosh, and
macrocarpa.
^ We are indebted to Professor Monier
Williams of Oxford for pointing out to us
many references to Bilva in the Sanskrit
writings.
I
130
AURANTIACEiE.
some of which as the Yajar Veda are supposed to have been written
not later than 1000 B.C. — Constantimis Africanus was acquainted with
the fruit under notice.
Garcia de Orta, who resided in India as physician to the Portuguese
viceroy at Goa in the 1 6th century, wrote an account of the fruit imder
the name of Marmelos de Benguala (Bengal Quince) Girifole or Beli,^
describing its use in dysentery.
In the following century it was noticed by Bontius, in whose
writings edited by Piso ^ there is a bad figure of the tree as Mcduni
Cydonium. It was also figured by Rheede,^ and subsequently under
the designation of Bilack or Bilack fellor by Rumphius.* The latter
states that it is indigenous to Gujarat, the eastern parts of Java, Sum-
bawa and Celebes, and that it has been introduced into Amboina.
But although JEgle Marmelos has thus been long known and
appreciated in India, the use of its fruit as a medicine attracted no
attention in Europe till about the year 1850. The dried fruit which has
a place in the British Pharmacopoeia is now not unfrequently imported.
Description — ^We have already described the form and structure of
the fruit, which for medicinal use should be dried when in a half ripe
state. It is found in commerce in dried slices having on the outer side
a smooth greyish shell enclosing a hard, orange or red, gummy pulp in
which are some of the 10 to 15 cells existing in the entire fruit. Each
cell includes 6 to 10 compressed oblong seeds nearly 3 lines in length,
covered with whitish woolly hairs. When broken the pulp is seen to
be nearly colourless internally, the outside alone having assumed an
orange tint. The dried j^idp has a mucilaginous, slightly acid taste,
without aroma, astringency, or sweetness.
There is also imported Bael fruit which has been collected when
ripe, as shown by the well-formed seeds. Such fruits arrive broken
irregularly and dried, or sawn into transverse slices and then dried, or
lastly entire, in which case they retain some of their original fragrance
resembling that of elemi.
Microscopic Structure — The rind of the fruit is covered with a
strong cuticle, and further shows two layers, the one exhibiting not very
numeroiLs oil-cells, and the other an inner made up of sclerenchyme.
The tissue of the pulp, which, treated with water, swells into an elastic
mass, consists of large cells With considerable cavities between them.
The seeds when moistened yield an abundance of mucilage nearly in the
same way as White Mustard or Linseed. In the epidermis of the seeds
certain groups of cells are excessively lengthened, and thus constitute
the curious woolly hairs already noticed. They likewise afibrd muci-
lage in the same way as the seed itself.
Chemical Composition — We are unable to confirm the remarkable
analyses of tlie drug alluded to in the Pharmacopoeia of India f nor
can we explain by any chemical examination upon what constituent the
alleged medicinal efficacy of bael depends.
The pulp moistened with cold water yields a red liquid containing
1 Siri phal and Bel are Hindustani ^ jfQfi, Malab. iii. (1682) tab. 37
names. — See also Fltickiger, Dociimente, 20. (Covalam).
- De Indue re nat. etmed. 1658, lib. vi. Herb. Amh. i. tab. 81.
c. 8. B Edition 1868, pp. 46 and 441.
LIGNUM QUASSIA.
131
chiefly mucilage, and (probably) pectin which separates if the liquid is
concentrated by evaporation. The mucilage may be precipitated by
neutral acetate of lead or by alcohol, but is not coloured by iodine. It
may be separated by a filter into a portion truly soluble (as proved by
the addition of alcohol or acetate of lead), and another, comprehending
the larger bulk, which is only swollen like tragacanth, but is far more
glutinous and completely transparent.
Neither a per- nor a proto-salt of iron shows the infusion to contain
any appreciable qviantity of tannin,^ nor is the drug in any sense pos-
sessed of astringent properties.
Uses — Bael is held in high repute in India as a remedy for
dysentery and diarrhoea; at the same time it is said to act as a laxative
where constipation exists.
Adulteration — The fruit of Feronia Elephantmn Correa, which has
a considerable external resemblance to that of jEgle Marmelos and is
called by Europeans Wood Apple, is sometimes supplied in India for
bael. It may be easily distinguished: it is one-celled with a large five-
lobed cavity (instead of 10 to 15 cells) filled with numerous seeds.
The tree has pinnate leaves with 2 or 3 pairs of leaflets. We have seen
Pomegranate Peel offered as Indian Bael.^
SIMARUBE^.
LIGNUM QUASSIiE.
Quassia, Quassia Wood, Bitter Wood; F. Bois de Quassia de la
Javiaique, Bois amer; Jamaica Quassiaholz.
Botanical Origin — Picrcena excelsa Lindl. (Quassia excelsa Swartz,
Simaruha excelsa DC, Picrasma excelsa Planchon), a tree 50 to 60 feet
in height, somewhat resembling an ash and having inconspicuous greenish
flowers and black shining drupes the size of a pea. It is common on
the plains and lower mountains of Jamaica, and is also found in the
islands of Antigua and St. Vincent. It is called in the West Indies
Bitter Wood or Bitter Ash.
History — Quassia wood was introduced into Europe about the
middle of the last century. It was derived from Quassia amara L., a
shrub or small tree with handsome crimson flowers, belonging to the
same order, native of Panama, Venezuela, Guiana, and Northern Brazil.
It was subsequently found that the Bitter Wood of Jamaica which
Swartz and other botanists referred to the same genus, possessed similar
properties, and as it was obtainable of much larger size, it has since the
end of the last century been generally preferred. The wood of
Q. amara, called Surinam Quassia, is however still used in France
and Germany.^
1 We are thus at variance with Collas
of Pondichery, who attributes to the ripe
frait 5 per cent, of tannin. — Hist. nat. etc.
du Bel ou Vilva in Revue Coloniale, xvi.
(1856) 220-238.
2 40 bags in a drug sale, 8th May, 1873.
^ The Pharmacopcea Germanica of 1872
expressly forbids the use of the wood of
Picrcena in place of Quassia.
132
SIMARUBE^.
The first to give a good account of Jamaica quassia was John
Lindsay/ a medical practitioner of the island, who writing in 1791
described the tree as long known not only for its excellent timber, but
also as a useful medicine in putrid fevers and fluxes. He adds that
the hark is exported to England in considerable quantity — " for the
purposes of the brewers of ale and porter."
Quassia, defined as the wood, bark, and root of Q. amara L., was
introduced into the London Pharmacopoeia of 1788; in the edition of
1809, it was superseded by the wood of Picrcena excelsa. In the stock-
book of a London druggist (J. Gurney Bevan, of Plo\igh Court, Lombard
Street) we find it first noticed in 1781 (as rasurce), when it was reckoned
as having cost 4s. 2d. per lb.
Description — The quassia wood of commerce consists of pieces of
the stem and larger branches, some feet in length, and often as thick
as a man's thigh. It is covered with bark externally of a dusky grey
or blackish hue, white and fibrous within, which it is customary to
strip off" and reject. The wood, which is of a very light yellowish tint,
is tough and strong, but splits easily. In transverse section it exhibits
numerous fine close medullary rays, which intersect the rather obscure
and irregular rings resembling those of annual growth of our indigenous
woody stems. The centre is occupied by a cylinder of pith of minute
size. In a longitudinal section, whether tangential or radial, the wood
appears transversely striated by reason of the small vertical height of
the medullary rays.
The wood often exhibits certain blackish markings due to the
mycelium of a fungus ; they have sometimes the aspect of delicate
patterns, and at others appear as large dark patches.
Quassia has a strong, pure bitter taste, but is devoid of odour. It
is always supplied to the retail druggist in the form of turnings or
raspings, the former being obtained in the manufacture of the Bitter
Gups, now often seen in the shops.
Microscopic Structure — The wood consists for the most part of
elongated pointed cells (libriform), traversed by medidlary rays, each
of the latter being built up of about 15 vertical layers of cells. The
single layers contain from one to three rows of cells. The ligneous rays
thus enclosed by medullary parenchyme, are intersected by groups of
tissue constituting the above-mentioned irregular rings. On a longi-
tudinal section this parenchyme exhibits numerous crystals of oxalate
of calcium, and sometimes deposits of yellow resin. The latter is more
abundant in the large vessels of the wood. Oxalate and resin are the
only solid matters perceptible in the tissues of this drug.
Chemical Composition — The bitter taste of quassia is due to
Quassiin, which was first obtained, no doubt, from the wood of Quassia
amara, by Winckler in 1835. It was analysed by Wiggers,^ who
assigned it the formula C'°H^^O^, now regarded as doubtful. According
to the latter, quassiin is an irresolvable, neutral substance, crystallizable
from dilute alcohol or from chloroform. It requires for solution about
200 parts of water, but is not sokible in ether ; it forms an insoluble
compound with tannic acid. Quassia wood is said to yield about
1 Trans. Boy. Soc. EdinlmrgJi, in. (1194) 2 Ljebig's Annahn der PJinrm. xxi.
205. tab. 6. (1837) 40.
OLIBANUM.
133
per cent, of quassiin. A watery infusion of quassia, especially if a
little caustic lime has been added to the drug, displays a slight fluor-
escence, due apparently to quassiin. Goldschmiedt and Weidel (1877)
failed in obtaining quassiin. They isolated the yellow resin which we
mentioned above, and stated that it yields protocatechuic acid when
melted with potash. Quassia wood dried at 100° C. yielded us 7"8 per
cent, of ash.
Commerce — The quantity of Bitter Wood shipped from Jamaica
in 1871 was 56 tons.^
Uses — The drug is employed as a stomachic and tonic. It is
poisonous to flies, and is not without narcotic properties in respect to
the higher animals.
Substitutes — The wood of Quassia amara L., the Bitter Wood of
Surinam, bears a close resemblance, both external and structural, to the
drug just noticed ; but its stems never exceed four inches in diameter
and are commonly still thinner. Their thin, brittle bark is of a
greyish yellow, and separates easily from the wood. The latter is
somewhat denser than the quassia of Jamaica, from which it may be
distinguished by its medidlary rays being composed of a single or
less frequently of a double row of cells, whereas in the wood of
Picrcena excelsa, they consist of two or three rows, less frequently of
only one.
Surinam Quassia Wood is exported from the Dutch colony of
Surinam. The quantity shipped thence during the nine months ending
30th Sept., 1872, was 264,675 Ib.^
The bark of Samadera indica Gartn., a tree of the same natural
order, owes its bitterness to a principle ^ which agrees perhaps with
quassiin. The aqueous infusion of the bark is abundantly precipitated
by tannic acid, a compound of quassiin probably being formed. A
similar treatment applied to quassia would possibly easier afford
quassiin than the extraction of the wood by means of alcohol, as per-
formed by Wiggers.
BURSERACE^.
OLIBANUM.
Gummi-resina Olihanum, Thus masculum * ; Olibanum, Frank-
incense ; F. Encens ; G. Weihrauch.
Botanical Origin — Olibanum is obtained from the stem of several
species of Bosiuellia, inhabiting the hot and arid regions of Eastern
^ Blue Booh, Island of Jamaica, for
1871.
- Consular Reports, No. 3, presented to
Parliament, July 1873.
' Rost van Tonniugen, Jahreshericht of
Wiggers (Canstatt) for 1858. 75 ; PJiarm.
Journ. ii. (1872) 644. 654.
* The Xi'/Jai-os of the Greeks, the Latin
Olibanum, as well as the Arabic Luhdn,
and the analogous sounds in other lan-
guages, are all derived from the Hebrew
Lebonah, signifying milk: and modern
travellers who have seen the frankincense
trees state that the fresh juice is milky,
and hardens when exposed to the air. The
word Thus, on the other hand, seems to
be derived from the verb Ovui/, to sacri-
Jice.
134
BURSERACEiE.
Africa, near Cape Gardafui and of the southern coast of Arabia. Not-
withstanding the recent elaborate and valuable researches of Birdwood/
the olibanum trees are still but imperfectly knoAvn, as will be evident
in the following enumeration : —
1. Bosivellia Carterii Birdw. — This includes the three following
forms, which may be varieties of a single species, or may belong to
two or more species, — a point impossible to settle until more perfect
materials shall have been obtained.
a. Boswellia No. 5, Oliver, Flora of Tropical Africa, I. (1868)
324, Mohr meclclu or Mohr rnadoivoi the natives ; medclii, according to
Playfair and Hildebrandt, means black. The leaflets are crenate,
undulate, and pubescent on both sides.
This tree is found in the Somali Country, growing a little inland in
the valleys and on the lower part of the hills, never on the range close
to the sea. It yields the olibanum called Liibdn Beclotvi or Ltibdn
Sheheri (Playfair).
Hildebrandt describes the Mohr meddu as a tree 12 to 15 feet high,
with a few branches, indigenous to the limestone range of Ahl or
Serrut, in the northern part of the Somali Country, where it occurs in
elevations of from 3000 to 5000 feet. To this tree belongs the figure
58 in Bentley and Trimen's Medicinal Plants (Part 20, 1877).
b. Bosivellia No. 6, Oliver, oj). cit, Birdwood, Linn. Trans, xxvii.,
tab. 29. — Sent by Playfair among the specimens of the preceding, and
with the same indications and native name. This form, the " Mohr
meddu " of the Somalis, has obscurely serrulate or almost entire leaflets,
velvety and paler below, glabrous above. The figure (which is not
given in the reprint) is very much the same as that of the following.
c. Maghrayt d'sheehaz of the Maharas, Birdwood, I. c. tab. 30,
reprinted in Cooke's report, plate I ; Carter, Journ. of Bombay Branch
of R. Asiat. Sac. ii., tab. 23 ; B. sacra Fliickiger, Le/trbuch der Phcmna-
kognosie des Pjiaitzenreiches, 1867. 31. — Ras Fartak, S.E. coast of
Arabia, growing in the detritus of limestone cliffs and close to the
shore,^ also near the village of Merbat (Carter, 1844-1846).
Birdwood's figure refers to a specimen propagated in the Victoria
Gardens, Bombay, from cuttings sent there from the Somali country by
Playfair.
2. B. Bhau-Dajiana Birdw. I. c. tab. 31, or plate III. of the reprint.
— Somali Country (Playfair) ; cultivated in Victoria Gardens, Bombay,
where it flowered in 1868. The differences between this species and B.
Carterii are not very obvious.
1 On the Genus Boswellia, with descrip-
tions and figures of three new species. — Linn.
Trans, xxvii. (1870) 111. 148. This paper
is reprinted as au appendix to Cooke's
" Report on the gnms, resins, ....
of the Indian Museum," Lond. 1874. —
The original plates are much superior and
more complete than the reprints. — The
materials on which Dr. Birdwood's obser-
vations have been chiefly founded, and to
which we also have had access, are, — 1.
Specimens collected during an expedition
to the Somali Coast made by Col. Playfair
in 1862. — 2. Growing Plants at Bombay
and Aden, raised from cuttings sent by
Playfair. — 3. A specimen obtained by H.
J. Carter in 1846, near Ras Fartak, on the
south-east coast of Arabia, and still grow-
ing in Victoria Gardens, Bombay ; and
figured by Carter in Journ. of Bombay
Branch of £. Asiatic Soc. ii. (1848) 380,
tab. 23.
- In the XiPau'jiTocpopos x^P" of the anti-
quity, the hill region (where Mohr meddu
is growing) used to be contrasted with the
coast region, the Sahil. See Sprenger
(quoted further on, page 136, foot-note 3),
page 90.
OLIBANUM.
135
3. Boswellia No. 4, Oliver, o'p. cit. — Bunder Murayah, Somali
Covmtry (Playfair). Grows out of the rock, but sometimes in the
detritus of limestone ; never found on the hills close to the sea, but
further inland and on the highest ground. Yields Lubdn Bedowi and
L. Sheheri ; was received at Kew as Mohr add, a name applied by
Birdwood also to B. Bhau-Dajiana.
From the informations due to Captains Miles ^ and Hunter and to
Haggenmacher^ it would appear that the Beyo or Beyii of the Somalis
(Boido, Capt. Hunter) is agreeing with this tree.
4. Bostuell ia neglecta, S. Le M. Moore, in Journ. of Botany, xv.(1877)
67 and tab. 185. This tree has been collected by Hildebrandt in the
limestone range, Ahl or Serrut, in the northern part of the Somali
Country. It occurs in elevations of 1000 to 1800 metres, and attains
a height of 5 to 6 metres. Its exudation, according to Hildebrandt, is
collected in but small quantity and mixed with the other kinds of
olibanum. Moore gives MvMo as the vernacular name of this tree,
Hildebrandt calls it Mohr add.
In addition to the foregoing, from which the olibanum of com-
merce is collected, it may be convenient to mention also the follow-
1. Bosivellia Frereana Birdw., a well-marked and very distinct
species of the Somali Country, which the natives call Yegaar. It
abounds in a highly fragrant resin collected and sold as Lubdn Meyeti
or Lubdn Mati, which we regard to be the substance originally
known as Elemi (see this article).
2. B. jxipyrifera Richard {Plosslea floribunda Endl.), the "Makar"
of Sennaar and the mountainous resion ascending; to 4000 feet above
the level of the sea on the Abyssinian rivers Takazze and Mareb. It
appears not to grow in the outer parts of north-eastern Africa. Its
resin is not collected, and stated by Richard^ to be transparent ; it
consists no doubt merely of resin (and essential oil ?) without gum.^
3. B. thurifera Colebr. (B. glabra et B. serrata Roxb.), the Salai
tree of India, produces a soft odoriferous resin which is used in the
country as incense but is not the olibanum of commerce. The tree is
particularly abundant on the trap hills of the Dekhan and Satpura
range. Berg, in " Offizinelle Gewachse," xiv. c. gives a good figure of
this species.
History — The use of olibanum goes back to a period of extreme anti-
quity, as proved by the numerous references ' in the writings of the Bible
to incense, oi which it was an essential ingredient. It is moreover well
known that many centuries before Christ, the drug was one of the
most important objects of the traffic which the Phoenicians'' and
Egyptians carried on with Arabia.
Professor Dumichen'^ of Strassburg has discovered at the temple of
^ See his picturesque description of the
tree, Journ. R. Geograph. Soc. 22 (1872)
64.
^ Fluckiger, Pharm. Journ. viii. (1878)
805.
3 Tent. Flora Abyssinicae, i. (1847) 248 ;
figure of the tree tab. xxxiii.
■* See the paper qixoted in note 2.
^ As for instance, Exod. xxx. 34 ; 1 Chron.
X. 29 ; Matth. ii. 11.
^Movers, Das phunizisclie Altertlivm, iii.
(1856) 99. 299.— Sprenger, I.e. p. 299, also
points out the importance of the olibanum
with regard to the commercial relations of
those early periods.
J' Diimichen (Joannes), The fleet of an
13G
BURSERACE^.
Dayr el Bahri in Upper Egypt, paintings illustrating the traffic carried
on between Egypt and a distant country called Punt or Fount as early
as the I7th century B.C. In these paintings there are representations
not only of bags of olibanum, but also of olibanum trees planted in
tubs or boxes, being conveyed by ship from Arabia to Egypt. Inscrip-
tions on the same building, deciphered by Professor D., describe with
the utmost admiration the shipments of precious woods, heaps of
incense, verdant incense trees,^ ivory, gold, stimmi (sulphide of anti-
mony), silver, apes, besides other productions not yet identified. The
country Pount was first thought to be southern Arabia, but is now
considered to comprehend the Somali coast, together with a portion of
the opposite Arabian coast. Punt possibly refers to " Opone," an old
name for Hafoon, a place south of Cape Gardafui.
A detailed account of frankincense is given by Theophrastus" (B.C.
370-285) who relates that the commodity is produced in the country of
the Sabseans, one of the most active trading nations of antiqviity, occupy-
ing the southern shores of Arabia. It appears from Diodorus that the
Sabaeans sold their frankincense to the Arabs, through whose hands it
passed to the Phosnicians who disseminated the use of it in the temples
throughout their possessions, as well as among the nations with whom
they traded. The route of the caravans from south-eastern Arabia to
Gaza in Palestine, has recently (1866) been pointed out by Professor
Sprenger. Plutarch relates that when Alexander the Great captured
Gaza, 500 talents of olibanum and 100 talents of myrrh were taken,
and sent thence to Macedonia.
The libanotophorous region of the old Sabaeans is in fact the very
country visited by Carter in 1844 and 1846, and lying as he states on
the south coast of Arabia between long. 52° 47' and 52° 23' east.^ It
was also known to the ancients, at least to Strabo and Arrian, that
the opposite African coast likewise produced olibanum,* as it is now
doing almost exclusively ; and the latter states that the drug is shipped
partly to Egypt and partly to Barbaricon at the mouth of the Indus.
As exemplifying the great esteem in which frankincense was held
by the ancients, the memorable gifts presented by the Magi to the
infant Saviour will occur to every mind. A few other instances may
be mentioned : Herodotus^ relates that the Arabians paid to Darivis,
king of Persia, an annual tribute of 1000 talents of frankincense.
A remarkable Greek inscription, brought to light in modern times ^
on the ruins of the temple of Apollo at Miletus, records the gifts made
to the shrine by Seleucus II., king of Syria (b.c. 246-227), and his
brother Antiochus Hierax, king of Cilicia, which included in addition
Egyptian Queen from the llth centin-y before
our era, and ancient Egyptian military
parade, represented on a monument of the
same age .... after a copy taken from the
terrace of the temple of Der-el-Baheri, trans-
lated from tlie German by AnnaDiimichen,
Leipzig, 1868. — See also Mariette-Bey,
Deir-el-Bahnrl, Leipzig, 1877, PI. C, 7, 8.
^ In one of the inscriptions they are re-
ferred to in terms which Professor D. has
thus rendered :—" Thirty-one verdant in-
cense-trees brought among the precious
things from the land of Punt for the majesty
of this god Amon, the lord of the terrestrial
thrones. Never has anything similar been
seen since the foundation of the M^orld."
-Hist. Plant, lib. iv. c. 7. — See also
Sprenger, I.e. 219.
See also Sjjrenger, Die alte Geographie
Arahiens. Bern, 1875. 296, 302, also 244.
" Thus transfretanum," Sprenger, 299.
SRawlinson's Herodotus, ii. (1858) 488.
— Sprenger, ^.c 300, alludes to olibanum
being exported to Babylonia and Persia.
* Chishull, Antiquitates Asiatics, Lond.
1758. 65-72.
OLIBANUM.
137
two vessels of gold and silver, ten talents of frankincense (Xi^avwro?)
and one of myrrh.
The emperor Constantine made numerous offerings to the church
under St. Silvester, bishop of Rome A.D. 314-335, of costly vessels and
fragrant drugs and spices,' among which mention is made in several
instances of Aroniata and A romata in incensum, terms under which
olibanum is to be understood.-
With regard to the consumption of olibanum in other covmtries, it
is an interesting fact that the Arabs in their intercourse with the
Chinese, which is known to have existed as early as the 10th century,
carried with them olibanum, myrrh, dragon's blood, and liquid storax,^
drugs which are still imported from the west into China. The first-
named is called Ju-siavg, i.e. milk 'perfLime, a curious allusion to its
Arabic name Luhcin signifying milk. In the year 1872, Shanghai
imported^ of this drug no less than 1,360 peculs (181,333 lb.).
Collection — The fragrant gum resin is distributed through the
leaves and bark of the trees, and even exudes as a milky juice also from
the flowers ; its fragrance is stated to be already appreciable in a certain
distance. Cruttenden,* who visited the Somali Country in 1843, thus
describes the collecting of olibanum by the Mijjertheyn t>^ibe, whose
chief port is Bunder Murayah (lat. 11° 43' N.)^:—
" During the hot season the men and boys are daily employed in
collecting gums, which process is carried on as follows : — About the end
of February or beginning of March, the Bedouins visit all the trees in
succession and make a deep incision in each, peeling ofl" a narrow strip
of bark for about 5 inches below the wound. This is left for a
month when a fresh incision is made in the same place, but deeper.
A third month elapses and the operation is again repeated, after which
the gum is supposed to have attained a proper degree of consistency.
The mountain-sides are immediately covered with parties of men and
boys, who scrape off" the large clear globules into a basket, whilst the
inferior quality that has run down the tree is packed separately. The
gum when first taken from the tree is very soft, but hardens quickly.
.... Every fortnight the moimtains are visited in this manner, the
trees producing larger quantities as the season advances, until the
middle of September, when the first shower of rain puts a close to the
gathering that year."
The informations due to J. M. Hildebrandt, who visited the
Somali in 1875, are in accordance with Cruttenden's statements. The
former says, that the latest crops are greatly injured by the rains, the
drvig being partly dissolved by the water.
Carter ^ describing the collection of the drug in southern Arabia,
1 These remarkable gifts are enumerated
by Vignoli in his Liber Pontijicalia, Rome,
1724:-55, and inchide beside Olibanum,
Oleum nardinum, Oleum Cyprium, Balsam,
Storax Imurica, Stacte, Aromata cassice,
Saffron and Pepper.
- The ancient name of Cape Gardafni was
Promontorium Aromatum.
^ Bretschneider, Ancient Chinese, &c.
Lond. 1871. 19.
* Beturns of Trade at tlte Treaty Portft in
China for 1872, p. 4.
^ Trans. Bombay Geograj^h. Soc. vii.
(1846) 121.
^ See sketch of the Somali coast. Pliarm.
Journ. viii. (13 Apr. 1878) 806.
^ See my paper on Lnban Mati and Oli-
banum, Phnrm. Journ. viii. (1878) 805, also
Hildebrandt's note in the " Sitzungs-
Bericht der Gesellschaft naturforschender
Freundezu Berlin," 19th Nov. 1878, 195.—
F.A.F.
138
BURSERACE^.
writes thus : — " The gum is procured by making longitudinal incisions
through the bark in the months of May and December, when the
cuticle glistens with intumescence from the distended state of the parts
beneath ; the operation is simple, and requires no skill on the part of
the operator. On its first appearance the gum comes forth white as
milk, and according to its degree of fluidity, finds its way to the
ground, or concretes on the branch near the place from which it first
issued, from whence it is collected by men and boys employed to look
after the trees by the different families who possess the land in which
they grow." According to Captain Miles,^ the drug is not collected by
the people of the country, but by Somalis who cross in numbers from
the opposite coast, paying the Arab tribes for the privilege. The
Arabian Lubdn, he says, is considered inferior to the African.
It would even appear that the collection of the drug has ceased in
Arabia, and that the names of Luban Maheri or Mascati or Sheehaz,
referring to the coast of Arabia between Ras Fartak (52° 10' E.) and
Ras Morbas (54° 34') are now applied to the olibanum brought there
from the opposite African coast.^ Hildebrandt informed one of us
(letter dated 26th Dec, 1878) that he has ascertained at Aden, that all
the frankincense imported in Aden comes from Africa.
Description — Olibanum as found in commerce varies rather con-
siderably in quality and appearance. It may in general terms be
described as a dry gum-resin, consisting of detached tears up to an
inch in length, of globular, pear-shaped, clavate, or stalactitic form,
mixed with more or less irregular lumps of the same size. Some of
the longer tears are slightly agglutinated, but most are distinct. The
predominant forms are rounded, — angular fragments being less fre-
quent, though the tears are not seldom fissured. Small pieces of the
translucent brown papery bark are often found adhering to the flat
pieces. The " Luban Fasous Bedow " as exported from the Mijjertheyn
district, in the eastern part of the Somali Country, is in very fine
large tears.
The colour of the drug is pale yellowish or brownish, but the finer
qualities consist of tears which are nearly colourless or have a greenish
hue. The smallest grains only are transparent, the rest are trans-
lucent and somewhat milky, and not transparent even after the
removal of the white dust with which they are always covered.
But if heated to about 94° C, they become almost transparent.
When broken they exhibit a rather dull and waxy surface. Exa-
mined under the polarizing microscope no trace of crystallization is
observable.
Olibanum softens in the mouth ; its taste is terebinthinous and
slightly bitter, but by no means disagreeable. Its odour is pleasantly
aromatic, but is only fully developed when the gum-resin is exposed
to an elevated temperature. At 100° C. the latter softens without
actually fusing, and if the heat be further raised decomposition begins.
Chemical Composition— Cold water quickly changes olibanum
into a soft whitish pulp, which when rubbed down in a mortar forms
an emulsion. Immersed in spirit of wine, a tear of olibanum is not
^ Loc, cit. yah, in Journ. of R. Geograph Society,
' On the neighbo urhood of Bunder- Mur a - xxii. (1872) 65.
OLIBANUM.
139
fcered much in form, but it becomes of an almost pure opaque
hite. In the first case the water dissolves the gum, while in the
cond the alcohol removes the resin. We find that pure olibanum
eated with spirit of wine leaves 27 to 35 of gum,^ which forms a
ick mucilage with three parts of water. Dissolved in 5 parts of water
yields a neutral solution, which is precipitated by perchloride of iron
well as by silicate of sodium, but not by neutral acetate of lead. It
consequently a gum of the same class as gum arable, if not identical
ith it. Its solution contains the same amount of lime as gum
abic affords.
The resin of olibanum has been examined by Hlasiwetz (1867),
cording to whom it is a uniform substance having the composition
'"H^^O^. We find that it is not soluble in alkalis, nor have we suc-
eded in converting it into a crystalline body by the action of dilute
3ohol. It is not uniformly distributed throughout the tears ; if they
e broken after having been acted upon by dilute alcohol, it now and
en happens that a clear stratification is perceptible, showing a con-
ntric arrangement.
Olibanum contains an essential oil, of which Braconnot (1808)
)tained 5 per cent., Stenhouse (1840) 4 per cent., and Kurbatow
871-1874) 7 per cent. According to Stenhouse it has a sp. gr. of
BGG, a boiling point of 179'4° C, and an odour resembling that of tur-
intine but more agreeable. Kurbatow separated this oil into two
)rtions, the one of which has the formula C'^ff", boils at 158° C, and
mbines with HCl to form crystals; the other contains oxygen. The
tter principle of olibanum forms an amorphous brown mass.
The resin of olibanum submitted to destructive distillation affords no
nbelliferone. Heated with strong nitric acid it develops no peculiar
lour, but at length camphretic acid (see Camphor) is formed, which
ay be also obtained from many resins and essential oils if submitted
the same oxidizing ag-ent.
Commerce — The olibanum of Arabia is shipped from several small
aces along the coast between Damkote and Al Kammar, but the
lantity produced in this district is much below that furnished by the
)mali Country in Eastern Africa. The latter is brought to Zeyla,
3rbera, Bunder Murayah, and many smaller ports, whence it is
lipped to Aden or direct to Bombay. The trade is chiefly in the
mds of Banians, and the great emporium for the drug is Bombay. A
rtain portion is shipped through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to
dda, — Von Kremer^ says to the value of £12,000 annually. The
lantity exported from Bombay in the year 1872-73 was 25,100 cwt.,
which 17,446 cwt. were shipped to the United Kingdom, and 6,184
vt. to China.'
Uses — As a medicine olibanum is nearly obsolete, at least in
ritain. The great consumption of the drug is for the incense used
the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches.
1 I obtained 32 '14 per cent, from the
test tears of the kind called Fasous
dowi, with which I was presented by
-pt. Hunter of Aden.— F.A.F.
^ Aer/ijpten, Forschungen iiher Land und
Volk, Leipzig, 1863.
' Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of the Presidency of Bombay for 1872-73,
pt. ii. 78.
140
BURSERACE^.
MYRRHA.
Gummi-resina Myrrha; Myrrh; F. Myrrlie; G. Myrrhe.
Botanical Origin — Ehrenberg who visited Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia,
and Arabia in the years 1820-26, brought home with him specimens of
the myrrh trees found at Ghizan (Gison or Dhizan), a town on the strip
of coast-region called Tihama, opposite the islands of Farsan Kebir and
Farsan Seghir, and a little to the north of Lohaia, on the eastern side
of the Red Sea, in latitude 16° 40', and also on the neighbouring
mountains of Djara (or Shahra) and Kara. Here the myrrh trees form
the underwood of the forests of Acacia, Moringa, and Etiphorhia.
Nees von Esenbeck who examined these specimens, drew up from them
a description of what he called Balsamodendron Myrrha, which he
figiired in 1828/
After Ehrenberg's herbarium had been incorporated in the Royal
Herbarium of Berlin, Berg examined these specimens, and came to the
conclusion that they consist of tivo species, namely that described and
figured by Nees, and a second to which was attached {correctly we must
hope) two memoranda bearing the following w^ords: — " Ipsa Myrrhce
arbor ad Gison, — Martio," and " Ex huic simillinia arhore ad Gison
ipse Myrrham effluentem legiP- Hcec specimina lecta sunt in montibus
Djara et Ka ra Februario." This plant Berg named B. Ehrenbergianum?
Oliver in his Flora of Tro^ncal Africa (1868)'* is disposed to consider
Berg's plant the same as B. Op)obalsamun Kth., a tree or shrub yield-
ing myrrh, found by Schweinfurth on the Bisharrin mountains in
Abyssinia, not far from the coast between Suakin and Edineb. But
Schweinfurth himself does not admit the identity of the two plants.^
It is certain, however, that the myrrh of commerce is chiefly of African
origin.
Captain F. M. Hunter, Assistant Resident of Aden, informed us^
that the Arabian myrrh tree, the Didthiix, is found not only in the
southern provinces of Arabia, Yemen, and Hadramant, probably also in
the southern part of Oman, but likewise on the range of hills which,
on the African shore, runs parallel to the Somali coast. The Somalis
who gather the myrrh in Arabia allege that the Arabian " Didthin" is
identical with that of their own district. Its exudation is the true
myrrh, " Mulmul" of the Somalis, the "Mur" of the Arabs, or "Heera-
bole"'^ of the Indians.
Another myrrh tree, according to Captain Hunter, is growing in
Ogadain and the districts round Harrar, that is between the 7th and
10th parallels, N. lat., and 43° to 50° E. long. This is the " Habaghadi"
of the Somalis, which is not found in Arabia, nor in the coast range of
' Plantoi Medicinales, Diisseldorf, ii.
(1828) tab. 355.
2 On applying in 1872 to Prof. Ehrenberg
to know if it were possible that we could
see this very specimen, we received the
answer that it could not be found.
Berg u. Schmidt, Dardellimg ii. Be-
schreibuiKj . . . offizin. Gewddise, iv. (1863)
tab. xxix. d.; also Bot. Zeitung, 16 Mai,
1862. 155.
^ Vol. i. 326.
^ Petermann, Geogr. Mittheilungcn, 1868.
127.
6 Letters addressed in 1877 to F.A.F.
" Bola, Bal, or Bol were names of the
myrrh in the Egyptian antiquity. — Ehren-
berg, De Myrrha et Opocalpasi
detectis plantis, Berolini, 1841, fol.
MYRRHA.
141
the Somali country, but only at a considerable distance from the sea-
shore. Its exudation is the coarse myrrh, habaghadi of the Somalis and
Arabs and " Ba isabole " of the Indians.
Hildebrandt has collected the didthin, or didin as he writes, in the
coast range alluded to, that is in the Ahl or Serrut Mountains, where
the tree is growing on sunny slopes in elevations of 500 to 1,500 metres.
He has ascertained that it is identical with Ehrenberg's tree, Balsamo-
denclron Myrrlia Nees. It is a low tree of crippled appearance, attain-
ing not more than 3 metres. This species must therefore be pointed
out as the source of true myrrh of the European commerce.
History — (See also further on, Bissabol). Myrrh has been used
from the earliest times together with olibanum as a constituent of
incense,^ perfumes, and unguents. It was an ingredient of the holy oil
used in the Jewish ceremonial as laid down by Moses: and it was also
one of the numerous components of the celebrated Kyplii of the
Egj^tians, a preparation used in fumigations, medicine, and the process
of embalming, and of which there were several varieties.
In the previous article we have pointed out (p. 137) several early
references to myrrh in connection with olibanum, in which it is
observable that the myrrh (when weights are mentioned) is always in
the smaller quantity. Of the use of the drug in medireval Europe there
are few notices, but they tend to show that the commodity was rare and
precious. This myrrh is recommended in the Anglo-Saxon Leech-
books^ to be used with frankincense in the superstitious medical practice
of the 11th century. In a manuscript of the Monastery of Rheinau, near
Schafi'hausen, Switzerland, we also find that, apparently in the 11th
century, myi-rh as well as olibanum were used in ordeals in the
" judicivun aqure bullientis." ^ The drug was also used by the Welsh
" Physicians of Myddfai" in the 13th century. In the Wardrobe accounts
of Edward I. there is an entry under date Gth January, 1299, for gold,
frankincense, and myrrh, offered by the king in his chapel on that day,
it being the Feast of Epiphany.* Myrrh again figures in the accounts of
Geoffroi de Fleuri,-'' master of the warckobe (argentier) to Philippe le
Long, king of France, where record is made of the purchase of — " 4
onces d'estorat calmite" (see Styrax) " et mierre (myrrh) .... encenz
et laudanon," (Ladanum, the resin of Cistus creticus L.) — for the
funeral of John, posthumous son of Louis X., A.D. 1316.
Gold, silver, silk, precious stones, pearls, camphor, musk, myrrh, and
spices are enumerated ^ as the presents which the Khan of Cathay sent
to Pope Benedict XII. at Avignon about the year 1342. The myrrh
destined for this circuitous route to Europe^ was doubtless that of the
' Cantic. i. 13, iii. 6; Genes, xliii. 11;
Exod. ii. 12, 30, xxiii. 34-36 ; Johnxix. 39 ;
Mark xv. 23 ; Proverbs vii. 17.
- Cockayne, Leechdoms d:c. of Early
England, ii. (1865) 295, 297.
^ Runge, Adjurationen, Exorcismen, Bene-
dictionen, <C'C., in Miltheilnngen der anf/qitar.
Gesellschaft in ZiiricJi, xii. (1859) 187.
Liber quotidianus Contrarotulatoris Gar-
derobcB .... Edwardil., Lend. 1787. pp.
xxxii. and 27. — The custom is still observed
by the sovereigns of England, and the
Queen's oblation of gold, frankincense, and
myrrh is still annually presented on the
Feast of Epiphany in the Chapel Royal in
London.
' Doilet d'Arcq, Comptes de PArgentme
des rois ile France, 1851. 19.
^ Yule, Cafhaij and the ivay thither, ii.
357.
'' For the costly presents in question
vever reached their destination, having been
all plundered by the way !
142
BURSERACEiE.
Arabian traders, with whom the Chinese had constant intercourse during
the middle ages. Myrrh in fact is still somewhat largely consumed in
China.^
The name Myrrh is from the Hebrew and Arabic Mur, meaning
bitter, whence also the Greek cr/uLvpva. The ancient Egyptian Bola or
Bed, and the Sanskrit Vola are preserved in the Persian and Indian
words Bol, Bola, and Heera-hol, well-known names for myrrh.
Stade (crraKTr]), a substance often mentioned by the ancients, is
said by Pliny to be a spontaneous liquid exudation of the myrrh tree,
more valuable than myrrh itself. The author of the Periphis of the
Erythrean Sea represents it as exported from Muza in Arabia^ together
with myrrh. Theophrastus^ speaks of myrrh as of two kinds, solid and
liquid. No drug of modern times has been identified with the stacte or
liquid myrrh of the ancients: that it was a substance obtainable in
quantity seems evident from the fact that 150 pounds of it, said to be
the offering of an Egyptian city, were presented to St. Silvester at Rome,
A.D. 314-335."
The myrrh of the ancients was not always obtained from Arabia.
The author of the Periplus,' who wrote about A.D. G4, records it to have
been an export of Abalites, Malao, and Mosyllon (the last-named the
modern Berbera), ancient ports of the African coast outside the straits
of Bab-el-Mandeb ; and he even mentions that it is conveyed by small
vessels to the opposite shores of Arabia.
Secretion — Marchand" who examined and figured the sections of
a branch of three years' growth of B. Myrrha, represents the gum-resin
as chiefly deposited in the cortical layers, with a little in the medulla.
Collection — By the Somal tribe myrrh is largely collected as it
flows out, incisions, according to Hildebrandt, being never practised.
From the information given by Ehrenberg to Nees von Esenbeck,' it
appears that myrrh when it first exudes is of an oily and then of a
buttery appearance, yellowish white, gradually assuming a golden tint
and becoming reddish as it hardens. It exudes from the bark like
cherry-tree gum, and becomes dark and of inferior value by age.
Although Ehrenberg says that the myrrh he saw was of fine quality,
he does not mention it being gathered by the natives.
With regard to the localities^ in which the drug is collected,
Cruttenden," who visited the Somali coast in 1843, says that myrrh is
brought from the Wadi Nogal, south west of Cape Gardafui, and from
Murreyhan, Ogadain and Agahora ; and that some few trees are fovmd
on the mountains behind Bunder Murayah. Major Harris saw the
myrrh tree in the Adel desert and in the jungle of the Hawash, on the
way from Tajura to Shoa.
1 Shanghai imported in 1872, 18,600 lbs.
of m3'rrh. — Reports of Trade at the Treaty
Ports in China for 1872, p. 4.
2 Vincent, Commerce of the Ancients, ii.
(1870) 316. — Muza or Moosa is supposed to
be identical with a place still bearing that
name lying about 20 miles east of Mokha.
^ Lib. ix. c. 4.
■* Vignolius, Liher Pontificalis, i. (1724)
95.
= Vincent, op. cit. ii. 127. 129, 135.
^ Recherches sur VOrcjanisation des Bur-
serac4es, Paris, 1868, p. 42, pi. i.
^ Op. cit. at J). 140, note 1.
* See paper with map in Ocean Highivays,
April, 1873, also Pharm. Jotmi. 19 April,
1873. 821, and Hanbury's Science Papers,
378.
^ Trans. Bombay Qeogr. Soc. vii. (1846)
123.
^0 Highlands of ^Ethiopia (1844) i. 426;
ii. 414.
MYRKHA.
14:3
Vaughan ' states that the Somali Country and the neighbourhood of
Hurrur (or Harar or Adari, 9° 20' N., 42' 17' E.) south west of Zeila
are the chief producing districts. It is generally brought to the
groat fair of Berbera held in November, December, and Janviary,
where it is purchased by the Banians of India, and shipped for
Bombay.
It appears that all these informations rather refer to the Bisabol or
Habaghadi variety of myrrh ; only the first notice, due to Hildebrandt,
applies to true myrrh.
Myrrh trees abound on the hills about Shugra and Sureea in the
territory of the Fadhli or Fudthli tribe, lying to the eastward of Aden ;
myi'rh is collected from them by Somalis who cross from the opposite
coast for the purpose and pay a tribute for the privilege to the Arabs,
who appear to be scarcely acquainted with this drug.- But a sample
of it, received by one of us from Vaughan in ltS52, and others we have
since seen in London (and easily, recognized), proved it to be somewhat
ditf'ercnt from tyjiical myrrh, and it is probably aflbrded by another
species than Balsamodendron Myrrha.
It would thus appear that there are three different trees affording
myrrh, namely that just alluded to, secondly the " Habaghadi," and
thirdly that growing east of Aden.
Description — Myrrh consists of irregular roundish masses, varying
in size from small grains up to pieces as large as an egg, and occasion-
ally much larger. They are of an opaque reddish brown with dusty
dull surface. When broken, they exhibit a rough or waxy fracture,
having a moist and unctuous appearance, especially when pressed, and
a rich brown hue. The fractured, translucent surface often displays
characteristic whitish marks which the ancients compared to the light
mark at the base of the finger-nails. Myrrh has a peculiar and agree-
able fragrance ^^'ith an aromatic, bitter, and acrid taste. It cannot be
finely powdered until deprived by drying of some of its essential oil
and water ; nor when heated does it melt like colophony.
Water disintegrates myrrh, forming a light brown emvilsion, which
viewed under the microscope appears made up of colourless drops,
among which are gramdes of yellow resin. Alcohol dissolves the resin
of myrrh, leaving angular non-crystalline particles of gum ^ and frag-
ments of bark.
Chemical Composition — Myrrh is a mixture, in very varying
proportions, of resin, mucilaginous matters, and essential oil. A fine
specimen of myiTh from the Somali coast, with which Captain Hunter,
in 1877, kindly presented one of us, yielded 27 per cent, of resin. The
vmdissolved portion is partly sohible in water.
The resin dissolves completely in chloroform or alcohol, and the
colour of the latter solution is but slightly darkened by perchloride of
iron. It is but partially soluble in alkalis or in bisulphide of carbon.
^Pharm. Journ. xii. (1853) 226.
^ Capt. S. B. Miles, in Journ. of R. Geo-
graph. Soc. xli. (1871) 23C. The country
visited by Miles and Munzinger is the
" Smyrnifera regio exterior," the outer
country producing myrrh of the ancients,
about 14° 10' N. lat. and 57° E. long. See
also Sprenger, AUe Geographic Arahiens,
313.
^ Druggists who prepare large quantities
of Tincture of Myrrh may utilize this gum
for making a common sort of mucilage. —
Pharm. Journ. 10 June, 1871, 1001.
144
BURSERACEiE.
Bruckner (1867) found this portion to yield 75'6 per cent, of carbon and
9'5 of hydrogen. The resin which the bisulphide refuses to dissolve, is
freely soluble in ether. It contains only 57'4 per cent, of carbon. The
resin of myrrh to which, when moistened with alcohol, a small quantity
of concentrated nitric or hydrochloric acid is added, assumes a violet
hue, but far less brilliant than that displayed by resin of galbanum
when treated in a similar manner. But a most intensely violet liquid
may be obtained by adding bromine to the resin dissolved in bisulphide
of carbon. If the resin of myrrh as afforded by alcohol is warmed
with petroleum (boiling at 70" C)., only a small amount of resin is
dissolved. This liquid becomes turbid if vapours of bromine are
added ; a violet flocculent matter deposits, whereas the just above-
mentioned solution in the bisulphide continues clear on addition of
bromine.
The resin of myrrh is not capable of affording umbelliferone like
that of galbanum. By melting it with potash, pyrocatechin and pro-
tocatechuic acid are produced in small amount.
Myrrh yields on distillation a volatile oil which in operating on
25 lb. of the drug, we obtained to the extent of f per cent.^ It is a
yellowish, rather viscid liquid, neutral to litmus, having a powerful
odour of myrrh and sp. gr. 0 988 at 18° C.^ In a column 50 mm. long,
it deviates a ray of light 30'1° to the left. By submitting it to dis-
tillation, we obtained before the oil boiled, a few drops of a strongly acid
liquid having the smell of formic acid. Neutralized with ammonia, this
liquid produced in solution of mercurous nitrate a whitish precipitate
which speedily darkened, thus indicating formic acid, which is de-
veloped in the oil. Old myrrh is in fact said to yield an acid distillate.
The oil begins to boil at about 26G° C, and chiefly distills over between
270° and 290°.
On combustion in the usual way it afforded carbon 8470, hydrogen
9'98. Having been again rectified in a current of dry carbonic acid, it
had a boiling point of 262-263° C, and now afforded^ carbon 8470,
hydrogen 10'26, which would nearly answer to the formula C^'^H^^O.
The results of Ruickholdt's analysis (1845) of essential oil of myrrh
assign it the formula C'H'^O, which is widely different from that indi-
cated by our experiments.
The oil which we rectified displays a faintly greenish hue ; it is
miscible in every proportion with bisulphide of carbon, the solution
exhibiting at first no peculiar coloration when a drop of nitric or sul-
phuric acid is added. Yet the mixture to which nitric acid (1'20) has
been added, assumes after an hour or two a fine violet hue which is
very persistent, enduring even if the liquid is allowed to dry up in a
large capsule. If to the crude oil dissolved in bisulphide of carbon
bromine be added, a violet hue is produced ; and if the solution is
allowed to evaporate, and the residue diluted with spirit of wine, it
assumes a fine blue which disappears on addition of an alkali. The
iRuickholdt got 2 '18 per cent.; Bley
and Diesel (1845) from l'6to 3'4 per cent,
of an acid oil. We are kindly informed
by Mr. Fritzsche of Leipzig (Messrs. Schim-
mel & Co. ) that good mynli distilled on a
large scale yields as much as 4 '4 per cent,
of oil. (Letter dated LSth June, 1878.)
2 Gladstone (1863) found the oil a little
heavier than water.
^ Analyses performed in my laboratory
by Dr. Buri, February, 1874. See also my
paper on Carvol, Pharm. Journ. vii. (1876)
75, or Yearbook of Phnrmacy (1877) 51 —
F.A.F,
MYRRHA.
145
oil is not much altered by boiling with alcoholic potash, nor does it
combine with alkaline bisulphites.
The Bitter principle of myrrh is contained in the resin as extracted
by alcohol. By exhausting the resin with warm water an acid brown
solution is obtained, from which a dark, viscid, neutral mass separates
if the liquid is concentrated ; it is contaminated with a large amount
of inorganic matter, from which it may be purified by means of ether.
Yet the latter atlbrds also but an amorphous, somewhat brittle brown sub-
stance, softening at 80°-90°C. This bitter principle reminds us of that
mentioned in our article Elemi, page 151 ; it is but sparingly soluble
in water ; the yellowish solution is intensely bitter. The bitter prin-
ciple of myi-rh appears to be a glucoside. We have not succeeded in
preparing it in a more satisfactory state.
Commerce — Myrrh is chiefly shipped by way of Berbera to Aden,
and thence either to Europe or to Bombay. The exports of Aden in
the fiscal year 1875 to 187G were 1,439 cwt.; one half of which went to
Bombay, one third to the United Kingdom.^
The bags or bales which contain the myi-rh are opened in Bombay,
and the ch-ug is sorted. The better portion goes to Europe, the refuse
to China, where it is probably used as an incense.-
Uses — MyiTh, though much used, does not appear to possess any
very important medicinal powers, and is chiefly employed on account
of its bitter, aromatic properties.
Other Varieties of Myrrh — Though the myrrh of commerce
exhibits some diversity of appearance, the drug-brokers and druggists of
London are not in the habit of applying any special designations to the
different qualities. There are however two varieties which deserve
notice.
1. Bissa Bol (Bhesahol, Bysabole), Hahayhadi or Hehhahhade of
the Somalis, formerly called East India Myrrh?
This drug is of African origin, but of the plant which yields it
nothing is known. Vaughan* who sent a sample from Aden to one of
us in 1852, was told by the natives that the tree from which it is
collected resembles that affording Heera Bol or true myrrh, but that it
is nevertheless distinct. The drug is exported from the whole Somali
coast to Mokha, Jidda, Aden, Makulla, the Persian Gulf, India and
even China.^ Bombay official returns show that the quantity
imported thither in the year 1872-73, was 224 cwt., all shipped
from Aden.
Some myrrh, no doubt that from the interior of north-eastern
Africa, the Habaghadi or Baisabole, finds its way by the country of
the Wagadain (Ugahden or Ogadain) to the small port of Brava
(Barawa, Braoua), about 1° N. lat., and to Zanzibar.'' This is, possibly,
^Information obligingly supplied by taining about 15 cwt. were consigned to
Captain Hunter, July 1877. me for sale in London by a friend in China,
^ Dymock, Pharm. Journ. vi, (1876) who bad purchased the drug under the
661. notion that it was true myrrh. The com-
^ Myrrha indica, Martiny, EncyTclop. der modity was bad of its kind, and was sold
med-pharm. Rokwaarenhunde, ii. (1854) with difficulty at 30a\ per cwt. — D. H.
98, 101. ^ Guillain, Documents sur I'histoire, la
Pharm. Journ. xii. (1853) 227. O^ogr. et le commerce de I'A/riqiie orientale
' lu 18(55, 10 packages of this drug con- iii. (1856) 350.
146
BURSERACE^.
also the " Mirra fina," which is stated, about the year 1502, by Tomd
Lopez to be collected (?) in the island of " Monzambiche." ^
According to Vaughan, Bissa B61 is mixed with the food given to
milch cows and buffaloes in order to increase the quantity and improve
the quality of their milk, and that it is also used as size to impart a
bright gloss to whitewashed walls.
Miles mentions" that myrrh, called there liodthai, is only used in the
Somali country, by men to whiten their shields (by means of an
emulsion made with the drug), by women to cleanse their hair. Pro-
bably hodthai and habaghadi is one and the same thing.
Bissa B61 differs from myrrh in its stronger, almost acrid taste and in
odour, which, when once familiar is easily recognizable ; fine specimens
of the former have the outward characters of myrrh and perhaps are
often passed off for it. A good sample of " coai-se " habaghadi myrrh
as sent in 1877 by Captain Hunter from Aden proved to contain but
very little resin. This resin is manifestly different from that of myrrh
as already shown by its paler, more reddish colour. The resin of
Bissa B61 moreover is but very sparingly soluble in bisulphide of carbon;
this solution is not altered by bromine, that of true myrrh, as above
stated, assuming a most intense violet colour on addition of bromine
Nor is the resin of habaghadi soluble in petroleum ether. Of the
gummy substance, which is by far the prevailing constituent of this drug,
a small portion onlj is soluble in water. These extremely marked
differences no doubt depend upon a widely discrepant composition of
the resins of the two kinds of myrrh as M^ell as upon a different propor-
tion of gum and resin. The Bissa B61 usually seen is an impure and
foul substance, which is regarded by London druggists as well as by the
Banian traders in India as a very inferior dark sort of myrrh.
2. Arabian Myrrh — The drug we have mentioned at p. 143 as col-
lected to the eastward of Aden, is of interest as substantiating the
statement of Theophrastus that both olibanum and myrrh grow in
Southern Arabia.
The drug, which is not distinguished by any special name in English
trade, is in irregular masses seldom exceeding 1-^ inches long, and
having a somewhat gummy-looking exterior. The larger lumps seem
formed by the cohesion of small, rounded, translucent, externally
shining tears or drops. The fracture is like that of common myrrh, but
less unctuous and wants the whitish markings. The odour and taste
are those of the ordinary drug. Pieces of a semi-transparent papery
bark are attached to some of the lumps. We extracted the resin of a
sample of this myrrh from the territory of the Fadhli, as sent to us by
Captain Hunter. Its solution in bisulphide of carbon or petroleum
ether was coloured by bromine as stated above, (p. 144) with regard to
typical myrrh (Heerabol) from the Somali Country. The name applies
to myrrh from the vicinity of Ras Morbat in the same region. But the
resin of another kind of Arabian myrrh, for which we are likewise
indebted to Captain Hunter, is not coloured when treated in the same
way. This is the myrrh " Hodaidia J ebeli " from north and north-
western Yenen.
^ In Ramusio (see Appendix, R) 239. - Juurn. of the R. Geofjr. Soc. 22 (1872)64.
ELEMI.
147
ELEMI.
Resina Elemi ; Elemi ; F. Resine Elemi ; G. Elemiharz.
Botanical Origin — The resin known in pharm.acy as Elemi is
derived from a tree growing in the Philippines, which Blanco/ a
botanist of Manila, described in 1845 under the name of Icica Abilo,
but which is comi)letely unknown to the botanists of Europe. Blanco's
description is such that, if cori'ect, the plant cannot be placed in either
of the old genera Icica or Elaphriuw , comprehended by Bentham and
Hooker in that of Bursera, nor yet in the allied genus Canarium ; in
fact even the order to which it belongs is somewhat doubtful.^
The tree grows in the province of Batangas in the island of Luzon
(south of Manila), where its name in the Tagala language is dbilo ; the
Spaniards call it Arhol a hvea, i.e. 2^itch-tree, from the circumstance that
its resin is used for the caulking of boats.
History — The explicit statements of Theophrastus in the 8rd
century B.C. relative to olibanum have already been mentioned. The
same wiiter narrates ^ that a little above Coptus on the Red Sea, no
tree is found except the acacia {aKuvOij) of the desert . . . but that on
the sea there grow laurel {Sd(pvr]) and olive (eXalu), from the latter of
Avhich exudes a substance much valued to make a medicine for the
staunching of blood.
This story appears again in Pliny ■* who says that in Arabia the
olive tree exudes tears which arc an ingredient of the medicine called
by the Greeks Evhcemon, from its efficacy in healing wounds.
Dioscorides^ briefly notices the Guiii of the Etltiopian olive, which
he likens to scammony ; and the same substance is named by Scri-
bonius Largus" who practised medicine at Rome during the 1st century.
The Avriters who have commented on Dioscorides have genei'ally
adopted the opinion that the exudation of the so-called olive-tree of
Arabia and Ethiopia was none other than the substance known to them
as Elemi, though, as remarked by Mattioli,''' the oriental drug thus
called by no means well accords with the description left by that
author.
As to that name, the earliest mention of it appears in the middle of
1 Flora de Filipians, segunda impression,
Manila, 1845. 2»6.
- On consulting Mr. A. W. Bennett, who
is now studying the Burscracea' of India, as
to the probable alhnities of Blanco's plant,
we received from him. the following re-
marks : "I liave little hesitation in pro-
nouncing that from the description. Idea
Abilo cannot be a Canarium, but what it
is, is more difhcult to say. The leaves
having the lowest pair of leaflets smallest,
seems at first sight very characteristic of
Canarium ; but the following considera-
tions tend the other way. 1. The opposile
leaves which occur nowhere in Burseracece
except in Amyria, with which the plant
does not agree in many ways. 2. The
stlpdlm which are not found anywhere in
the o-'der. — 3. The quinate flowers. In all
species of Canariura the parts of the flowers
are in threes, including C. commune, which
according to Miquel extends to the Philijj-
pines. The only exception is C. (Sciiiinan-
tlic Thwaites) hrunneum, with which it does
not agree in other resjjects.
"The foregoing reasons almost eqnallj'
exclude Icica [Bursera] ; yet the fruit of
Blanco's plant seems so eminently that of a
Burscracca, that I think it must belong to
that order, but with some error in the de-
scription of the leaves."
^Bisf. Plant, lib. iv. c. 7.
* Lib. xii. c. 38.
'^Lib. i. c. 141.
" Com.jjosii tones Medicament, cap. 103.
Comm. in lib. i. Dioscoridis.
148
BURSERACEiE.
the loth century. Thus in a list of drugs sold at Frankfort about 1450,
we find Gommi Elemjmij} Saladinus,'^ who lived abovit this period,
enumerates Gumi Elemi among the drugs kept by the Italian apothe-
caries, but we have not met with the name in any other writer of the
school of Salerno. The Arholayre^ a herbal supposed to have been
printed about 1485, gives some account of Gomme Elemjmi, stating
that it is the gum of the lemon tree and not of fennel as some think, —
that it resembles Male Incense, — and makes an excellent ointment for
wounds.
The name Enhcemon^ of Pliny, also written Enhcemi, is probably
the original form of the word Animi, another designation for the same
drug, though also applied as at the present day to a sort of copal.
It is even possible that the word Elemi has the same origin.^
This primitive Elemi is in our opinion identical with a peculiar sort
of olibanum known as Luhan Meyeti, afforded by Bosivellia Frereana
Birdwood (p. 135). It has a remarkable resemblance both in external
appearance and in odour to the substance in after-times imported from
America, and which were likened to the elemi and animi of the Old
World. The description of "gummi elemnia" given by Valerius Cord us,*
the most careful observer of his period, could in our opinion well apply
to Luhan Meyeti. (See p. 153 further on.)
The first reference to Elemi as a production of America comes from
the pen of Monardes'' who has a chapter on Animi and Copal. He
describes animi as of a more oily nature than copal, of a very agreeable
odour, and in grains resembling olibanum bilt of larger size, and adds
that it differs from the animi of the Old World in being less^ white and
clear.
At a somewhat later period this resin and some similar substances
began to be substituted for Elemi which had become scarce.* Pomet,^
who as a dealer in drugs was a man of practical knowledge, laments
that this American drug was being sold by some as Elemi, and by
others as Animi or as Tacamaca. It was however introduced in great
plenty, and at length took the place of the original elemi which became
completely forgotten.
American Elemi was in turn discarded in favour of another sort
imported from the Phihppines. The first mention of this substance is
to be found among the descriptions accompanied by drawings sent by
Father Camellus to Petiver of London, of the shrubs and trees of Luzon,'"
in the year 1701. Camellus states that the tree, which from his drawing
preserved in the British Museum appears to us to be a species of
1 Flilckiger, Die Frankfurter Liste, Halle,
1873. 7. 16. — " Gumi elemi " is also found
in a similar list of the year 1480, compiled
in the town of Nordlingen, Bavaria. See
Archiv der Pharm. 211 (1877) 103.
2 Compendium Aromatarioruvi, Bonon.
1488.
3 This very rare volume is one of the
treasures of the National Library of
Paris.
^ From the Greek 'ii/ai/wv, signifying
blood-stopping.
^Brassavola observes — "quandoque in-
clinavimus ut gummi oleoe ^thiopicfe esset
gummi eZemidicti, quasi enhcemi. " — Examen
sirnplicium, Lugd. 1537. 386.
Hid. Stir p. lihriiv., edition of Gesner,
Argentorati, 1561. 209.
' Libro de las cosas que se traen de nues-
iras Jndias Occidentales, Sevilla, 1565.
" Thus Piso in 1658 describes the resin of
an Idea as exactly resembhng Elemi and
quite as good for wounds. — Hist. nat. et
med. Ind. Occ. 122.
^ Histoire des Drogues, 1694, 261.
10 Ray, Hist. Plant, iii. (1704), appendix,
p. 67. No. 13. — Compare olso p. 60,
No. 10.
ELEMI.
149
Cananum, is very tall and large, that it is called by the Spaniards
Arhol de la brea, and that it yields an abundance of odorous resin
which is commonly used for pitching boats. Living specimens of the
tree together with samples of the resin were brought to Paris from
Manila by the traveller Perrottet about the year 1820. For the last
twenty yeai's the resin has been common, and is now imported in large
quantities ^ for use in the arts, so displacing all other kinds. It has
been adopted as the Elcml of the British Fhafmacopceia (1867), and is
in fact the only variety of elemi now found in English commerce.
Description — Manila elemi is a soft, I'esinous substance, of granular
consistence not unlike old honey, and when recent and quite pure is
colourless ; more often it is found contaminated with carbonaceous
matter which renders it grey or blackish, and it is besides mixed with
chips and similar impurities. By exposure to the air it becomes harder
and acquires a yellow tint. It has a strong and pleasant odour suggest-
ive of fennel and lemon, yet withal somewhat terebinthinous. When
moistened with spirit of wine, it disintegrates, and examined under the
microscope is seen to consist partly of acicular crystals. At the heat of
boiling water the hardened drug softens, and at a somewhat higher
temperature fuses into a clear resin.
Chemical Composition — Manila elemi is rich in essential oil.
Oa submitting 28 II3. of it to distillation with water, we obtained 2 lb.
13 oz. (equivalent to 10 per cent.) of a fragrant, colourless, neutral oil, of
sp. gr. 0 861 at 15° C. Observed in Wild's polaristrobometer we found
it to be strongly dextrogyre." H. Sainte Claire Deville^ on the other hand
has examined an oil of elemi that was strongly levogyre. This
discrepancy shows that there are among the oils of various kinds of
elemi, diffei'ences similar to those existing in the oils of turpentine and
copaiba. By the action of dry hydrochloric acid gas, Deville obtained
from his oil of elemi a solid crystalline substance, C^'H"^ + 2 HCl. We
failed to produce any such compound from the oil of Manila elemi. Our
oil of elemi dissolves in bisulphide of carbon ; when mixed with concen-
ti-ated sulphuric acid, it becomes thick and assumes a deep orange colour.
By submitting the crude oil to fractional distillation, we separated it
into six portions, of which the first five were dextrogyre in gradually
diminishing degree, while the sixth displayed a weak deviation to the
left.^ The first portion having been dissolved in four times its weight
of strong sulphuric acid, washed and again distilled, exhibit a deviation
to the left.°
' Thus in a drug-sale, May 8, 1873, there were offered 275 cases, — equal to about
480 cwt.
'- I observed the following deviations : —
In. a column of 25 millimetres from 47°'5 to 70°'5 (deviation 23°).
50 ,, „ 9T G ( ,, 46°-l).
100 ,, ,, 49°-6 (2-1 + 90=92°-l).— P.A.F.
Comptrx L'aidiis, xii. (1841) 184.
■* The following deviations were observed, in a column of 25 millimetres: —
1. Oil distUled at 172°— ISO"" C. from 47° '6 to 74° '5; deviation 26° -Q to the ri<,ht.
2. ,, 180°— 1S3° ,, 71°-2 ,, 23^-6
3. ,, 183°— 184°-5 ,, 68°-8' ,, 21°-2
4. „ 184°— 195° ,, 65°-8 ,, ]8°-2
5. ,, 200°— 230° ,, 61°-0 ,, 13^-4
6. Thickish yellow residue ,, 46° "2 ,, l° -4 to the
From 47° 6 to 46''.
150
BURSERACEiE.
If the essential oil of elemi (8 parts) is shaken with alcohol, 0'816
sp. gr. (2 parts), nitric acid, 1'2 sp. gr. (1 part) and ^yater (5 parts), the
mixture, on exposure to air in a shallow capsule soon yields large
crystals, which were found to agree crystallographically^ perfectly with
terpin,C"H'-'"0- + OH2fL-oin oil of turpentine.
Maujean,^a French pharmacien, examined Manila elemi as long ago
as 1821 and proved it to contain two resins, the one soluble in cold, the
other only in hot spirit of wine. The former, which appears to consti-
tute by far the prevailing part of all varieties of elemi, lias not yet been
satisfactorily examined. Bonastre^ a little latter made a more complete
analysis, showing that the less soluble resin which he obtained to the
extent of 25 per cent, is easily ciystallizable, and apparently identical
with a substance obtainable in a similar manner from what he regarded
as true elemi, which the Manila resin was not then held to be. Baup
(1851) gave it the name of Amyrin. According to our experiments, it
is readily isolated to the extent of 20 per cent, when Manila elemi is
treated with cold spirit of wine, in which the crystals of amyrin are
but slightly soluble. If the elemi is pure, the amyrin may be thus
obtained (by washing with spirit and pressure between bibulous paper)
in a cake of snowy whiteness, which may be further purified by crystal-
lization from boiling alcohol. The fusing point of the crystals is 177°C.;
their composition has been ascertained by Buri^ to agree with the
formula C"''II"'-0, which may be written thus : (C°ff)'' OH^. Amyrin at
16° C. dissolves in 27'5 parts of alcohol 0'816 sp. gr., being readily
soluble also in all the usual solvents for resins. The alcoholic solution
is slightly dextrogyre. Amyrin is a neutral substance, and may be
sublimed in small quantities by very carefully heating it.
By heating amyrin with zinc dust Ciamician'^ obtained chiefly toluol,
methyl-ethyl-benzol and ethyl-naphtalin.
By allowing an alcoholic solution of the amorphous resin of Manila
elemi ^ to evaporate, Baup obtained in very small quantity crystals of
Breine, a substance fusing at 187° C, which he considered to be distinct
from amyrin. In our opinion it was impure amyrin ; it is extremely
difficult, or rather practically impossible to extract all the crystallizable
resin from the amorphous. If the latter, perfectly transparent, is kept
for several years, an elegant crystallization at last begins to make its
appearance throughout the bulk of the resin.
Baup further extracted from Manila elemi a crystallizable substance
soluble in water to which he gave the name of BryoidmJ and in smaller
quantity a second also soluble in water which he called Breidine.
From the experiments of Baup it appears that bryoidiu is soluble in 360
parts of water at 10° C, and melts at 135° C; whereas breidine requires
for solution 260 parts of water and fuses at a temperature not much
over 100° C.
We have also obtained Bryoiclin^ by operating in the following
1 Examined at my request by Prof. Grotli. "lam indeLted for a specimen of the
— F.A.F. material that Baup worked upon and which
- Journ. lie Pharm. ix. (1823) 45. 47. ha calleil Resin of Arbol a brta, to M. Roux,
3 Id. X. (1824) 199. pharmacien of Nyou, Switzerland— F. A. F.
^ Pharm. Journ. vii. (1876) 157, also From the Greek ftiuoi', in allusion to the
Yearbook of Ph. 1877. 21. moss-like aspect sometimes assumed by the
" Berichte cler deutschen chemischen crystals.
GefeUscha/t, 1878. 1347. s Fluckiger, Pharm. Journ. v. (1874 142.
ELEMI.
151
ijianner : the watery liquid left in the still after the distillation of 28 lb.
of Manila elemi was poured off from the mass of hard resin, and having
been duly concentrated, it deposited together with a dark extractiform
matter, colourless acicular crystals of bryoidin. The deposit in question
having been drained and allowed to dry, the bryoidin may be separated
by boiling water or by cold ether. We found the latter the more
convenient; it readily takes up the bryoidin contaminated only with a
little resin. The ethereal solution should be allowed to evaporate and
the residual crystalline mass boiled in water, when the solution (which
is colourless), pou.red off from the resin, will deposit upon cooling-
brilliant tufts of acicular crystals of bryoidin. The boiling in water
requires to be several times repeated before the whole of the bryoidin
can be removed ; the latter sometimes cr3'stallizes as a mossy arborescent
growth. Brj'oidin is a neutral substance, of bitter taste, scarcely
soluble in cold water, but dissolving easily in boiling water, or in alcohol
or ether. When a little is placed in a watch-glass, covered with a plate
of glass, and then gently heated over a lamp, it sublimes in delicate
needles. To obtain it perfectly pure, it is best to sublime it in a current
of dry carbonic acid. Thus purified its fusing point is 133 '5 C. ; after
fusion it concretes as a transparent, amorphous mass, which if im-
mersed in glycerin and raised to the temperature of 135° C, suddenly
crystallizes.
We have observed that if the filtered mother-liquor of bryoidin after
complete cooling and standing for a day or two is warmed, it becomes
turbid and that in a few minutes there separate from it long white fiocks
like bits of paper or wool, which do not disappear either by warming
or by cooling the liquid ; under the microscope they are seen to consist
partly of thread-like, partly of acicular crystals. It is possible this
substance is Baup's Breidine; we found it to fuse at 135° C, to be
neutral, and to crystallize from weak alcohol exactly like bryoidin.
Both it and bryoidin look very voluminous in water, but are
extremely small in weight, and are present in the drug in but a
very small amount. The composition of bryoidin agrees with the
formula C'^^HssO^ which might be written thus (0=^)^ + 30^. But
it contains no water of crystallization. In the vapour of dry hydro-
chloric gas, bryoidin assumes a fine red colour, turning violet, then
blue, and lastly green. This behaviour is not at all displayed by
amyrin.
The liquids from which bryoidin is obtained contain an amorphous
brown substance of intensely bitter taste, at the same time somewhat
aromatic. It is decomposed by dilute mineral acids, evolving a very
peculiar strong odour.
Buri^ isolated from Manila Elemi an extremely small amount of
Elemic acid, G^^W^O^. It is in very brilliant crystals, much larger than
those of the other constituents of elemi. Although we have before us
some prisms of the acids several millimetres long, it has been found
impossible to ascertain their crystallographic character, each of the
prisms being formed of very intimately aggregated crystals. Elemic
acid melts at 215°C.; its alcoholic solution decidedly reddens litmus.
Elemate of potassium is a crystalline salt.
1 Plinrm. Jotmi. viii. (187S) 601.
152
BURSERACEtE.
The relations of the substances hitherto isolated from elemi may
perhaps be given thus : —
Essential oil Cm^
Amyrin (C^H^jS + OH^
Amorphous resin (?) . . . (C^K^)- + Off
Bryoidin, (05^)^4- SOff
Elemicacid, .... (C«HY + 0^
Uses — Elemi is scarcely used in British medicine except in the
form of an ointment, sometimes prescribed as a stimulating application
to old wounds.
Other sorts of Elemi — 1. Mexican Elemi, Vera Cruz Elemi —
This drug, which used to be imported into London about thirty years ago,
but which has now disappeared from commerce, is the produce of a tree
named by Royle Amyris elemifera growing at Oaxaca in Mexico.^ It
is a light yellow, or whitish, brittle resin occurring in semi-cylindrical
scraped pieces, or in irregular fragments which are sometimes translucent
but more often dull and opaque. It easily softens in the mouth so that
it may be masticated, and has an agreeable terebinthinous odour.
Treated with cold spix'it of wine ('828), it breaks down into a white
magma of acicular crystals {Amyrin ?).
2. Brazilian Elemi — Was described as long ago as 1658 by the
traveller Piso, as a substance completely resembling the elemi of the
Old World and applicable to the same purposes. It is the produce of
several trees described as species of Idea, as /. Icicariba DC.,^ /.
heterophylla DC, I. heptaphylla Aublet, /. guianensis Aubl., I. altissima
Aubl. — In New Granada a similar exudation^ is furnished by /.
Caranna H.B.K.
A specimen in our possession from Pernambuco * is a translucent,
greenish-yellow, fragrant, terebinthinous resin, which by cold spirit of
wine may be separated into two portions, the one soluble, the other a
mass of colourless acicular crystals. The resin spontaneously exuded
and collected from the trunks, is often opaque and white, grey, or
yellowish, looking not unlike fragments of old mortar. The microscope
shows it to be made up of minute acicular crystals.^
3. Ifanritius Elemi — Fine specimens of this substance and of
Colojyhonia Mauvitiana DC. the tree affording it, were sent to one of us
(H.) in 1855 by Mr. Emile Fleurot of Mauritius. The resin accords
in its general characters with Manila elemi, like which it leaves after
treatment with cold spirit of wine, an abundance of crystals resembling
amyrin.
4. Luhan lleyeti'^ or Luban Mati. — This substance, which we claim
to be the Oriental or African Elemi of the older writers, and also one of
^ Royle's very imperfect specimens of this
plant are in the British Museum.
^ Now Protium Icicariha Marchand, in
Flora Brasiliensis, fascicul. 65 (1874) tab.
liii.
' G. Planchon, Bulletin de la Soc. Bot. de
France, xv. (1868) 16.
Given nie by Mr. Manley, late of Per-
nambuco. I have also an authentic speci-
men of the resin of /. helerophijlla col-
lected at Santarem, Pari, by Mr. H. W.
Bates in 1853.— D. H.
^ For some experiments on the resin of
Idea, see Gmelin, Chemislry, xvi. (1866)
421. — Also Stenhouse and Groves, in
Liebig's Annalen der Chemie, 180 (1876)
253, on resin and oil of fcica heptaphylla.
The former would appear to agree with
the formula (C^H«)9 OH^.
° Lubdn is the general Arabic name for
ELEMI.
153
the resius anciently designated Animi,^ is the exudation of Boswellia
Freveana Birdwood, a remarkable tree gregarious on the bare limestone
hills near Bunder Murayah to the west of Cape Gardafui. The tree
which is called Yegaar by the natives, is of small stature, and differs
from the other species of Boswellia growing on the same coast in having
glabrous, glaucous leaves with obtuse leaflets, crisped at the margin."
The bark is smooth, papery, and translucent, and easily stripped off in
thin sheets which are used for wi'iting on. Though growing wild, the
trees are said by Capt. Miles ^ to be carefully watched and even some-
times propagated. The resin exudes after incision in great plenty, soon
hardens, and is collected by the Somali tribes who dispose of it to
traders for shipment to Jidda and ports of Yemen : occasionally a
package reaches London among the shipments of olibanum. It is used
in the East for chewing like mastich.
In modern times Luban Mati has been mentioned by Wellsted in
his "Travels in Arabia" (1838).
Luban Meyeti occurs in the form of detached droppy tears and
fragments, occasionally in stalactitic masses several ounces in weight.
It breaks veiy easily with a brilliant conchoidal fracture, showing an
internal substance of a pale amber yellow and perfectly transparent.
Externally it is more or less coated with a thin opaque Avhite crust,
which seen under the microscope appears non-crystalline. Many of the
tears have pieces of the thin, brown, papery bark adhering to them.
The resin has an agreeable odour of lemon and turpentine, and a mild
terebinthinous taste.
Treated with alcohol ('838) it is almost entirely dissolved; the very
small undissolved portion is not crystalline. The former agrees with
the formula C'-''H'°0". 20 lb. of Luban Mati yielded us 10 ounces of a
volatile oil ( = 3'1 per cent.) having a fragrant odour suggestive of elemi
and sp. gr. 0 856 at 17° C. The oil examined in a column 50 millim.
long, deviates the ray 2°"5 to the left. By fractional distillation we
found it to consist of dextrogyre hydrocarbon, C^'ff mixed with an
oxygenated oil which we did not succeed in isolating ; the latter is
evidently Isevogyre, and exists in proportion more than sufficient to
overcome the weak dextrogyre power of the hydrocarbon.
There is no gum in this exudation ; it is therefore essentially
different from olibanum, the product of closely allied species of
Bostuellia*
olibanum: ???/'ye^; perhaps from Jebel Mcyet,
a mountain of 1200 feet on the Somali Coast
in long. 47^ 10'.
1 By the assistance of Professor G. Plan-
chon we have ascertained that it is identi-
cally the same substance as described by
Guibourt under the name T acamaque
jaune huileuse A. — Hist, des Drogues, iii.
(1850) 483.
'- Figured in Birdwood's paper, Tnins.
Linn. Soc. xxvii. (1870) tab. 32 ; also,
(reduced) in Cooke's report on the Gnmjt,
Resins, etc., of the India Museum, 1874,
plate iv.
^ Journ. Geoijraph. Soc. xlii. (1872) 61.
Fltickiger, on Luban Mati and Oliba-
num, Pharm. Journ. viii. (1878) 805, with
sketch map of the Somali Coast.
154
MELIACE^.
MELIACEiE.
CORTEX MARGOS^,
Cortex Azadirachtce ; Nim Bark, Margosa Bark.
Botanical Origin — Mclia inclica Brandis {M. Azadirachta L., Aza-
dirachta indica Juss.), an ornamental tree, 40 to 50 feet high and
attaining a considerable girth/ well known throughout India by its
Hindustani name of Nim, or by its Portuguese appellation of il/rti'^osa.^
It is much planted in avenues, but occurs wild in the forests of Southern
India, Ceylon and the Malay Archipelago, as far as Java.^
The hard and heavy wood which is so bitter that no insect will
attack it, the medicinal leaves and bark, the fruit which affords an
acrid bitter oil used in medicine and for burning, the o^um which
exudes from the stem, and finally a sort of toddy obtained from
young trees, cause the Nim to be regarded as one of the most useful
trees of India.
31. indica. is often confounded with M. Azedarach L., a native of
China,'' and probably of India, now widely distributed throughout the
warmer regions of the globe, and not rare even in Sicily and other
parts of the south of Europe. The former has an oval fruit (by
abortion) one-celled and one-seeded, and leaves simply pinnate. The
latter has the fruit five-celled, and leaves bi-pinnate.
History— The tree under the Sanskrit name of Niniha is mentioned
in SusruUi, one of the most ancient Hindu medical writings, composed
perhaps about the 10th century of our era.
In common with many other productions of India, it attracted the
notice of Garcia de Orta, physician to the Portuguese viceroy at Goa,
and he published an account of it in his work on drugs in 15G3.'
Christoval Acosta " in 1578 supplied some further details and also a
figure of the tree. The tonic properties of the bark, long recognized by
the native physicians of India, were successively tested by Dr. D.
White of Bombay in the beginning of the present century, and have
since been generally admitted.'^ The drug has a place in the Fharma-
copoeia of India.
Description — The bark in our possession* is in coarse fibrous
pieces about } of an inch thick and 2 to 3 inches wide, slightly chan-
nelled. The suberous coat is rough and cracked, and of a greyish rusty
hue. The inner surface is of a bright buff" and has a highly foliaceous
structure. On making a transverse section three distinct layers may
be observed — firstly the subei'ous coat exhibiting a large brown
' Fig. in Bciitley and Trimen, 3fedic.
Plants, part 27.
- From (imar(/oso, bitter.
2 C. De Canddlle, in Mono(jr. Phanero-
(jamar. i. (1878) 459.
■* It is mentioned in Chinese writings
dating long prior to the Christian era. —
Bretschneider, Cliinese Botanical Worlcs,
1870. 12.
•'' CoUoquios dos Simples, (L-c, Goa., 1563
C'olloq. xl. p. 153.
" Tractado de las Drofjas y Mcdichms de
las Indias Orientalcs, Burgos, 1578, caj). 43.
'' Waring, in Pharmacopmia of India,
1868. 443.
" We are indebted for it to Mr.Brougbton
of Ootacamund.
CORTEX MARGOStE.
155
parenchyiue interwoven with small bands of corky tissue, — secondly
a dark cellular layer, and then the foliaceous liber. The dry bark
is inodorous and has a slightly astringent bitter taste.
Microscopic Structure — The suberous coat consists of numerous
layers of ordinary cork-cells, which cover a layer of nearly cubic
sclerenchymatous cells. This latter however is not always met with,
secondary bands of cork {rliytuloma) frequently taking its place. The
liber is commonly built up of strong fibre-bundles traversed b}' narroAV
'medullary rays, and transversely separated by bands of parenchy-
matous iiber tissue. Crystals of oxalate of calcium occur in the
parenchyme more frequently than the small globular starch grains.
The structure of the bark varies considerably according to the gradual
development of the secondary cork-bands.
Chemical Composition — Margosa bark was chemically examined
in India by Cornish^ (185G), who announced it as a source of a bitter
alkaloid to Avhich he gave the name of Margosine, but which he ob-
tained only in minute quantity as a "double salt of Margosine and
Soda," in long white needles.
From the bitter oil of the seeds he isolated a substance which he
called Margosic Acid, and which he doubted to be capable of affording
crystallizable salts. The composition neither of this acid nor of margo-
sine is known, nor have the properties of either been investigated.
The small sample of the bark at our disposal only enables us to add
that an infusion produced with perchloride of iron a blackish preci-
])itate, and that an infusion is not altered by tannic acid or iodohy-
drai-gyrate of potassium. If the inner layers of the bark are alone
exhausted with water, the liquid affords an abundant precipitate with
tannic acid ; but if the entire bark is boiled in water, the tannic matter
which it contains will form an insoluble compound with the bitter
})rinciple, and prevent the latter being dissolved. It is thus evident
that to isolate the bitter matter of the bark, it would be advisable to
work on the liber or inner layers alone, which might readily be done,
as the}^ separate easily.
According to the recent researches of Broughton- the bitter principle
is an amorphous resin soluble in the usual solvents and in boiling solu-
tions of fixed alkalis. From the latter it is precipitated by acids,
yet, probably, altered. Broughton ascribed the formula C'^°H""0'^ to
this bitter resin purified by means of bisulphide of carbon, ether
and absolute alcohol ; it fused at 9^° C. He obtained moreover
a small quantity of a crystallized principle, which he believed to be a
fatty body, yet its melting point of 175° C. is not in favour of this
suggestion.
Uses — In India the bark is used as a tonic and antiperiodic, both
by natives and Europeans. Dr. Pulney Andy of Madras has found the
leaves beneficial in small-pox.
1 Indian Annals of Medical Science, Cal-
cutta, iv. (1857) 104.
- Madras Month I;/ Jotirn. J\fcd.. Science,
c\noted in Pharm.Journ. J une 14, 1873,992.
156
MELIACEiE.
CORTEX SOYMIDA.
Cortex Swietenice ; Rohun Bark.
Botanical Origin — Soymida^ febrifuga Juss. (Swietenia febrifuga
Willd.), a tree of considerable size not uncommon in the forests of
Central and Southern India. The timber called by Europeans
Bastard Cedar is very durable and strong, and much valued for
building purposes.
History — The introduction of Rohun Bark into the medical practice
of Europeans is due to Roxburgh " who recommended the drug as a
substitute for Cinchona, after numerous trials made in India about the
year 1791. At the same time he sent supplies to Edinburgh, where
Duncan made it the subject of a thesis^ which probably led to it being
introduced into the materia medica of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia
of 1803, and of the Dublin Pharmacopoeia of 1807.
Though thus officially recognized, it does not appear that the bark
came much into use or by any other means fulfilled the expectations
raised in its favour. At present it is regarded simply as a useful
astringent tonic, and as such it has a place in the Pharmacopoeia of
India (1868).
Description — Our specimen of Rohun bark* which is from a young
tree, is in straight or somewhat curved, half-tubular quills, an inch or
more in diameter and about i of an inch in thickness. Externally it is
of a rusty grey or brown, with a smoothish surface exhibiting no con-
siderable furrows or cracks, but numerous small corky warts. These
form little elliptic scars or rings, brown in the centre and but slightly
raised from the surface. The inner side and edges of the quills are of
a bright reddish colour.
A transverse section exhibits a thin outer layer coloured by chloro-
phyll, and a middle layer of a bright rusty hue, traversed by large
medullary rays and darker wedge-shaped rays of liber. The latter has
a fibrous fracture, that of the outer part of the bark being rather corky
or foliaceous. The whole bark when comminuted is of a rusty colour,
becoming reddish by exposure to air and moisture. It has a bitter
astringent taste with no distinctive odour. The older bark frequently
half an inch thick and fibrous, has a thick ragged corky layer of a
rusty blackish-brown colour, deeply fissured longitudinally, and
minutely cracked transversely. Old bark, according to Dymock (1877),
is generally in half quills of a rich red-brown colour.
Microscopic Structure— The bark presents but few structural
peculiarities. The ring of liber is made up of alternating prosenchyma-
tous and parenchymatous tissue. In the latter the larger cells are filled
with mucilage, the others with starch. The prosenchymatous groups of
the liber exhibit that peculiar form we have already described as
1 From Sdmida, the Teluga name of the
tree; Rdhan is its name in Hindustani. —
Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants,
part 18 (1877).— See also C. De Candolle,
in Monogr. Phanerogamar. i. (1878) 722.
- Medical Facts and Observations, Lond.
vi. (1795) 127.
* Tentamen inaugurale de Swietenia Soi/-
??hVM, Edinb. 1794.
■* Kindly sent us by Mr. Brougliton of
Ootacamund.
FRUCTUS RHAMNI.
157
hoimbast (p. 74) ; it chiefly contains the tannic matter, besiaes stellate
crystals of oxalate of calcium which are distributed through the whole
tissue of the bark. The medullary rays are of the usual form, and con-
tain starch granules. The corky coat is built up of a smaller number
of vaulted cells.
Chemical Composition ^ — The bitter principle of the bark has
been ascertained by Broughton" to be a nearly colourless resinous
substance, sparingly soluble in water but more so in alcohol, ether, or
benzol. It does not appear to unite with acids or bases, and is less
soluble in water containing them than in pure water. It has a very
bitter taste, and refuses to crystallize either from benzol or ether. It
contains no nitrogen. To this we may add that the bark is rich in
tannic acid.
Uses — Rohun bark is administered in India as an astringent tonic
and antiperiodic, and is reported useful in intermittent fevers and
general debility, as well as in the advanced stages of dysentery and in
diarrhoea,
RHAMNACE^,
FRUCTUS RHAMNI.
Baccce Rhamni, Baccce Spince cervince ; BucJdhorn Berries ; F. Baies
de Nepnm ; G, Kreuzdornbeeren.
Botanical Origin — Rhamnus ca^^ar^icaL., a robust dioecious shrub
with spreading branches, the smaller of which often terminate in a stout
thorn. It is indigenous to Northern Africa, the greater part of Europe,
and stretches eastwai'd to the Caucasus and into Siberia. We have
seen stems 50 years old, having a diameter of 8 inches, sent from the
government of Cherson, Southern Russia. In England the buckthorn
though generally distributed is a.bundant only in certain districts ; in
Scotland it occurs wild in but a single locality. Yet in Norway,
Sweden, and Finland it grows much further north.
The fruit which ripens in the autumn is collected for use chiefl}' in
the counties of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and also
from Wiltshire. The collectors usually prefer to supply the juice as
expressed by themselves.
History — The Buckthorn was weU known to the Anglo-Saxons, and
is mentioned as Hartstliorn or Waythorn in their medical writings and
glossaries dating before the Norman conquest. The Welsh physicians of
Myddfai ("Meddygon Myddvai") in the 13th century prescribed the
juice of the fruit of buckthorn boiled with honey as an aperient drink.
As Spina Gervina the shrub is referred to by Piero de' Crescenzi of
Bolosrna^ about a.d. 1305.
The medicinal use of the berries was familiar to all the writers on
' The analysis alluded to in the Pharm.
of India (p. 444) concerns Khaya
(Swietenia) senegalensis, and not the present
species, as ray friend Dr. Overbeek has in-
fwnnr^d me.— F. A. F. '
- Beddome, Flora Sylvatica, Madras, part
i. (1869) 8, — also information communicated
direct.
Tratlato dair Anrkolhtrn, Milano lfin"i
10. iii. c 5-). ' '
168
RHAMNACEiE.
botany and materia medica of the 16th century. Syrup of buckthorn
first appeared in the London Phn.rmacopceia of 1650; it was aromatized
by means of aniseed, cinnamon, mastich and nutmeg.
Description — The fruits, which are only used in the fresh state, are
small, juicy, spherical drupes the size of a pea, black and shining,
bearing on the summit the remnants of the style, and supported below
by a slender stalk expanded into a disc-like receptacle. Before ripening
the fruit is green and distinctly 4-lobed, afterwards smooth and plump.
It contains 4 one-seeded nuts^ meeting at right angles in the middle.
The seed is erect with a broad furrow on the back: in transverse section
the albumen and cotyledons are seen to be curved into a horse-shoe
form with the ends directed outwards.
The fresh juice is green, has an acid reaction and a sweetish, after-
wards disagreeably bitter taste, and repulsive odour. It is coloured
dingy green by ferric chloride, yellow by alkalis, red by acids. Accord-
ing to Umney it should have a sp. gr. of 1-070 to 1-075, but is seldom
sold pure. By keeping the juice gradually turns red.
Microscopic Structure — The epidermis consists of small tabular
cells, followed by a row of large cubic cells and then by several layers
of tangentially-extended cells rich in chlorophyll. This thick epicarp
passes into the loose thin-walled and large-celled sarocarp. Besides
chlorophyll it exhibits numerous cells each containing a kind of sac,
which may be squeezed out of the cell. These sacs are violet, turning
blue with alkalis. Similar, yet much more conspicuous bodies occur
also in the pulp of the Locust Bean ( Ceratonia Siliqua L.).
Chemical Composition — The berries of buckthorn and other
species of Rhamnus contain interesting colouring matters, which have
been the subject of much chemical research and controversy. Winckler
in 1849 extracted from the juice Rhamnocathaiiin, a yellowish un-
crystallizable bitter substance, soluble in water but not in ether.
Alkalis colour it golden yellow; perchloride of iron, dark greenish
brown.
In 1840 Fleury, a pharmacien of Pontoise, discovered in buckthorn
juice a yellow substance forming cauliflower-like crystals to which he
gave the name of Hhamnine. This body has been recently studied by
Lefort,^ who identified it with the Rhamtutine of Galletly (1858) and
the Chrysorhamnine of Schlltzenberger and Berteche (1865). Though
obtainable from the berries of all kinds of Rhamnus used in dyeing
(including the common buckthorn), it is got most easily and
abundantly from Persian Berries. When pure, and crystallized from
absolute alcohol, it is described as forming minute yellow translucent
tables. It is scarcely soluble in cold water, though colouring it pale
yellow ; is soluble in hot alcohol, insoluble in ether or bisulphide of
carbon. It is very soluble in caustic alkalis, forming uncrystallizable
reddish-yellow solutions. From alkaline solutions it is precipitated by
a mineral acid in the form of a glutinous magma resembling hydra ted
silica. Lefort assigns to it the formula C^'H'"0" -|- 2H"0.
1 In Iih. Franrjnla Ij. , the other British ^ Siir Ics r/rainefi des He^-priins Hnclorianx.
species, the fruit has 2 nuts. — Journ. de Pharm. iv. (1S6G) 420. — See
- Pliarin. Journ. Nov. 23 (1872) 404, and also the investigations of Liebermann and
July 11 (1874) 21. Hcirmann. 1879.
UV^ PASSiE.
159
This chemist has likewise found in the berries of Rhamnns, though
not with certainty in those of R. cathartica, a neutral substance isomeric
with rhamnine, to which he has given the name of Rhamncgine. Unlike
rhamninc it is very soluble in cold water, but in all other respects it
agrees with that body in chemical and physical properties. The two
substances have the same taste, almost the same tint, the same crystal-
line form, and lastly they give rise to the same reactions with chemical
agents.
The conclusions of Lefort have been contested by Stein (1868) and
by Schutzenberger (18G8), the latter of whom succeeded in decomposing
rhamnegine and proving it a glucoside having the formula C'^H^'O .
Its decomposition gives rise to a body named Rhamnetin, C^'TP'O', and
a crystallizable sugar isomeric with mannite. Schutzenberger admits
that the berries contain an isomeric modification of rhamnegine ; but in
addition another colouring matter insoluble in water, which appears to
be the Rhamnine of Lefort, but to which he assigns a different formula,
namely, C^*H"0*". This is also a glucoside capable of being split into
rhamnetin and a sugar. There are thus, according to Schutzenberger,
two forms of rhamnegine which may be distinguished as a and ^8, and
there is the substance insoluble in water, named by Lefort Rhamnine.
The question of tlie purgative principles of buckthorn, it will be
observed, has not been touched by all these researches.
Uses — From the juice of the berries is prepared a syrup having
strongly purgative properties, much more used as a medicine for animals
than for man. The pigment 8a2) Gveen is also made from the juice.
AMPELIDE^.
UV^ PASSiE.
Passulce majores ; Raisins; F. Raisins; G. Rosinen.
Botanical Origin — Vitis vinifera L., the Common Grape-vine. It
appears to be indigenous to the Caucasian provinces of Russia, that is
to say, to the country lying between the eastern end of the Black Sea
and the south-western shores of the Caspian ; extending thence south-
ward into Armenia. Under innumerable varieties, it is cultivated in
most of the warmer and drier countries of the temperate regions of both
the northern and southern hemispheres. Humboldt defines the area of
the profitable culture of the vine as a zone lying between 36'^ and 40*
of north latitude.
History — The vine is among the oldest of cultivated plants, and is
mentioned in the earliest Mosaic writings. Dried grapes as distin-
guished from fresh were used by the ancient Hebrews, and in the
Vulgate are translated Uvce passa} During the middle ages, raisins
were an article of luxury imported into England from Spain.
Description — The ovary of Vitis vinifera is 2-celled with 2 ovules
in each cell ; it developes into a succulent, pedicellate berry of spherical
' Numbers vi. 3 ; 1 Sam. xxv. 18, xxx. 12; 2 Sam. xvi. 1 ; 1 Chron. xii. 40.
160
AMPELIDEiE.
or ovoid form, in which the cells are obliterated and some of the seeds
generally abortive. As the fruit is not articulated with the rachis or
the rachis with the branch, it does not drop at maturity but remains
attached to the plant, on which, provided there is sufficient solar heat,
it gradually withers and dries : such fruits are called Raisins of the sun.
Various methods are adopted to facilitate the drying of the fruit, such
as dipping the bunches in boiling water or in a lye of wood ashes, or
twisting or partially severing the stalk, — the effect of each operation
being to arrest or destroy the vitality of the tissues. The drying
is performed by exposure to the sun, sometimes supplemented by
artificial heat.
The raisins commonly found in the shops are the produce of Spain
and Asia Minor, and are sold either in entire bunches or removed from
the stalk. The former kind, known as Muscatel Raisins and imported
from Malaga, are dried and packed with great care for use as a
dessert fruit. The latter kind, which includes the Valencia Raisins of
Spain, and the Eleme, Chesvie and stoneless Sultana Raisins of Smyrna,
are used for culinary purposes. For pharmacy, Valencia raisins are
generally employed.
Microscopic Structure — The outer layer or skin of the berry is
made up of small tabular cells loaded with a reddish granular matter,
which on addition of an alcoholic solution of perchloride of iron assumes
a dingy green hue. The interior parenchyme exhibits large, thin-walled,
loose cells containing an abundance of crystals (bitartrate of potassium
and sugar). There are also some fibro-vascular bundles traversing the
tissue in no regular order.
Chemical Composition — The pulp abounds in grape sugar and
cream of tartar, each of which in old raisins may be found crystallized
in nodular masses ; it also contains gum and malic acid. The seeds
afford 15 to 18 per cent, of a bland fixed oil, which is occasionally
extracted. Fitz ^ has shown that it consists of the glycerides of Erucic
Acid, C'^H^O^, stearic acid, and palmitic acid, the first-named acid
largely prevailing. The crystals of erucic acid melt at 34° C; by means
of fused potash they may be resolved into arachic acid, C^^H^'O^, and
acetic acid, C^H^Ol
The seeds further contain 5 to 6 per cent, of tannic acid, which also
exists in the skin of the fruit. The latter is likewise the seat of
chlorophyll and other colouring matter.
Commerce — The consumption of raisins in Great Britain is very
large and is increasing. The imports into the United Kingdom have
been as follows : —
1870. 1871. 1872. 1876.
365,418 427,056 617,418 583,860 cwt.
val. £593,527, val. £707,344. val. £1,149,337. val. £1,058,406.
Of the quantity mentioned for 1872 there were 4-00,570 cwt. shipped
from Spain, 170,500 cwt. from Asiatic Turkey, and the remainder from
other countries.^ It is stated that Greece, in 1874, exported about 1\
1 Berichte. der deufsch. chem. Gesellsch.
zu Berlin, iv. (1871) 442,
'^Annual Statement of the Trade of the
United Kaif/dum.
millions of cwt., value £28,000,000 ; much of this was shipped to
England.
Uses — Raisins are an ingredient of Compound Tincture of Car-
damoms and of Tincture of Senna. They have no medicinal properties,
and are only used for the sake of the saccharine matter they impart.^
ANACAKDTACEJE.
MASTICHE.
Mastix, Hesina Masticlie ; Mustich ; F. Mastic ; G. Mastix.
Botanical Origin — Pistacia Lentiscus L., the lentisk, is a dioecious
evergreen, mostly found as a shrub a few feet high ; but when allowed
to attain its full growth, it slowly acquires the dimensions of a small
tree having a dense head of foliage. It is a native of the Mediterranean
shores from Syria to Spain, and is found in Portugal, Morocco and the
Canaries. In some parts of Italy it is largely cut for fuel.
Mastich is collected in the northern part of the island of Scio, which
was long regarded as the only region in the world capable of afibrding
it. Experiments made in 1850 by Orphanides- have proved that
excellent mastich might be easily obtained in other islands of the
Archipelago, and probably also in Continental Greece. The same
botanist remarks that the trees yielding mastich in Scio are exclu-
sively male.
History — Mastich has been known from a very remote period, and
is mentioned by Theophrastus,^ who lived in the 4th century before the
Christian era. Both Dioscorides and Pliny notice it as a production of
the island of Chio, the modern Scio.
Avicenna'* described (about the year 1000) two sorts of mastich, the
white or Roman (i.e. Mediterranean or Christian), and the dark or
Nabathpean, — the latter probably one of the Eastern forms of the drug
mentioned at p. 165.
Benjamin of Tudcla,'' who visited the island of Scio when travelling
to the East about a.d. llGO-1173, also refers to it yielding mastich,
which in fact has always been one of its most im])ortaut productions,
and from the eai'liest times intimately connected with its history.
Mastich was prescribed in the 13th century by the Welsh " Meddy-
gon Myddvai " as an ingredient of ointments.
In the middle ages the mastich of Scio was held as a monopoly by
the Greek emperors, one of whom, Michael Paleologus in 12G1, permitted
the Genoese to settle in the island. His successor Andronicus II.
conceded in 1304) the administration of the island to Benedetto Zaccaria,
a rich patrician of Genoa and the proprietor of the alum works of Fokia
^ The amount of this is very small. On - Heldreich, Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands,
macerating crushed raisins in proof spirit in Athen, 1862. 61.
the proportion of 2 oz. to a pint, we found '■' Hint. Plant, lib. ix. c. 1.
each fluid ounce of the tincture so obtained ' Lib. ii. c. 462.
to afford by evaporation to dryness 28 Wright, Earh/ Travels in Palestinf,
grains of a dark viscid sugary extract. 1848. 77. (Bohn's series).
162
ANACARDIACEiE.
(the ancient Phocsea), north-west of Smyrna, for ten years, renouncing
all tribute during that period. The concession was very lucrative, a
large revenue bein^ derived from the Contrata del Mastlco or Mastich
district : and the Zaccaria family, taking advantage of the weakness of
the emperor, determined to hold it as long as possible. In fact they
made themselves the real sovereigns of Scio and of some of the adjacent
islands, and retained their position until expelled by Andronicus III.
in 1329.1
The island was retaken by the Genoese under Simone Vignosi in
1346; and then by a remarkable series of events became the property
of an association called the Maona (the Arabic word for subsidy or
reinforcement). Many of the noblest families of Genoa enrolled them-
selves in this corporation and settled in the island of Scio ; and in order
to express the community of interest that governed their proceedings,
some of them relinquished their family names and assumed the general
name of Giustiniani? This extraordinary society played a part ex-
actly comparable to that of the late East India Company. In Genoa
it had its " Oficium Chii " ; it had its own constitution and mint, and
it engaged in wars with the emperors of Constantinojile, the Venetians
and the Turks, who in turn attacked and ravaged the mastich island
and adjacent possessions.
The Giustinianis regulated very strictly the culture of the lentisk
and the gathering and export of its produce, and cruelly punished all
offenders. The annual export of the drug was 300 to 400 quintals,^
which were immediately assigned to the four regions with which the
Maona chiefly traded. These were Romania (i.e. Greece, Constanti-
nople and the Crimea), Occidente (Italy, France, Spain and Germany),
Vera Turchia (Asia Minor), and Oriente (Syria, Egypt, and Northern
Africa). In 1364, a quintal was sold for 40 Lire ; in 1417, the price was
fixed at 25 lire. In the 16th century, the whole income from the drug
was 30,000 ducats (£13,750),* a large sum for that period.
In 1560, the Giustinianis definitively lost their beautiful island, the
Turks under Piali Pasha taking it by force of arms under pretext that
the customary tribute was not duly paid.^ A few years before that
event, it was visited by the French naturalist Belon ^ who testifies from
^ Friar Jordaniis wlio visited Scio circa
1330 (?) noticed the production of mastich,
and also the loss of the island by Martino
Zaccaria. — MirahUia descripta, or Wonders
of the East, edited by Col. Yule for the
Hakluyt Society, 1SG3.
2 Probably partly for the reason that a
Palazzo Giustiniani in Genoa had become
the property of the Society. In the little
"Piazza Giustiniani," near the cathedral
of San Lorenzo, that palace may still be
seen, but there is only a large view of the
island of Scio which would remind of the
Maona. I was told in 1874 by Sig. Canale,
the historian of Genoa, that he thought it
doubtful that the Officium Chii had resided
in the said palace. — F.A.F.
^ An incidental notice showing the value
of the trade occurs in the letter of Columbus
(himself a Genoese) announcing the result
of his first voyage to the Indies. In stating
what may be obtained irom the island of
Hispaniola, he mentions — gold and spices . .
and mastich, hitherto found only in Greece
in the island of Scio, and wliicli the Sig-
noria sells at its own price, as much as their
Highnesses [Ferdinand and Isabella] shall
command to be shipped. The letter bears
date 15 Feb. I i93. — Letters of Chrlstohal
Columbus (Hakluyt Society) 1870. p. 15.
•' The ducat being reckoned at 96'. 2d.
'•' For further particulars respecting the
history of Scio, the Maona, and the trade
of the Genoese in the Levant, see Hopf in
Erscli and Grubber's Encyclojxidie, vol. 68
(Leijjzig, 1859) art. Giustiniani ; also Heyd
Colonic commerciali degli Italiani in Oriente
i. (1866).
Obsei'vations de plusieurs singidaritez et
choses raAmorahles trouve.es en Gr^ce, etc.
Paris, 1554. liv. ii. ch. 8. p. 836.
J-UO
personal observation to the great care with which the lentisk was
cultivated hy the inhabitants.
When Tournefort^ was at Scio in 1701, all the lentisk trees on the
island were held to be the property of the Grand Signor, and if any
land was sold, the sale did not include the lentisks that might be
growing on it. At that time the mastich villages, about twenty in
number, were required to pay '2SQ chests of mastich annually to the
Turkish officers ai)]:)ointed to receive the revenue.
In the beginning of the present century, when Olivier^ paid a visit
to the island of Chios, he found 50,000 ocche (one occa=:2'82 lb. avdp.
= 1'2S kilogrammes) or somewhat more to be the annual harvest of
mastich.
Tlie month of January, 1850, was memorable throughout Greece
and the Archipelago for a frost of unparalleled severity which pi-oved
very destructive to the mastich trees of Scio, and occasioned a scarcity
of the drug that lasted for many years.^
The foregoing statements show that for centuries past Scio or Chios
was famed for tliis resin ; there are however a few evidences proving
that at least a little mastich used also to be collected in other islands.
Amari'' quoted an Arabic geographer of the 12th century speaking of
" il masfice Ji Pantellaria aivato da lentischi e lo sfomce odorifero."
Pantellaria, Kossura of the ancients, is the small volcanic island south-
west of Sicily, not far from Tunis. In a list enumerating the drugs
to be met with in 1582 in the fair of Frankfurt we find even mastich
of Cijprus quoted as superior to the connnon. Cyprian mastich again
occurs in the pharmaceutical tariffs of 1G12 and 1GG9 of the same city,
and in many others of that time.''
The disuse into which mastich has follen makes it difficult to under-
stand its ancient importance ; but a glance at the ])harmacopceias of the
loth, IGth, and 17th centuries shows that it was an ingredient of a
large number of compound medicines."
Secretion — In the bark of the stems and branches of the mastich
shrub, thei'e are resin-ducts like those in the aromatic roots of Umbelli-
f'crcii or Compositce. In Pistficia they may even be shown in the
petioles. The wood is devoid of resin,'* so that slight incisions are suffi-
cient to provoke the resinous exudation, the bark being not very thick,
and liable to scale off.
Collection — In Scio incisions are made about the middle of June
in the bark of the stems and principal branches. From these incisions
which are vertical and very close together, the resin speedily flows, and
^ Voyaf/e into tlie Levant, i. (171S) 285.
- Voyaije dans VEmpire. Othoman et la
Perse, ii. (Paris, 1801) 132-1 3C.
^ At Athens the mercury was for a short
time at — 10^ C. (14" F.) In Scio, where
the frost was pmbably quite as severe,
though we have no exact data, the mischief
to the lentisks varied with tlie locality,
trees exposed to the north or growing at
considerable elevation.s, being killed down
to the base of the trunk, while those in
more favoured positions sntt'ered destruc-
tion only in some of their branches.
* Storia del Mmulman i di S'icilia,\u. ( 1 872)
787.
" Fliickiger, Documente 7.ur Geschkhte der
Pharmaae, Halle, 1876. 31.
41. G5.
" Thus in the London Pharmacopceia of
1G32, mastich enters into 24 of the 37 dif-
ferent kinds of pill, besides which it is pre-
scribed in troches and ointments.
* See Unger and Kotsehy, Die Insel
Cypern, Wien, 18G5. 424.
164
ANACARDIACE^.
soon hardens and dries. After 15 to 20 days it is collected with much
care in little baskets lined with white paper or clean cotton wool. The
ground below the trees is kept hard and clean, and flat pieces of stone
are often laid on it that the droppings of resin may be saved uninjured
by dirt. There is also some spontaneous exudation from the small
branches which is of very fine quality. The operations are carried on by
women and children and last for a couple of months. A fine tree may
yield as much as 8 to 10 pounds of mastich.
The dealers in Scio distinguish three or four qualities of the drug,
of which the two finer are called kuXio-to and (pXia-Kupi, that collected
from the ground x^rra, and the worst of all cpXovSa.^
Description — The best sort of mastich consists of roundish tears
about the size of small peas, together with pieces of an oblong or pear-
shaped form. They are of a pale yellow or slightly greenish tint
darkening by age, dusty and slightly opaque- on the surface but perfectly
transparent within. The mastich of late imported has been washed ;
the tears are no longer dusty, but have a glassy transparent
appearance. Mastich is brittle, has a conchoidal fracture, a slight
terebinthinous balsamic odour. It speedily softens in the mouth, and
may be easily masticated and kneaded between the teeth, in this
respect differing from sandarac, a tear of which breaks to powder
when bitten.
Inferior mastich is less transparent, and consists of masses of larger
size and less regular shape, often contaminated with earthy and vege-
table impurities.
The sp. gr. of selected tears of mastich is about 1'06. They soften
at 99° C. but do not melt below 108°.
Mastich dissolves in half its weight of pure warm acetone and then
deviates the ray of polarized light to the right. On cooling, the solu-
tion becomes turbid. It dissolves slowly in 5 parts of oil of cloves,
forming even in the cold a clear solution ; it is but little soluble in
glacial acetic acid or in benzol.
Chemical Composition — Mastich is soluble to the extent of about
90 per cent in cold alcohol ; the residue, which has been termed
Masticin or Beta-resin of Mastich, is a translucent, colourless, tough
substance, insoluble in boiling alcohol or in solution of caustic alkali,
but dissolving in ether or oil of turpentine. According to Johnston, it
is somewhat less rich in oxygen than the following.
The soluble portion of mastich, called Alplia resin of Mastich, pos-
sesses acid pi-operties, and like many other resins has the formula
C'^H^'Ol Hartsen" asserts that it can be obtained in crystals. Its
alcoholic solution is precipitated by an alcoholic solution of neutral
acetate of lead. Mastich contains a very little volatile oil.
Commerce— Mastich still forms the principal revenue of Scio, from
which island the export in 1871 was 28,000 lb. oi picked, a^nd 42,000 lb.
of common. The market price of ])icked mastich was equal to 6s. 10c/.
per lb. — that of common 2s. lOd. The superior quality is sent to
Turkey, especially Constantinople, also to Trieste, Vienna, and Mar-
^ Heklreich (and Orphanides) Nutzpflan-
zen GriechenlandK, Atheii, 1862, 60.
^ Berichte der devtuchen chem. Geselhch.
1876. .'516.
TEREBINTHINA CHIA.
1G5
scilles, and a small quauiity to England. The common sort is employed
in the East in the manufacture of raki and other cordials.^
Uses — Mastich is not now regarded as possessing any important
therapeutic virtues, and as a medicine is becoming obsolete. Even in
varnish making it is no longer employed as formerly, its place being
well supplied by less costly resins, such for example as dammar.
Varieties — There is found in the Indian bazaars a kind of mastich
which though called Mmi(i(ji-runn (Roman mastich), is not imported
from Europe but from Kabul, and is the produce of Pistacia Khinjuk
Stocks, and the so-called P. cabidica St. trees growing all over Sind,
Beluchistan and Kabul.' This drug, of which the better qualities closely
approximate to tlie mastich of Scio, sometimes ajipcars in the European
market under the name of East Indian or Bombay Mastich. We find
that when dissolved in half its weight of acetone or benzol, it deviates
the ray of light to the right.
The solid resin of the Algerian form of P. Terebintkus L., known as
P. atlmitica Desf , is collected and used as mastich by the Arab tribes
of Northern Africa.^
TEREBINTHINA CHIA
TerebintJmia Cypria, ; Chian or Cyprian Turpentine ; F. Terebenthine
on Baume de Ohio on deChypres; G. Chios Terpenthin, Cyprischer
Tcrpenthin.
Botanical Origin — Pistacia Terebinthus L. (P. atlantica Desf,
P. palicstiiui Boiss., P. cabidica Stocks), a tree 20 to 40 feet or more
in height, in some countries only a shrub, connnon on the islands and
shores of the Mediterranean as well as throughout Asia Minor, extend-
ing, as P. palcestina, to Syria and Palestine ; and eastward, as P.
ccLbidica, to Beluchistan and Afghanistan. It is found under the form
called P. atlantica in Northern Africa, where it grows to a lai'ge size,
and in the Canary Islands.
These several forms are mostly regarded as so many distinct species ;
but after due consideration and the examination of a large number of
specimens both dried and living, we have arrived at the conclusion that
they may fairly be united under a single specific name. The extreme
varieties certainly present great difierences of habit, as anyone would
observe who had compared Pistacia. Terebinthus as the straggling bush
which it is in Languedoc and Provence, with the noble umbrageous
tree it forms in the neighbourhood of Smyrna. But the different types
are united by so many connecting links, that we have felt warranted in
dissenting from the opinion usually held respecting them.
On the branches of Pistacia Terebinthus, a kind of galls is produced,
which we shall briefly notice in our article Gallae halepenses.
1 Consul Cumberbatch, Report on Trade
of Smyrna for 1871. — Rrdi, derived from
the Turkish word stujiz, for mastich, ■which,
strange to say, would appear to have its
home on the Baltic. In the vocabularies
of the Old-Prussian idiom " sachis" is
found meaning resin. — Blau, Zeitsdirift der
Deutschen Morgenl. Gesellsch, xxix. 582.
^ Powell, Economic Productsof tlie Punjab,
Eoorkee, 1868. 411.
•*Guibourt, Hht. d. D/-Of/. iii. (1850) 458;
Armieux, Topographie mMkaledu Sahara,
Paris, 18CG. 58.
16G
ANACARDIACE^.
History — The terebinth was well known to the ancients ; it is the
Tep/uLLvOog of Theophvastus, repefSivdo? of other authors, and the Alah of
the Old Testament/ Among its products, the kernels were regarded
by Dioscorides as unwholesome, though agreeable in taste. By pressing
them, the original OU of Turpentine, repe^lvOtuov eXatov, a mixture of
essential and fat oil was obtained, as it is in the East to the present
day. The resinous juice of the stem and branches, the true, primitive
turpentine, yo;;TiV>? rep/uvOlut], was celebrated as the finest of all analogous
]iroducts, and prefen-ed both to mastich and the pinic resins. To the
latter however the name of turpentine was finally applied.'
Collection — The resinous juice is secreted in the bark, according to
Ungei',^ and Marchand,* in special cells precisely as mastich in P. Lentls-
cus. That found in commerce is collected in the island of Scio. To some
extent it exudes spontaneously, yet in greater abundance after incisions
made in the stems and branches. This is done in spring, and the resin
continues to flow during the whole summer ; but the quantity is so
small that not more that 10 or 11 ounces are obtained from a large tree
in the course of a year. The turpentine, hardened by the coolness of
the night, is scraped from the stem down which it has flowed, or from
flat stones placed at the foot of the tree to receive it. As it is, when
thus collected, always mixed with foreign substances, it is purified to
some extent by straining through small baskets, after having been
liquefied by exposure to the sun.
When Tournefort'^ visited Scio in 1701, the island was said to produce
scarcely 300 okes or ocche (one occa = 2 82 lb. avdp.); a century later
Olivier" stated, that the turpentine was becoming very scarce, 200 ocche
only, or even less, being the annual yield. It was then carefully col-
lected by means of little earthen vessels tied to the incised stems. The
trade is asserted to be now almost exclusively in the hands of
the Jews, who dispose of the drug in the interior part of the Turkish
Empire.''
Description — A specimen collected by Maltass near Smyrna in
1858 was, after ten years, of a light yellowish colour, scarcely fluid
though perfectly transparent, nearly of the odour of melted colophony
or mastich, and witliout much taste. We found it readily soluble in
spirit of wine, amylic alcohol, glacial acetic acid, benzol, oi' acetone, the
solution in each case being very slightly fluorescent. The alcoholic
solution reddens litmus, and is neither bitter nor acrid. Two parts of
this genuine turpentine dissolved in one of acetone deviate a ray of
polarized light 7° to the right " in a column 50 mm. long.
Chian turpentine as found in commerce and believed to be genuine,
is a soft solid, becoming brittle by exposure to the air ; viewed in mass
it appears opaque and of a dull brown hue. If pressed while warm
^ Genesis xii. 6, wliere the word is ren-
dered in our vei sion plain.
- Furtlier historical information on the
Terebinth may be found in Hehu's Kultur-
pflanzen und Hausthiere, Berlin, 1877.
336.
^ linger n. Kotschy, die Iiisel Cyptrn.
1865. 361. 424.
Revision du groupe des Anar.ardiacees.
Paris, 1869.150. Pl.ate iii. shows the resini-
feruus ducts of a branch two years old.
^ Voyage into the Levant, i. (1718) 287.
^ Voy. dans VKmpire Uthoman, etc., ii.
(1801) 'l36.
Maltass, Pharm. Journ. xvii. (1856)
540.
A solution of mastich made in the same
proportion deviates 3° to the right.
GALL^ CHINENSES SEU JAPONICE.
167
between two slips of glass, it is seen to be transparent, of a yellowish
brown, and much contaminated by various impurities in a state of fine
division. It has an agreeable, mild terebinthinous odour and very little
taste. The whitish powder with which old Chian turpentine becomes
covered, shows 110 trace of crystalline structure when examined under
the microscope.
Chemical Composition — Chian turpentine consists of resin and
essential oil. The furmer is ])robably identical with the Alpha-resin of
mastich. The Bda-vesln or Musticin appears to be absent, for we find
that Chian turpentine deprived of its essential oil by a gentle heat, dis-
solves entirely (impurities excepted) in alcohol sp. gr. 0"815, which is
by no means the case with mastich.
The essential oil which we obtained by distilling with water 64
ounces of Chian turpentine of authentic origin, amounted to nearly 14^
per cent. It has the odour of the drug ; sp. gr. 0 809 ; boiling point
161° C; it deviates the ray of polarized light 12-1° to the right. In
common with turpentine oils of the Coniferce, it contains a small
amount of an oxygenated oil, and is therefore vividly attacked by
sodium. When this reaction is over and the oil is again distilled, it
boils at 157° C. and has a sp. gr. of U 8G2. It has now a more agree-
able odour, resembling a mixture of cajuput, mace, and camphor, and
nearly the same rotatory power (11 '5° to the right). By saturation
with dry hydrochloric acid, it yields a solid compound alter some
weeks. After treatment with sodium and i-cctification, the oil was
found' to consist of C 88"75,' H 11-iO per cent., which is the composition
of oil of turpentine.
Uses — Chian Turj)entine appears to have exactly the properties of
the ])inic turpentines ; in British medicine it is almost obsolete. In
Greece it is sometimes added to wine or used to fiavour cordials, in the
same manner as turpentine of the pine, or mastich.
GALL^ CHINENSES SEU JAPONIC^.
Botanical Origin — The plant which bears this important kind of
gall, is Rlius semialida Murray {Rli. BucJci-amela Roxb.), a tree
attaining 30 to 40 feet, common in Northern India, China and Japan,
ascending in the outer Himalaya and the Kasia hills to elevations of
2,500 to G,000 feet.'
History — In China these galls aie probably known and used both
medicinally and in dyeing since very long; they are mentioned in the her-
bal Puntsaou, written in the middle of the 16th century. They also occur
in Cleyer's "Specimen mcdicina? sinica?," Frankfort, 1G82, No. 225, under
the name it poi fit.* Kiimpfer * also mentions a tree " Baibokf, vulgo
Fusi," growing on the hills, the pinnate leaves of which he found
often provided with an excrescence : " 'E7r/0f(rt foliorum informi,
tuberosa,mu]tiplici, tenui, 'dura, cava, Gallee nostratis usu praestante." No
^ From analysis performed in my labo- ii. (Madras, 1843) tab. 561, gives a good
ratory by Dr. Kraushaar. — F. A. F. figure.
- Wigiit, /cones Plantar. Indice orientalis, » Hanbury, Science Papers, 266.
* Ammiitates exotica;, 1712. 895.
1G8
ANACARDIACEiE.
doubt this refers to the galls under notice ; they began to be im]")orted
into Europe about 1724?, and are noticed by GeofFroy^ as Oreilles des
Indes, but they seem to have soon disappeared from the market.
Pereira directed attention to them in 184)4, since which time they
have formed a regular and abundant article of import both from China
and Japan.
Formation — Chinese galls ai-e vesicular protuberances formed on
the leafstalks and branches of the above-mentioned tree, by the
puncture of an insect, identified and figured by Doubleday^ as a species
of Aphis, and subsequently named provisionally by Jacob Bell ^
A. chinensis. We have no account by any competent observer of
their growth ; and as to their development, we can only imagine it
from the analogous productions seen in Europe. According to Double-
day, it is probable that the female aphis punctures the upper surface of
a leaf (more probably leafstalk), the result of the wound being the
growth of a hollow expansion in the vegetable tissue. Of this cavity
the creature takes possession and brings forth a progeny which lives
by puncturing the inner surface of their home, thus much increasing
the tendency to a morbid expansion of the soft growing tissue in an
outward direction. Meanwhile the neck of the sac-like gall thickens,
the aperture contracts and finally closes, imprisoning all the inmates.
Here they live and multiply until, as in the case of the pistacia gall of
Europe, the sac ruptures and allows of their escape. This, we inay
imagine, takes place at the period when, after some generations all
wingless and ]ierhaps all female (for the female aphis produces for
several generations without impregnation), a winged generation is
brought forth of both sexes. These may then fly to other spots, and
deposit eggs for a further propagation of their race.
The galls are collected when their green colour is changing into
yellow ; they are then scalded.^
Description — The galls are light and hollow, varying in length
from 1 to 2| inches, and of extremely diverse and irregular form. The
simplest are somewhat egg-shaped, the smaller end being attached to
the leafstalk ; but the form is rarely so regular, and more often the
body of the gall is distorted by numerous knobby or horn-like protu-
berances or branches ; or the gall consists of several lobes uniting in
their lower part and gradually attenuated to the point by which the
excrescence is attached to the leaf' But though the form is thus vari-
able, the structure of these bodies is very characteristic. They are
striated towards the base, and completely covered on other parts with
a thick, velvety, grey down, which rubbed off on the prominences, dis-
plays the reddish-brown colour of the shell itself. The latter is
1 Mem. de V AccuUmie royale des Sciences,
Paris, 1724. 324. — Also Du Halde, Bescrip-
linn de I' Empire de la Chine, iii. (La Haye,
1736) 615—625. "Des Ou Poey tse."
The author quotes numerous medicinal
applications for these galls.
^ Pharm. Journ. vii. (1848) 310.
3 Ibid. X. (1851) 128.
* Stauisl. Julien et P. Champion, Indus-
tries anr. et modcrnes de VEriipire chinois,
1869. 95.
5 We have once met with galls imported
from Shanghai which differed from ordi-
nary Chinese galls in not being horned,
but all of an elongated ovoid form, often
pointed at the upper end, and having
moreover a strong cheesy smell. They may
be derived from JJifiiyliuni rareniosuin S.
et Z., though they do not jjerfectly accord
with the depressed pear-shaped forms
figured by Siebold and Zuccariui [Flora
Japonica, tab. 94).
GALL.^: CHINENSES SEU JAPONIC^.
169
xV to liV of an inch in thickness, translucent and horny, but brittle with
a smooth and shinino- fractui'e. It is rather smoother on the inner sui'-
face and of lighter colour than on the outer.
The galls when broken are generally found to contain a white,
downy-looking substance, together with the minute, dried-up bodies of
the killed insect/
The drug as imported from Japan is usually a little smaller and
paler ; it mostly fetches a better price in the market.
Microscopic Structure — The tissue of the galls is made up of thin-
walled, large cells irregularly traversed by small vascular bundles and
laticiferous vessels. The latter are mostly not branched. The paren-
chy me is loaded with lumps of tannic matter and starch, the latter having
mostly lost by the treatment with boiling water its granular appearance.
The epidermis of the galls is covered with little tapering hairs, consist-
ing each of 1-5 cells, to which is due the velvety down of the drug.
Chemical Composition — Chinese or Japanese galls contain about
70 per cent, of a tannic acid, which has been first shown by Stein in
1S49 to be identical with that derived from oak galls (see Galke hale-
penses), the so-called gallotannic or common tannic acid." It is remark-
able that this substance, which is by no means widely distributed, is
also present in Bhus conana,a, species indigenous in the Mediterranean
region. Its leaves and shoots are the well-known dyeing and tanning
material Suviach.
Stein, however, pointed out at the same time, that in Chinese galls
gallotannic acid is accompanied by a small amount, about 4 per cent.,
of a difterent tannic matter.
Commerce — At present the supplies arrive chiefly from Hankow,
from which great trading city the export, in 1S72, was no less than
30,949 peculs, equal to 36,844 cwt.; 21,G11 peculs, value 136,214 taels (one
tael about 6s.) in 1874. In 1877 all China exported not more than
17,515 peculs. A little is also shipped from Canton and Ningpo.^ The
quantity imported from China into the United Kingdom in 1872 was
8621 cwts., valued at £20,098. In the China trade returns, the drug is
always miscalled " Nut galls," or " gallnuts." Only those called " Wu-
pei-tze " are the galls under examination. There are also oak-galls
exported from China resembling those from Western Asia. Japanese
galls, "Kifushi," are shipped in increasing quantities at Hiogo.^
Uses — The galls under notice are employed, chiefly in Germany, for
the manufacture of tannic acid, gallic acid, and pyrogallol.
1 See also Schenk, in Buchner's Repcrto-
rhtni fiir Pharvi. v. (1850) 26-27, or short
abstract of that pajjer in the Jahresbericht
of Wiggers, 1S50. 48.
^ See also Stenliouse, Proceedings of the
Royal Sockty, xi. (1862) 402.
Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports of
China, for 1872. 154 ; for 1874.
■* Matsugata, Le J upon d V Exposition
universclle (Paris, 1878) 116. 146.
170
LEGUMINOS^.
LEGUMINOS^.
HERBA SCOPARII.
Cacumina vel Stiviniitates Scoj^arii ; Broom Tops ; F. Genet d balais;
G. Besenginster, Ffriemenkraut.
Botanical Origin — Cytisus Scojxirius Link (Spartium Scopariuvi
L., Sarotharnnus vulgaris Wimmer), the Common Broom, a woody
shrub, 3 to G feet high, grows gregariously in sandy thickets and un-
cultivated ])laces throughout Great Britain, and Western and temperate
Northern Europe. In continental Europe it is plentiful in the valley of
the Rhine up to the Swiss frontier, in Southern Germany and in Silesia,
but does not ascend the Alps, and is absent from many parts of Central
and Eastern Europe, Polonia for instance. According to Ledebour, it is
found in Central and Southern Russia and on the eastern side of the
Ural Mountains. In Southern Europe its place is supplied by other
species.
History — From the fact that this plant is chiefly a native of
Western, Northern and Central Europe, it is improbable that the
classical authors were acquainted with it ; and for the same reason the
remarks of the early Italian writers may not always applj'' to the
species under notice. With this reservation, we may state that broom
under the name Genista, Genesta, or Genestra is mentioned in the
earliest printed herbals, as that of Passau,^ 1485, the Hortus Sanitatis,
1491, the Great Herbal pi'inted at Southwark in 1526, and others.
It is likewise the Genista as figured and described by the German
botanists and pharmacologists of the 16th century, like Brunfels, Fuchs,
Tragus, Valerius Cordus ("Genista angulosa") and others. Broom was
used in ancient Anglo-Saxon medicine ^ as well as in the Welsh
"Meddygon Myddvai." It had a place in the London Pharmacopoeia of
1618, and has been included in nearly every subsequent edition.
Hieronymus Brunschwyg gives'* directions for distilling a water from
the flowers, " /lores genestcn" — a medicine Avhich Gerarde relates was
used by King Henry VIII. " against surfets and diseases thereof
arisinof."
Broom was the emblem of those of the Norman sovereigns of
England descended from Geoffiy the "Handsome," or " Plantagenet,"
count of Anjou (obiit A.D. 1150), who was in the habit of wearing the
common broom of his countrj^, the "pilanta genista," in his helmet.
Description — The Common Broom has numerous straight ascending-
wiry branches, sharply 5-angled and devoid of spines. The leaves, of
which the largest are barely an inch long, consist of 3 obovate leaflets
on a petiole of their own length. Towards the extremities of the twigs,
the leaves are much scattered and generally reduced to a single ovate
leaflet, nearly sessile. The leaves when young are clothed on both sides
with long reddish hairs ; these under the microscope are seen each to
* Herharius, Patavie 1485. '■' De arte diMillandi, first edition 1500,
^ Cockayne Leechdoms, &c., iii. (18G6) Argentorati, cap. xv.
316.
HERBA SCOPARII.
171
consist of a simple cyliudrical tliiu-walled cell, the surface of which is
beset with numerous extremely small protuberances.
The large, bright yellow, odorous flowers, which become brown in
drying, are mostly solitary in the axils of the leaves ; they have a
persistent campanulate calyx divided into two lips minutely toothed,
and a long subulate style, curved round on itself The legume is oblong
compressed, li to 2 inches long b}^ about i an inch wide, fringed with
hairs along the eds:e. It contains 10 to 12 olive-coloured albuminous
seeds, the fuuicle of which is expanded into a large fleshy strophiole.
They have a bitterish taste, and are devoid of stai'ch.
The portion of the plant used in pharmacy is the younger herbaceous
branches, which are required both fresh and dried. In the former state
they emit when bruised a peculiar odour which is lost in drying. They
have a nauseous bitter taste.
Chemical Composition — Stenhouse^ discovered in broom tops
two interesting ]>rinciples, Scopa/rin, C'''H''0'", an indifl'erent or some-
what acid body, and the alkaloid SjKirteine, C'^H'^N', the first soluble
in water or spirit and crystallizing in yellowish tufts, the second a
colourless oily liquid heavier than water and sparingly soluble in it,
boiling at 288° C.
To obtain scoparin, a watery decoction of the plant is concentrated
so as to form a jelly after standing for a day or two. This is then
washed with a small quantity of cold water, dissolved in hot water and
again allowed to repose. By repeating this treatment with the
addition of a little hydrochloric acid, the chloro])hyll may at length be
separated and the scoparin obtained as a gelatinous mass, which dries as
an amor[)hous, brittle, pale yellow, neutral substance, devoid of taste
and smell. Its solution in hot alcohol deposits it partly in crystals and
partly as jelly, which after drying are alike in composition. Hlasiwetz
showed (18G6) that scoparin when melted with jjotash is resolved, like
kino or quercetin, into Phloroglucin, C''H"0^ and F rotocatechuic Acid,
2 C'R' 0\
The acid mother-liquors from which scoparin has been obtained
when concentrated and distilled with soda, yield besides ammonia a
very bitter oily liquid, Si)arteine. To obtain it pure, it requires to be
repeatedly rectified, dried by chloride of calcium, and distilled in a
current of dry carbonic acid. It is colourless, but becomes brown by
exposure to light ; it has at first an odour of aniline, but this is altered
by rectification. Sparteine has a decidedly alkaline reaction and readily
neutralizes acids, forming crystallizable salts which are extremely bitter.
Conine, nicotine, and sparteine are the only volatile alkaloids devoid
of oxygen hitherto known to exist in the vegetable kingdom.
Mills" extracted sparteine simply by acidulated water which he
concentrated and then distilled with soda. The distillate was then
saturated with hydrochloric acid, evaporated to dryness, and submitted
to distillation with potash. The oily sparteine thus obtained was dried
by prolonged heating with sodium in a current of hydrogen, and finally
rectified per se. Mills succeeded in replacing one or two equivalents of
the hydrogen of sparteine by one or two of C'H^ (ethyl). From 150 lb.
1 Phil. Trans. 1851. 422-431.
- Journ. of Chem. Sue. xv. (18G2) 1.
Gmelin's Chern. xvi. (1864) 282.
172
LEGUMINOSiE.
of the (dried?) plant, he obtained 22 cubic centimetres (f5vj.) of
sparteine, which we may estimate as equivalent to about J per mille.
Stenhouse ascertained that the amount of sparteine and scoparin
depends much on external conditions, broom grown in the shade yield-
ing less than that produced in open sunny places. He states that
shepherds are well aware of the shrub possessing narcotic properties,
from having observed their sheep to become stupified and excited when
occasionally compelled to eat it.
The experiments of Reinsch (184G) tend to show that broom con-
tains a bitter crj^stallizible principle in addition to the foregoing. The
seeds of the allied Cytisus Laburnum L. afford two highly poisonous
alkaloids, Ci/tisine and Laburnine, discovered by A. Husemann and
Marm6 in 1865.
Uses — A decoction of broom tops, made from the dried herb, is
used as a diuretic and purgative. The juice of the fresh plant, pre-
served by the addition of alcohol, is also administered and is regarded
as a very efficient preparation.
SEMEN FCENI GRi5:CI.
Semen Foenugrwci ; Fenugreek ; F. Semences tie Fenugrec ; G. Bocks-
hurnsamen.
Botanical Origin — Trigonella Fosnum grcecum L., an erect, sub-
glabrous, annual plant, 1 to 2 feet high, with solitaiy, subsessile, whitish
flowers ; indigenous to the countries surrounding the Mediterranean, in
which it has been long cultivated, and whence it appears to have spread
to India.
History — In the old Egyptian preparation Kyi^hi, an ingredient
" Sebes or Sebtu " is mentioned, which is thought by Ebers to mean
fenugreek. This plant was well known to the Roman writers on
husbandry, as Porcius Cato (B.C. 234-149) who calls it Faenum Grcecum
and directs it to be sown as fodder for oxen. It is the TjJXi? of
Dioscorides and other Greek writers. Its mucilaginous seeds, "siliquas"
of the Roman peasants, were valued as an aliment and condiment for
man, and as such are still largely consumed in the East. They were
likewise supposed to possess many medicinal virtues, and had a place in
the pharmacopoeias of the last century.
The cultivation of fenugreek in Central Europe was encouraged by
Charlemagne (A.D. 812), and the plant was grown in English gardens in
the 16th century.
Description — The fenugreek plant has a sickle-shaped pod, 3 to 4
inches long, containing 10 to 20 hard, brownish-yellow seeds, having
the smell and taste which is characteristic of peas and beans, with addi-
tion of a cumarin- or melilot-flavour.
The seeds are about ^ of an inch long, with a rhomboid outline,
often shrivelled and distorted ; they are somewhat compressed, with
the hilum on the sharper edge, and a deep furrow running from it and
almost dividing the seed into two unequal lobes. When the seed is
macerated in warm water, its structure becomes easily visible. The
SEMEN FGENI GR^CI.
173
testa bursts by the svvelliug of the internal membrane or endopleura,
which like a thick gelatinous sac encloses the cotyledons and their very
large hooked radicle.
Microscopic Structure — The most interesting structural pecu-
liarity of this seed arises from the fact that the mucilage with which it
abounds is not yielded by the cells of the epidermis, but by a loose
tissue closely surrounding the embryo.^
Chemical Composition — The cells of the testa contain tannin ;
the cotyledons a yellow colouring matter, but no sugar. The air-dried
seeds give off 10 per cent, of water at 100° C, and on subsequent
incineration leave 7 per cent, of ash, of which nearly a fourth is phos-
phoric acid.
Ether extracts from the pulverized seeds G per cent, of a foetid,
fatty oil, having a bitter taste. Amylic alcohol removes in addition a
small quantity of resin. Alcohol added to a concentrated aqueous
extract, forms a precipitate of mucilage, amounting when dried to 28
per cent. Burnt with soda-lime, the seeds yielded to Jahns ^ 3'4'
per cent, of nitrogen, equivalent to 22 per cent, of albumin. No
researches have been yet made to determine the nature of the odorous
principle.
Production and Commerce— Fenugreek is cultivated in Morocco,
in the south of France near Montpellier, in a few places in Switzerland,
in Alsace, and in some other provinces of the German and Austrian
empires, as Thuringia and Moravia. It is produced on a far larger .scale
in Egypt, where it is known by the Arabic name Ilulha, and whence
it is exported to Europe and India. In 1873 it was stated that the
profits of the European growers Avere much reduced by the seed being
largely exported from Mogador and Bombay.
Under the Sanscrit name Meth 'i, which has passed, slightly modi-
fied, into several of the modern Indian languages, fenugreek is much
grown in the plains of India during the cool season. In the year 1872-73,
the quantity of seed exported from Sind to Bombay was 13,G4G cwt.,
valued at X-ij^Oo.^ From the port of Bombay there were shipped in
the same year 9,C5.5 cwt., of which only 100 cwt. are reported as for
the United Kingdom.*
Uses — In Europe fenugreek as a medicine is obsolete, but the
powdered seeds are still often sold by chemists for veterinary pharmacy
and as au ingredient of curry powder. The chief consumption is, how-
ever, in the so-called Cattle Foods.
The fresh plant in India is commonly eaten as a green vegetable,
while the seeds are extensively used by the natives in food and
medicine.
1 Figured by Lanessan in his French
translation of the Pharmacographia, i.
(1878) 345.
- E.xperiments performed in my labora-
tory in 1867.— F. A. F.
^ Annual Statement of the Trade and
Navigation of Sind, for the year 1872-73,
printed at Karachi, 1873. p. 36.
* Annual Statement, etc., Bombay, 1873.
89.
174
LEGUMINOSiE.
TRAGACANTHA.
Gummi Tmgacantha ; Tragacanth, Gum Tragacav.th ; F. Gomme
Aclragante ; G. Traganth.
Botanical Origin. — Tragacanth is the gummy exudation from the
stem of several pieces of Astragalus, belonging to the sub-genus
Tragacantha. The plants of this group are low perennial shrubs,
remarkable for their leaves having a strong, persistent, spiny petiole.
As the leaves and shoots are very numerous and regular, many of the
species have the singular aspect of thorny hemispherical cushions, lying
close on the ground ; while others, which are those furnishing the gum,
grow erect with a naked woody stem, and somewhat resemble furze
bushes.
A few species occur in South-western Europe, others are found in
Greece and Turkey ; but the largest number are inhabitants of the
mountainous regions of Asia Minor, Syria, Armenia, Kurdistan and
Persia. The tragacanth of commerce is produced in the last-named
countries, and chiefly, though not exclusively, by the following
species^: —
1. Astragalus adscendens Boiss. et Hausskr., a shrub attaining 4 feet
in height, native, of the mountains of South-western Persia at an
altitude of 9,000 to 10,000 feet. According to Haussknecht, it affords
an abundance of gum.
2. A. leioclados Boiss.
3. A. brachycalyx Fisch., a shrub of 3 feet high, growing on the
mountains of Persian Kurdistan, likewise aflFords tragacanth.
4. A. gummifer Labill., a small shi^ub of wide distribution occurring
on the Lebanon and Mount Hermon in Sj'ria, the Beryt Dagh in
Cataonia, the Arjish Dagh (Mount Argseus) near Kaisariyeh in Central
Asia Minor, and in Armenia and Northern Kurdistan.
5. A. microcephaliisW iUd., like the preceding a widely distributed
species, extending from the south-west of Asia Minor to the north-east
coast, and to Turkish and Russian Armenia. A specimen of this plant
with incisions in the stem, was sent some years ago to the Pharmaceutical
Society by Mr. Maltass of Smyrna. We received a large example of
the same species, the stem of which is marked by old incisions,
from the Rev. W. A. Farnsworth of Kaisariyeh, who states that
tragacanth is collected from it on Mount Argpeus.
6. A. pycnocladus Boiss. et Haussk., nearly related to A. micro-
cepJialus ; it was discovered on the high mountains of Avroman and
Shahu in Persia by Professor Haussknecht, who states that it exudes
tragacanth in abundance.
7. A. stromatodes Bunge, growing at an elevation of 5,000 feet on
the Akker Dagh range, near Marash in Northern Syria.
8. A. kurdicus Boiss., a shrub 3 to 4 feet high, native of the
mountains of Cilicia and Cappadocia, extending thence to Kurdistan.
' As described in Boissier's Flora Orien- our list of species, and for some valuable
talis, ii. (1872). We have to thank Pro- information as to the localities in which the
fessor Haussknecht of Weimar for revising drug is produced.
TRAGACANTHA.
175
Haussknecht has informed us that from this and the last-named
species, the so-called Aintab Tragacantli is chiefly obtained.
Probably the drug is also to some extent collected from
9. A. tr/'U.s Olivier, in North-western Persia and Asia Minor.
Lastly as to Greece, tragacantli is also afforded by
10. ^i. Parnoasl Boiss., var. cyllenea, a small shrub found in abund-
ance on the northern mountains of the Morea, which is stated by
Heldreich^ to be the almost exclusive source of the tragacanth collected
about Vostizza and Patras.
History — Tragacanth has been known from a very early period.
Theophrastus in tlie \^v^\. century B.C. mentioned Crete, the Peloponnesus
and Media as its native counti-ies. Dioscorides, who as a native of
South-eastern Asia Minor was jirobably familiar with the plant, describes
it correctly as a low spiny bush. The drug is mentioned by the Greek
physicians Oribasius, Aetius, and Paulus JEgineta (4th to 7th cent.), and
by many of the Arabian writers on medicine. The abbi'eviated form of
its name " Dragantum " already occurs in the book " Artis veterinaria?,
seu muloniedicinse" of Vegetius Renatus, who lived about A.D. 400.
During the middle ages the gum was imported into Europe through the
trading cities of Italy, as shown in the statutes of Pisa,' A.D. 1305, where
it is mentioned as liable to impost.
Pierre Belon, the celebrated French naturalist and traveller, saw and
described, about 1550, the collecting of tragacanth in the northern part
of Asia Minor ; and Tournefort in 1700 observed on Mount Ida in
Candia the singular manner in which the gum is exuded from the
living plant.''
Secretion — It has been shown by H. von Mohl* and by Wigand' that
tragacanth is produced by metamorphosis of the cell membrane, and
that it is not simply the dried juice of the plant.
The stem of a gum-bearing Astragalus cut transversely, exhibits con-
centric annual layers which are extremely tough and fibrous,easily tearing
lengthwise into thin filaments. These inclose a central column, radi-
ating from which are numerous medullary rays, both of very singular
structui'e, for instead of presenting a thin-walled parenchyme, they
appear to the naked eye as a hard translucent gum-like mass, be-
coming gelatinous in water. Examined microscopically, this gummy
substance is seen to consist not of dried mucilage, but of the very
cells of the pith and medullary rays, in process of transformation into
tratjacanth. The transformed cells, if their transformation has not
advanced too far, exhibit the angular form and close packing of paren-
chyme-cells, but their walls are much incrassated and evidently consist
of numerous very thin strata.
That these cells are but ordinary parenchyme-cells in an altei'ed
state, is proved by the pith and medullary rays of the smaller branches
which present no such unusual structure. Mohl was able to ti"ace
this change from the period in which the original cell-membrane could
be still easily distinguished from its incrusting layers, to that in which
NtUzpflanzen Griechenlands, Atlieu, ^ Voyage Into the Levant, 'Lond.. (V1\S) A^.
1862. 71. Botanische Zeitung, 1857. 33 ; Pharm.
2 Bonaini, Statuti inediti della cilta di Journ. xviii. (1859) 370.
Fiisa dal xii. al xiv. secolo, iii. (1857) 10(5. ^ Priiigsheim's/rt/u-ftMc/ier/. wissenchaftl.
114. Botanik, iii. (ISCl) 117.
176
LEGUMINOS^.
the transformation had proceeded so far that it was impossible to
perceive any defined cells, the whole substance being metamorphosed
into a more or less uniform mucilaginous mass.
The tension under which this peculiar tissue is held in the interior
of the stem is very remarkable in Astragalus gummifer which one
of us had the opportunity of observing on the Lebanon in 1860.^
On cutting off a branch of the thickness of the finger, there immediately
exudes from the centre a stream of soft, solid tragacanth, pushing itself
out like a worm, to the length of f of an incli, sometimes in the course
of half an hour ; while much smaller streams (or none at all) are
emitted from the medullary rays of the thick bark.
Production — The principal localities in Asia Minor in which
tragacanth is collected are the district of Angora, the capital of the
ancient Galatia ; Isbarta, Buldur and Yalavatz,^ north of the gulf of
Adalia ; the range of the Ali Dagh between Tarsous and Kaisariyeh, and
the mountainous country eastward as far as the valley of the Euphrates.
The drug is also gathered in Armenia on the elevated range of the
Bingol I)agh south of Erzerum ; throughout Kurdistan from Mush
for 500 miles in a south-eastern direction as far as the province of
Luristan in Persia, a region including the high lands south of lake
Van, and west of lake Urumiah. It is likewise produced in Persia
farther east, over an area 300 miles long by 100 to 150 miles broad,
between Gilpaigon and Kashan, southward to the Mahomed Senna
range north-east of Shiraz, thus including the lofty Bakhtiyari moun-
tains.
As to the way in which the gum is obtained, it appears from the
statements of Maltass, tliat in J uly and August the peasants clear away
the earth from around the stem of the shrub, and then make in the
bark several incisions, from which during the following 3 or 4 days the
gum exudes and dries in flakes. In some localities they also puncture
the bark with the point of a knife. Whilst engaged in these operations,
they pick from the shrubs whatever gum they find exuded naturally.
Hamilton,^ who saw the shrub in 1836 on the hills about Buldur,
says " the gum is obtained by making an incision in the stem near the
root, and cutting through the pith, when the sap exudes in a day or two
and hardens."
Formerly the peasants were content to collect the naturally exuded
gum, no pains being taken to make incisions, whereby alone white flaky
gum is obtained. We have in fact heard an old druggist state, that he
remembered the first appearance of this fine kind of tragacanth in the
London market. According to Professor Haussknecht, whose observations
relate chiefly to Kurdistan and Persia, the tragacanth collected in these
regions is mostly a spontaneous exudation.
Tragacanth is brought to Smyrna, which is a principal market for it,
from the interior, in bags containing about 2 quintals each, by native
dealers who purchase it of the peasants. In this state it is a very
crude article, consisting of all the gatherings mixed together. To fit it
for the European markets, some of which have their special require-
ments, it has to be sorted into diflTerent qualities, as Flahj or Leaf Gum,
^ ITarbnry, Science Papers, 2P.
- Pharm. Jovrn. xv. (1856) 18.
^ Researches in Asia Minor, Pontvs and
Armenia, i. (1842) 492.
TRAGACANTHA.
177
Vermicelli and Common or Sorts; this sorting is performed almost
ixclusively by Spanish Jews.
Description — The peculiar conditions lander which tragacanth
'xudes, arising from the pressure of the surrounding tissues and the
)Ower of solidifying a large amount of water, will account to some
xtent for the strange forms in which this exudation occurs.
The spontaneously exuded gum is mostly in mammiform or
lotryoidal masses from the size of a pea upAvards, of a dull waxy lustre,
-nd brownish or yellowish hue. It also occurs in vermiform pieces
iiore or less contorted and very variable in thickness ; some of them
nay have exuded as the result of artificial punctures. It is this form
hat bears the trade name of Vermicelli. The most valued sort is
lowever the Flal-e Traijaca ntli, which consists of thin fiattish ])ieces or
lakes, 1, 2, 3 or more inches in lengtli, hy ^ to 1 in width. ^ They
re marked on the surface by wavy lines and bands, or by a sei'ies of
oncentric "wave-marks, as if the soft gum had been forced out by
uccessive efforts. The pieces are contorted and altogether very variable
n form and size. The gum is valued in proportion to its purity and
v'hiteness. The best, whether vermiform or flaky, is dull-white,
rauslucent, devoid of lustre, somewhat flexible and horny, firm, and
lot easily broken, inodorous and with scarcely any or only a slight
litterish taste.
The tragacanth of Kurdistan and Persia shipped from Bagdad, which
ometimes appears in the London drug sales under the incorrect name
f Sijrtaii T ragacivnth, is in very fine and large pieces which are rather
lore ti-auslucent and ribbon-like than the selected tragacanth imported
I'om Smyrna : in fact, the two varieties when seen in bulk are easily
istinguisliable.
The inferior kinds of tragacanth have more or less of colour, and
re contaminated with bai-k, earth and other foreign substances. The}''
sed formerly to be much imported into Europe, and were frequently
mentioned during the past centuries as hlach tra<jacantli.
Microscopic Structure — The transformation of the cells into
ragacanth is usually not so complete, that every trace of the original
issue or its contents has disappeared. In the ordinary drug, the remains
f cell-walls as well as starch gi-auules may be seen, especially if thin
lices are examined under oil or any other liquid not acting on the gum.
'oUirized light will then distinct iy show the starch and the cell- walls,
f a thin section is imbued with a solution of iodine in iodide of
lotassium and then moistened with concentrated sulphuric acid, the
ell-walls will assume a blue colour as well as the starch.
Chemical Composition — When tragacanth is immersed in water
^ In the Museum of the Pharmaceutical
ociety in London, there is some Flake Tn,-
acanth I'eniarkable for its enormous size,
ut in other respects precisely like the ordi-
ary kind. The ribbon-like strips are as
uich as 2 inches wide and of an inch
lick, and the largest which is several inches
)ng weighs '2f ounces. Professor Hauss-
necht has informed us that he has seen in
.uristan stems of Astrcvjalus eriosti/hts
loiss. et liaussk. more than 6 feet in height
and 5 inches in diameter, and bearing tra-
gacanth. It is probable that the specimen
of gum we have described was produced by
some species attaining these extraordinary
dimensions. Among the Kurdistan traga-
canth, there occur curious cylindrical ver-
miform pieces, about^of an inch in diameter,
coated with a net-work of woody fibre. We
are told by Professor H. that they are
picked out of the centre of cut-off pieces of
stem, split open by rapid drying in the sun.
178
LEGUMINOS^.
it swells, and in the course of some hours disintegrates so that it can be
diffused through the liquid. So great is its power of absorbing water
that even with 50 times its weight, it forms a thick mucilage. If one
part of tragacanth is shaken with 100 parts of water and the liquid
filtered, a neutral solution may be obtained which yields an abundant
pi'ecipitate with acetate of lead, and mixes clearly Avith a concentrated
solution of ferric chloride or of borax, — in these respects differing from
a solution of gum arable. On the other hand, it agrees with the latter
in that it is thrown down as a transparent jelly by alcohol, and rendered
turbid by oxalate of ammonium. The residue on the filter is a slightly
turbid, slimy, non-adhesive mucilage, which when dried forms a very
coherent mass. It has received the name of Bassoriv, Traganthin or
Adraganthin, and agrees with the formula C^^H'-^O^".
Tragacanth is readily soluble in alkaline liquids, even in ammonia
water and at the same time assumes a yellow colour; heated with
ammonia in a sealed tube at 90° C. it blackens.
The drug loses by drying about 14 per cent, of water, which it
absorbs again on exposure to the air. Pure flake tragacanth incinerated
leaves 3 per cent, of ash.
Commerce — Tragacanth is shipped from Constantinople, Smyrna
and the Persian Gulf The annual export of the gum from Smyrna has
been recently stated' to be 4,500 quintals, value G75,000 Austrian
florins (£07,500) ; and the demand to be always increasing.
Uses — Though tragacanth is devoid of active properties, it is a very
useful addition to many medicines. Diffused in water it acts as a
demulcent, and is also convenient for the suspension of a heavy powder
in a mixture. It is an important ingredient for imparting firmness to
lozenges and pill masses.
Adulteration — The fine quantities consisting of large distinct pieces
are not liable to adulteration, but the small and the inferior kinds are
often sophisticated. At Smyrna, tragacanth is mixed with gums termed
respectively Mosul and Caramania Gum. The former appears to be
simply very inferior tragacanth ; the latter which is sometimes called in
the London market Hog Gum Tragacanth or Bassora Gum,^ is said to
be the exudation of almond and plum trees. It occurs in nodular
masses of a waxy lustre and dull brown hue, which immersed in water
gradually swells into a voluminous white mass. To render this gum
available for adulteration, the lumps are broken into small angular
fragments, the size of which is adjusted to the sort of tragacanth with
which they are to be mixed. As the Caramania Gum is somewhat
dark, it is usual to whiten it by white lead, previous to mixing it with
Small Leaf or Flake, or with the Vermicelli gum.
By careful examination the fraud is easily detected, angular
fragments not being proper to any true tragacanth. The presence of
lead may be readily proved by shaking suspected fragments for a
moment with dilute nitric acid, which will dissolve auy carbonate
present, and afford a solution which may be tested by the ordinary
reagents.
^ C. von Scherzer, Smyrna, Wien, 1873.
143.
- It is sometimes sliipjied from Bassorah.
RADIX GLYCYRRHIZ^.
179
RADIX GLYCYRRHIZ^.
Radix Liquirltkt} ; Liquorice Root; F. Reglisse ; G. Silssholz,
Lakriztvurzel.
Botanical Origin — GlycyrrMza glabra L., a plant which under
several well marked varieties ' is found over an immense extent of the
wanner regions of Europe, spreading thence eastward into Central Asia.
The root used in medicine is derived from two principal varieties,
namely : —
a. fjipica — Nearly glabrous, leaves glutinous beneath, divisions of
the calyx linear-lanceolate often a little longer than the tube, corolla
|)ur])li.sli blue, legume glabrous, 3-G seeded. It is indigenous to Portugal,
Spain, Southern Italy, Sicily, Greece, Crimea, the Caucasian Provinces and
Northern Persia ; and is cultivated in England, France and Germany.
y. glandvlifcra {G. glandulifera W.K.) — Stems more or less pubes-
cent or roughly glandular, leaves often glandular beneath, legume
sparsely or densely echiuate-glandular, many-seeded, or short and
2-3 seeded. It occurs in Hungary, Galicia, Central and Southern
Russia, Crimea, Asia Minoi-, Armenia, Siberia, Persia, Turkestan and
Afghanistan.
G. ghdjni L. has long, stout, perennial roots, and erect, herbaceous
annual stems. In var. a., the plant throws out long stolons which run
horizontally at some distance below the surface of the ground.
History — Theophrastus " in commenting on the taste of different
roots (3rd cent. B.C.) instances the sweet Scythian root which grows in
the neighbourhood of the lake Mreotis (Sea of Azov), and is good for
asthma, dry cough and all pectoral diseases,— an allusion unquestion-
ably to liquorice. Dioscorides,^ who calls the plant yXvKippi^ri, notices
its glutinous leaves and purplish flowers, but as he describes the pods
to be in balls resembling those of the plane, and the roots to be sub-
austere {vtt6(7tpv({)vol) as well as sweet, it is possible he had in view
Glycgrvliiza echinata L. as well as G. glabra.
Roman writers, as Celsus and Scribonius Largus, mention liquorice
as Radix dulcis. Pliny, who describes it as a native of Cilicia and
Pontus, makes no allusion to it growing in Italy.
The cultivation of liquorice in Europe does not date from a very
remote period, as we conclude from the absence of the name in early
raediiBval lists of plants. It is, for instance, not envnnerated among the
])lants which Charlemagne ordered (a.d. 812) to be introduced from
Italy into Central Europe ; ■* nor among the herbs of the convent gardens
as desciibed by Walafridus Strabus,^ abbot of Reichenau, lake of Con-
stance, in the 9th century ; nor yet in the copious list of herbs con-
tained in tlie vocabulary of Alfric, archbishop of Canterbury in the
10th century.''
On the other hand, liquorice is described as being cultivated in Italy
^ We accept those adopted by Boissier iu
his Flora Oriental^, ii. (1872) 202.
2 Hist. Plant, lib. ix. c. 13.
^ Lib. iii. c. 5.
" Pertz, Moiumienia German'ue historka,
Legum, i. (1835) 186.
Migne, Patrologke Cursus, cxiv. 1122.
" Wright, Vohnne of Vocabularies, 1857.
30. This work coutains several other early
lists of plants.
180
LEGUMINOS^.
by Piero de' Crescenzi ^ of Bologna, who lived in the 13th centuiy. The
cultivation of the plant in the north of England existed at the close
of the 16th century, but how much earlier we have not been able
to trace.
As a medicine the drug was well known in Germany in the 11th
century, and an extensive cultivation of the plant was carried on near
Bamberg, Bavaria, in the IGth century, so that in many of the numerous
pharmaceutical tariffs of those times in CJermany not only Glycyrrhizpe
succus creticus, seu candiacus, sen venetus is quoted, but also expressly
that of Bamberg.'^
The word Liquiritia, whence is derived the English name Liquorice
{I/tjcorys in the 13th century), is a corruption of Glycyrrhiza, as shown
in the transitional mediceval form Gliqmricia. The Italian Regolizia,
the German Lacrisse or Lakriz, the Welsh Lacris,^ and the French
Reglisse (anciently Requelice or Recolice) have the same origin.
Cultivation, and habit of growth — The liquorice plant is culti-
vated in England at Mitcham and in Yorkshire, but not on a very
extensive scale. The plants, which require a good deep soil, well
enriched by manure, are set in rows, attain a height of 4 to 5 feet and
produce flowers but not seeds. The root is dug up at the beginning of
winter, when the plant is at least 3 or 4 years old. The latter has then
a crown dividing into several aerial stems. Below the crown is a prin-
cipal root about 6 inches in length, which divides into several (3 to 5)
rather straight roots, running without much branching- thousch beset
with slender wiry rootlets, to a depth of 3, 4 or more feet.* Besides
these downward-running roots, the principal roots emit horizontal
runners or stolons, which grow at some distance below the surface and
attain a length of many feet. These runners are furnished with leaf
buds and throw up stems in their second year.
Every portion of the subterraneous part of the plant is carefully
saved; the roots proper are washed, trimmed, and assorted, and either
sold fresh in their entire state, or cut into short lengths and dried, the
cortical layer being sometimes first scraped off. The older runners dis-
tinguished at Mitcham as "hard" are sorted out and sold separately;
the young, called " soft," are reserved for propagation.
In Calabria, the singular practice prevails of growing the liquorice
among the wheat in the cornfields.
Description — Fresh liquorice (English) Avhen washed is externally
of a bright yellowish brown. It is very flexible, easily cut with a
knife, exhibiting a light yellow, juicy, internal substance which con-
sists of a thick bark surrounding a woody column. Both bark and
wood are extremely tough, readily tearing into long, fibrous strips.
The root has a peculiar earthy odour, and a strong and characteristic
sweet taste.
' Lihro delta A<jrkolliira, Veuet. 1511.
lib. vi. 0. 62.
-' Gesner, Valer'ii Cordi Hist, stirp. Argen-
torati, 1561. 164. — Fliickiger, Documente
ziir Oeschic/ile dcr Pharmacie, Halle, 187(>.
o".). 46.
a In the "Me(l(lygonMy(ldvai"of tlielSth
century, Llandovery, ISGl, p. 159. 355 (it
is written there Licras).
•* Thi.s form of root, which reminds one of
a whijj with three or four lashes and a very
short handle, is probably due to tlie
method of propagating adopted at Mitcham,
where a short stick or runner is planted
upright in the ground.
RADIX GLYCYRRHIZiE.
181
Dried liquorice root is supplied iu commerce either with or without
jlie thin brown coat. In the latter state it is known as 'peeled or
lecortkated. The English root, of which the supply is very limited, is
isually offered cut into pieces 3 or 4 inches long, and of the thickness
jf the little finger.
tSjKinish Liquorice Root, also known as Tortosa or Alicante
Liquorice, is imported in bundles several feet in length, consisting of
straight unpeeled roots and runners, varying in thickness from ^ to 1
inch. The root is tolerably smooth or somewhat transversely cracked
md longitudinally wrinkled ; that from Tortosa is usually of a good
external appearance, that from Alicante sometimes untrimmed, dirty, of
very unequal size, showing frequently the knobby crowns of the root.
Alicante liquorice root is sometimes shipped in bags or loose.
Russian Liquorice Root, which is much used in England, is we pre-
sume derived from G. glabra \&v.(]lavdtdifera. It is imported from Ham-
burg in large bales, and is met with both peeled and unpeeled. The
[ueces are \'l to 18 inches long, with a diameter of ] of an inch to 1 or
even 2 inches. Sometimes very old roots, split down the centre and
forming channelled pieces as much as 3^ inches wide at the crown
end, are to be met with. This liquorice in addition to being sweet has
a certain amount of bitterness.
Microscopic Structure — The root exhibits well-marked struc-
tural peculiarities. The coi'ky layer is made up of the usual tabular
cells ; the primary cortical tissue of a few rows of cells. Tlie chief
portion of the bark consists of liber or endophlceum, and is built up for
the most part of parenchymatous tissue accompanied by elongated
fibres of two kinds, partly united into true liber-bundles and partly
forming a kind of network, the smaller threads of which deviate consi-
derably from the straight line. Solution of iodine imparts an orange
hue to both kinds of bast-bundles, and well displays the structural
features of the bark.
The woody column of the root exhibits three distinct forms of cell,
namely ligneous cells (libriform) with oblique ends ; parenchymatous,
almost cubic cells ; and large pitted vessels. In the Russian root, the
size of all the cells is much more considerable than in the Spanish.
Chemical Composition — The root of liquorice contains, in addition
to sugar and albuminous matter, a peculiar sweet substance named
Ghjcyrrldzin, which is precipitated from a strong decoction upon addi-
tion of an acid or solution of cream of tartar, or neutral or basic
acetate of lead. When washed with dilute alcohol and dried, it is an
amorphous yellow powdei', having a strong bitter-sweet taste and an
acid I'eactiou. It forms with hot water a solution which gelatinizes on
cooling, does not reduce alkaline tartrate of copper, is not fermentable,
and does not rotate the plane of polarization. From the analysis and
experiments of Rosch, performed in the laboratory of Gorup-Besanez at
Erlangen, in 1876, the formula C^^H^^O^ was derived for glycyrrhizin.
By boiling it with dilute hydrochloric or sulphuric acid it is resolved
into a resinous amoi'phous bitter substance named Glycyrretin, and an
uncrystallizable sugar having the characters of glucose. The formula
of glycyrretin has not yet been settled. Weselsky and Benedikt, in
1876, showed that 65 per cent, of it may be obtained from glycyrrhizin.
182
LEGUMINOS^.
By melting glycyrretin with about 5 parts of caustic potash paiaoxy-
benzoic acid is produced.
Alkalis easily dissolve glycyrrhiziu with a brown colour and emis-
sion of a peculiar odour. In the root it perhaps exists combined with
ammonia, inasmuch as the aqueous extract evolves that alkali when
warmed with potash (Roussin, 1875). According to Sestini (1878)
glycyrrhizin is present in the root combined with calcium ; he obtained
6"3 per cent, of glycyrrhizin from the root previously dried at 110°.
By exhausting glycyrrhizin with glacial acetic acid Habermann in
1876 succeeded in isolating almost colourless crystals having the sweet
taste of the root. They yield, by boiling them with dilute acids, a yellow
substance which would appear to agree with glycyrretin. The deep
yellow walls of the vessels and prosenchymatous cells appear to be the
chief seat of the glycyrrhizin.
The sugar of liquorice root has not yet been isolated; the aqueous
infusion of the dried root separates protoxide of copper from an alkaline
solution of cupric tartrate. Yet the sugar as extracted from the fresh
root by cold water does not precipitate alkaline cupric tartrate at all in
the cold, and not abundantly even on prolonged boiling.
Asparagin was obtained from the root by Robiquet (1809) and by
Plisson (1827). Sestini (1878) isolated 2-4 parts of asparagin from 100
parts of the root dried at 110° C. Robiquet also found the root to
contain malic acid. The presence of starch in abundance is shown by
the microscope as well as by testing a decoction of the root with iodine.
The outer bark of the root contains a small quantity of taimin.
Commerce — Liquorice root is imported into Great Britain from
Germany, Russia and Spain, but there are no data for showing to what
extent. France imported in 1872 no less than 4,348,789 kilogrammes
(4282 tons), which was more than double the quantity imported the
previous year/
Liquorice root is much used in China, and is largely produced in
some of the northern provinces. In 1870, 1,304 peculs were shipped
from Ningpo,^ and 7,147 peculs in 1877 from Cheefu (one pecul =
133-33 lb. avdp.).
Uses. — Liquorice root is employed for making extract of liquorice
and in some other pharmaceutical preparations. The powdered root is
used to impart stiffness to pill masses and to prevent the adhesion of
pills. Liquorice has a remarkable power of covering the flavour of
nauseous medicines. As a domestic medicine, liquorice root is far more
largely used on the Continent than in Great Britain.
' Documents statistiques riunis par I'ad- 2 Reports on Trade at the Treaty Porta in
ministration des Douanes sur le commerce de C/i»ia/o7- 1870, Shanghai, 1871. 13. 62.
la France, ann^e 1872, Paris, 1873.
SUCCUS GLYCYRRHIZ^.
183
SUCCUS GLYCYRRHIZ^.
^uccus Liqiiiritice, Extractum Glycyrrhizce Italicmn ; Italian Extract
of Liquorice, Spanish Liquorice, Sj)anish Juice; F. Jus mo Suede
Be'tjUsse ; G. SiissJiolzsaft, Lakriz.
Botanical Origin— -Glycyrrhiza glabra L., see preceding article^
). 179.
History — Inspissated liquorice juice was known in the time of
Dioscorides, and may be traced in the writings of Oribasius and
\Iarcenus Empiricus in the latter half of the 4th century, and in those
)f Paiilus ^gineta in the 7th. It appears to have been in common use
II Europe during the middle ages. In A.D. 1264, "Liquorice" is charged
u the Wardrobe Accounts of Henry III.;^ and as the article cost 3cl.
ler lb., or the same price as grains of paradise and one-third that of
jinnamon, we are warranted in supposing the extract and not the mere
wot is intended. Again, in the Patent of Pontage granted by Edward
[., A.D. 130-5, to aid in repairing the London Bridge, ]:)ermission is given to
ay toll on various foreign commodities including Liquorice." A ]:)olitical
song written in 1430^ makes mention of Liquorice as a production of
Spain, but the i)lant is not named as an object of cultivation by Herrera,
:he author of a work on Spanish agricultui'c in 1513.
Saladinus,^ who wrote about the middle of the 15th centurj^, names
.t among the wares kept by the Italian apothecaries ; and it is enumer-
xtcd in a list of drugs of the city of Frankfort written about the year
1450.'
Dorsten," in the first half of the IGth century, mentions the
liquorice plant as abundant in many parts of Italy, and describes the
method of making the Succus by crushing and boiling the fresh root.
Mattioli" states that the juice made into pastilli was brought every year
from Apulia, and especially from the neighbourhood of Monte Gargano.
Extract of liquorice w-as made at Bamberg in Germany, where the plant
is still largely cultivated, as early as 1560.^
Manufacture — This is conducted on a large scale in Spain, Southern
France, Sicily, Calabria, Austria, Southern Russia (Astracan and Kasan),
Greece (Patras) and Asia Minor (Sokia and Nazli, near Smyrna); but
the extract with which England is supplied is almost exclusively the
produce of Calabria, Sicily and Spain.
The process of manufacture varies only by reason of the amount of
intelligence with which it is performed, and the greater or less perfec-
tion of the aj^paratus employed. As witnessed by one of us (H.) at
Rossano in Calabria in May, 1872, it may be thus described from notes
made at the time. The factory employs about 60 persons, male and
female. The root having been taken from the ground the previous
^ Rogers, Hist, of Agriculture and Prices,
ii. (1806) 543.
^ Chronicles of London Bridge, 1827. 155.
^ Wright, Political Poems and Sonijs
(Master of the Rolls series), ii. (1861) 160.
* Compendium Aromatariorum, Bonou.
1488.
Fliickiger. Die Frank/ urter £{$16,110,116,
1873, page 10, No. 204.
" Botanicon, Fraiicof. 1540. 175.
Comm. in lib. Z)«o.?c , Basil. 1574. 485.
^ Qr&sii&T, Horti Germanici, Argent. 1561.
257, b.
184
LEGUMINOS^.
winter, is stacked in the _yai'cl around tlie factory ; it is mostly of the
thickness of the fingers, with here and there a piece of larger size up to a
diameter of nearly 2 inches ; some of it sprouting.
As required, the root is taken within the building and crushed under
a heavy millstone to a pulp, water-power being employed. It is then
transferred to boilers and boiled with water over a naked fire. The
decoction is run off' and the residual root pressed in circular bags like
those used in the olive-mills. The liquor which is received into cisterns
below the floor is then pumped up into copper pans, in which the
evaporation is conducted also over the naked fire — even to the very
last, care being taken by constant stirring to avoid burning the extract.
The extract or jxista is removed from the pan while warm, and taken
in small quantities to an adjoining apartment where a number of women
are employed in rolling it into sticks. It is first weighed into portions,
each of which the woman seated at the end of a long table tears with
her hand into about a dozen pieces. These ai"e passed to the women
sitting next who roll them with their hands into cylindrical sticks, the
table on which the rolling is done being of wood, and the pasta moistened
with oil to prevent its adhesion to the hands. Near the further end of
the table are some frames made of marble or metal, clean and bright, so
arranged as to bring the sticks when rolled in them to the proper
length and thickness. When thus adjusted, they are carefully ranged
on a board, and a woman then stamps them with the name of the
manufacturer. Lastly the sticks laid on boards are stacked up in a
room to dry.
In some establishments the vacuum pan has been introduced for the
inspissation of the decoction. At the great manufactory of Mr. A. 0.
Clarke at Sokia near Smyrna, all the processes are performed by steam
power.
Description — Liquorice juice of good quality is met with in
cylindrical sticks stamped at one end with the maker's name or mark.
They are of various sizes, but generally not larger than 6 to 7 inches
long by about an inch in diameter. They are black, when new or warm
slightly flexible, but breaking when struck, and then displaying a sharp-
edged fracture, and shining conchoidal surface on which a few air-
bubbles are perceptible ; thin splinters are translucent. The extract
has a special odour and dissolves in the mouth with a peculiar strong
sweet taste. By complete drying, it loses from 11 to 17 per cent of
water.
Several varieties of Stick Liquorice are met with in English com-
merce, and command widely different prices. The most famous is the
Solazzi Juice, manufactured at Corigliano, a small town of Calabria in
the gulf of Taranto, at an establishment belonging to the sons of Don
Onorato Gaetani, duke of Laurenzano and prince of Piedimonte d'Alife,
who inherited the manufacture from his father-in-law, the Cavaliere
Domenico Solazzi Castriota. The Solazzi Juice destined for
the English market is usually shipped at Naples; it has for many years
been wholly consigned to two firms in London, and in quantity not
always equal to the demand. Of the other varieties we may mention
Barracco, manufactured at the establishment of Messieurs Barracco at
Cotrone on the eastern coast of Calabria ; Corigliano, pi'oduced at a
SUCCU8 GLYCYRRHIZyE.
185
factory at Corigliano, belonging to Baron Conipagna. The sticks
?taniped PignateUi are from the works of Vincenzo Pignatelli, prince
Df Strongoli, at Torre Cerchiora, where 300 to 400 workmen are
3mployed.
The juice is also imported in a block form, having while warm and
5oft been allov/ed to run into the wooden case in which it is exported.
This juice, which is known as Liquorice Fade, is largely imported from
Spain and Asia Minor, but on account of a certain bitterness is unsuited
for use as a sweetmeat.
Chemical Composition — Hard extract of liquorice, such as that
just described, is essentially different in composition and properties from
the Extract of Liquorice {Extmduni Glycyrrliizai) of the British
Pharmacopoeia} The latter is a soft, hygroscopic substance, entirely
soluble in cold Avater, whereas the so-called S'panish Juice when treated
svitli cold water leaves a large residue undissolved.
It has been sometimes supposed that the pi'esence of this residue
indicates adulteration, but such is far fronr being the fact, as was
conclusively shown by the researches of a French Commission appointed
bo investigate the process recommended by Delondre.' This comuiission
subjected liquorice root to the successive action of cold M^ater, boiling
water, and lastly of steam. By the first menstruum 1.5 per cent., and
by the second an additional 7i per cent., wei'e obtained of a hygroscopic
extract much more soluble than commercial liquorice, and totally
unsuitable for being moulded into sticks. The I'esidue having been
then exhausted by steam, IG per cent, was obtained of an extract differ-
ing entirely from those of the previous operations. It was a dry friable
substance, cracking and falling to pieces in the drying stove, having a
sweet taste without acridity, not readily dissolving in the mouth, and
very imperfectly soluble in cold water. This then was the substance
required to give firmness to the more soluble matter, and to i^ender
possible the preparation of an extract possessing that degree of solubility
and hardness which would render it an agreeable sweetmeat, as well as
•I permanent and stable commodity. In fact, by treating the root at
Dnce with steam according to Delondre's process, the experimenters ob-
tained 42 to 45 per cent, of extract having all the qualities desired in
good Italian or Spanish Juice.
When the latter substance is suspended in water undisturbed, the
soluble matter may be dissolved out, the stick still retaining its
original form. Glycyrrhizin, which is but slightly soluble in cold water,
remains to some extent in the residue, imd by an alkaline solution may
be afterwards extracted together with colouring matter and probably
ilso pectin. The proportion of soluble matter which the best varieties
of liquorice juice yield to cold water varies from about 60 to 70 per
3ent. A sample of Solazzi Juice recently examined by one of us, lost
S'4 per cent, when dried at 100° C. ; it was then exhausted by 60 times
its weight of cold water used in successive quantities, by which means
S6"8 per cent, of soluble matter were removed. The residue consisted
□f minute starch granules, fragments of the root, and colouring matter
^ Made by treating the crushed root with abstract by Redwood in Pharm. Juurn.
:old water. xvi. (1857) -103.
"Joimi. de Pharm. xxx. (1856) 428 ; aii
18(J
LE(JUMINOS^.
partially soluble in ammonia. Small shreds of copper were also visible
to the naked eye. The dried juice yielded 6"3 per cent, of ash.
Corigliano liquorice treated in the same manner gave 71 '2 per cent,
of extract soluble in cold water ; Barracco liquorice 64'9.
The small liquorice lozenges known as Fontefract Cakes (Dunhill's),
not previously dried, gave 71 per cent, of matter soluble in cold water.
Commerce — The value of the imports of Liquorice into the United
Kingdom has been for the last five 3'ears as follows : —
1868 1869 1870 1871 1872
£89,482 £83,832 £70,1C5 £55,120 £75,991
The last-named sum represents a quantity of 28,000 cwt., of wliich
11,170 cwt, were furnished b}^ Italy, and the remainder by Turkey,
France, Spain and other countries.
The total exports of Liquorice Paste from Smyrna were estimated
in 1872 as 1,200 to 1,400 tons (24,000 to 28,000 cwt.) per annum.
Uses — Stick liquorice is sucked as a remedy for coughs, and by
children as a sweetmeat. It is also used in lozenges, and in some
pharmacopoeias is admitted as the raw material from which to prepare
soft extract of liquorice.
The block liquorice, of wliich a large quantity is imported, is chiefly
used in the manufacture of tobacco for smoking and chewing.
OLEUM ARACHIS.
Ground-nut oil, Eartli-nut oil, Pea-md oil, Arachis oil; F. Hv.ile
d'Arachide ou de Pistache de terre ; G. Erdnussol.
Botanical Origin — Aracltishypogcea L., a diffuse herbaceous annual
plant, having stems a foot or two long, and solitary axillary flowers with
an extremely long filiform calyx-tube. After the flower withers, the
torus supporting the ovary becomes elongated as a rigid stalk, which
bends down to the ground and forces into it the young pod, which
matures its seeds some inches below the surface. The ripe pod is oblong,
cylindrical, about an inch in length, indehiscent, reticulated, and contains
one or two, or exceptionally even four irregularly ovoid seeds.
The plant is cultivated for the sake of its nutritious oily seeds in all
tropical and subtropical countries, but especially on the west coast of
Africa. It is unknown in the wild state. De Candolle^ regards it as a
native of Brazil, to which region the other species of the genus
exclusively belong. But the opinion of one of us^ is strongly in favour
of the plant being indigenous to Tropical Africa, and so is that also of
Schweinfurth. Arachis is one of the most universally cultivated plants
throughout Tropical Africa, from Senegambia to lake Tanganyika. In
Europe it has not proved remunerative.
History — The first writer to notice Ground Nut appears to be
Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, who lived in Hayti from A.D. 1513 to
1525; he mentions in his Cronica de las Indias^ that the Indians culti-
^ Giograpliie Botanique, \\. (1855) 963. ^ Lib. vii. cap. 5. Fol. 1074 f. (1547), as
-Fluckiger, Ueher die Erdnuss — Archiv quoted by C. Ph. von Martius in Gelchrtc
der Pharmacie, 190. (18G9) 70-84, with Anzd<jm der baijerischen Akademie, 1839.
figure. 9C9.
OLEUM ARACHIS.
187
v'ated very much the fruit Mani, a name still used for Arachis in Cuba
and in South America. A little later, Monardes/ described a nameless
subterraneous fruit, found about the river Maranon and held in great
esteem by both Indians and Spaniards. But before, the French colonists sent
in 1555 by Admiral Coligny to the Brazilian coast had become acquainted
with the " ]\Iandobi," which Jean de Lery^ described quite unmistakably.
Good accounts and figures of it were given in the folloAving century by
Johannes de Laet (1625),^ and by Marcgraf,* who calls it by its Bi-azilian
name Mundnhi. It is enumerated by Stisser among the rare plants
cultivated by him at Helmstedt (Brunswick), about the year 1697.^^
It is only in very recent times that the value of the Ground Nut
lias been recognized in Europe. Jaubert, a French colonist at Goree near
Cape Verde, first suggested about 1840 its importation as an oil-seed
into Marseilles, where it now constitutes one of the most important
irticles of trade."
Description — The fat oil of J, rac/w"s,as obtained by pressure without
heat, is almost colouidess, of an agi'eeable faint odour and a bland taste
resembling that of olive oil. An inferior oil is obtained by warming
the seeds before pressing them. The best oil has a sp. gr. of about
0'918 ; it becomes turbid at 3° C, concretes at — 3° to — 4°, and hardens
at ■ — 7°. On exposure to air it is but slowly altered, being one of the
Qon-drying oils. At length it thickens considerably, and assumes even
in closed vessels a disagreeable rancid smell and taste.
Chemical Composition — The oil consists of the glycerides of four
different fatty acids. The common Oleic Add, C^^H'^0"-^, that is to say
its glycerin compound, is the chief constituent of Arachis oil. Hypogceic
Acid, C^^'H^^O", has been pointed out by Gossmann and Scheven (1854)
as a new acid, whereas it is thought by other chemists to agree with
one of the fatty acids obtained from whale oil. The melting point of
this acid from Arachis oil is 84-35° C. The third acid afforded by the
oil is ordinary Palmitic Acid, C^''H^"0^ with a fusing point of 62° C.
Arachic Acid, C-^H^^O-, the fourth constituent, has also been met with
among the fatty acids of butter and olive oil, and, according to Oudemans
(18G6), in the tallow of Hejjheliuni lappaceiim L., an Indian plant of
the order Supindacece.
When ground-nut oil is treated with hyponitric acid, which may be
most conveniently evolved by heating nitric acid with a little starch, a
solid mass is obtained, which yields by crystallization from alcohol
Elaidic and Gwidinic acids, the former isomeric with oleic, the latter
with hypogfeic acid.
Production and Commerce — The pods are exported on an immense
and ever increasing scale from the West Coast of Africa. From this
region, not less than 66 millions of kilogrammes, value 26 millions of
francs (£1,040,000), were imported in 1867, almost exclusively into
^ Las Cosas que se traen de nuestras Imlias
Occidentales, Sevilla, 1569, part 2.
- Bistoire d'un voyage faict en la Terrc du
Bresil, autrement dite Amirique, 1586. 204
(first edition La, Hochelle, 1578).
^ Histoiredu Nouveau Monde, Leyde, 1 6-10.
503.
^ Hist. Renim Nat. Brasil. 16-48. 37.
= Botanka euriosa, Helmst. 1697. 38.
" Duval, Colonies et politique coloniale de
la France, 1864. 101 .— Mavidal, Le Sdnegal,
son etat prdsent, son avenir, Paris, 1863.171,
— Uarr^re et HoUe, La Sen&jambie Fran-
{•aise, 1855. 84. — Poiteau, iu Annales des
iScienccs nat., Botanique, xix. (1853) 268.
188
LEGUMINOS^.
Marseilles. From the French possessions on the Senegal, 24 millions of
kilogr. were exported in 1S7G.
The oil is exported from India where the ground-nut is also cultivated,
though not on so large a .scale as in Western Africa. In Europe it is
manufactured chiefly at Marseilles, London, Hamburg and Berlin. The
yield of the seeds varies from 42 to nearly 50 per cent. The softness
of the seeds greatly facilitates their exhaustion, whether by mechanical
power or by the action of bisulphide of carbon or other solvent.
Uses— Good arachis oil may be employed in pharmacy in the same
way as olive oil, for which it is a valuable substitute, though more
prone to rancidity. It has been introduced into the Pluinnacopoeia of
India, and is generally used instead of olive oil in the Indian Govern-
ment establishments. Its largest application is for industrial purposes,
especially in soap-making.
RADIX ABRI.
Indian Liquorice ; F. Liane d re'y/isse, Reglisse d'Amdriqiie.
Botanical Origin — Ahrus precatorlus L., a twining woody shrub^
indigenous to India, but now found in all tropical countries.
History — The plant is mentioned in the Sanskrit medical writings
of Svisruta, whence we may infer that it has long been employed in
India. Its resemblance to liquorice was remarked by Sloane (1700), who
called it Pha.seolus (jlycyrrhites. As a .substitute for lic^uorice, the root has
been often employed by residents in the tropical countries of both
hemispheres. It was introduced into the Bevgal Pharmacopoeia of 1844,
and into the Pharmacop)oeia of India of 1868.
The seeds, of the size of a small pea, well known for their polish and
beautiful black and red colours, have given their name of Petti to a
weight {= 2y\- grains) used by Hindu jewellers and druggists.
Description — The root is long, woody, tortuous and branching. The
stoutest piece in our possession is as thick as a man's finger, but most
of it is much more slendei*. The cortical layer is extremely thin and of
a light brown or almost reddish hue. The woody part bieaks with a
short fibrous fracture exhibiting a light yellow interior. The root has a
])eculiar, disagreeable odour, and a bitterish acrid flavour leaving a
faintly sweet after-taste. When cut into short lengths it has a slight
resemblance to liquorice, but may easily be distinguished by means of
the microscope.
Mr. Moodeen Sheriff",^ who says he has often examined the root of
Ahrus both fre.sh and dried, remarks that it is far from abounding in
sugar as generally considered ;• — that it does not possess any sweetness
at all until it attains a certain size, and that even then its sweet taste is
' Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal
Plants, part 25 (1878).
- Supplement to the Phannacopceia of
India, Madras, 1869. 16. — The author has
kindly sent lis specimens of the root. We
are also indebted for authentic samples to
Ivlr. Thwaites of the Royal Botanical Gar-
den, Ceylon, and to Mr. Prestoe of the
Botanical Garden, Trinidad. The last
named gentleman remarks — "I do not find
anj- liquorice property in the root, even
fresh, but it is very strong in the green
leaves. "
RADIX ABRI.
189
lot always well marked. As it is often mixed in the Indian bazaars
,vith true liquorice, he thinks the latter may have sometimes been
nistaken for it.
Microscopic Structure — On a transverse section the bark ex-
libits some layers of cork cells, loaded with brown colouring matter,
md then, within the middle zone of the bark, a comparatively thick
ayer of sclei'ench3'matous tissue. Strong liber fibres are scattered
hrough the interior of the cortical tissue, but are not distributed so as
iO form wedge-shaped I'ays as met with in liquorice. In the latter the
clerenchyme (thick-walled cells) is wanting. These difi'ei'ences are
ufficient to distinguish the two roots.
Chemical Composition — The concentrated aqueous infusion of the
oot of Abrus has a dark brown colour and a somewhat acrid taste
iccompanied by a faint sweetness. When it is mixed with an alkaline
olution of tartrate of copper, red cuprous oxide is deposited after a
hort time : hence we may infer that the root contains sugar One drop
)f hydrochloric or other mineral acid mixed with the infusion produces
L very abundant flocculent precipitate, which is soluble in alcohol. If
he infusion of Abrus I'oot is mixed with a very little acetic acid, an
ibundant precipitate is likewise obtained, but is dissolved by an excess,
["his behaviour is similar to that of glycyrrhizin (see p. 181).
Berzelius observed, so long ago as 1827, that the l/'dvcfi of Abrus
ontain a sweet principle similar to that of liquorice.
Uses — -The root has been used in the place of liquorice, for which
t is in our opinion a very bad substitute.
SETiE MUCUNiE.
Dol'ichi inihcs vel setw ; Cowhage, Coiv-itch ^ ; F. Fois a gratter, Pais
pouillieux ; G. Juckborsten.
Botanical Origin — Mtccuna pruriens DC. {Dolichos pruriens L.,
Uizolohium 'p^'urlens Pers., Macuna prurita Hook.), a lofty climbing
)lant" with large, dark purple papilionaceous flowers, and downy
egumes in size and shape not unlike those of a sweet pea, common
hroughout the tropical regions of both Africa, India and America.
History — The earliest notice we have found of this plant is that of
*arkinson, who in his Thcuter of Plunt<^, published in 1G40, names it
Phaseolus s'diqiul Idrsiitd, the Hairy Kidney-Beane called in Zurrate
Surat] where it groweth, Coiihage." It was subsequently described by
lay (1686), who saw the plant raised from West Indian seeds, in the
;arden of the Hatton fixmily in Holborn.' Rheede figured it in the
Jortus Malahuricus,'^ and it was also known to Ruraphius and the
ither older botanists. We find it even in the pharmaceutical tariff of
he county of Nllrnberg, A.D. 1714.°
1 These names and the following are also
pplied to the entire pods, or even to the
ilant.
- Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
"lants, part 13 (1876).
3 Hist. Plant, i. 887.
■* Tom. viii. (1700) tab. .35, sub nom.
NCii Corana.
^ Fliickiger, Documente znr Geschichte der
rhannadc, Halle, 1876. 84.
190
LEGUMINOS^.
The employment of cowhage as a vermifuge originated in the West
Indies, and is quite unknown in the East. In England the drug began
to attract attention in the latter part of the last century, when it was
strongly recommended by Bancroft in his Natural History of Guiana
(1769), and by Chamberlaine, a surgeon of London, who published an
essay ' descriptive of its effects which went through many editions. It
was introduced into the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia of 1783, and into the
London Pharmacopoeia of 1809. At the present day it has been almost
discarded from European medicine, but has been allowed a place in the
Plmrmacopoiia of India (1868).
The name Cowhage is Hindustani, and in the modern way is written
Kirvdnch, which is generally derived from the Sanskrit Kapi-Kachchu,
monkey's itch (Dr. Rice) ; the corruption into Cow-itch is absurd.
Mucuna is the Brazilian name of another species mentioned in 1648
by Marcgraf "
Description — The pods are 2 to 4 inches long, about of inch
wide, and contain 4 to 6 seeds ; they are slightly compressed and of a
dark blackish brown. Each valve is furnished with a prominent ridge
I'unning from the apex nearly to the base, and is densely covered with
rigid, pointed, brown hairs, measuring abo\it of an inch in length.
The hairs are perfectly straight and easily detached from the valves, out
of the epidermis of which they rise. If incautiously touched, they
enter the skin and occasion an intolerable itching.
Microscopic Structure — ^Under the microscope the hairs are seen
to consist of a single, sharply pointed, conical cell, about j\ of an inch
in diameter at tlie base, with uniform brownish walls 5 mkni. thick,
which towards the apex are slightly barbed. Occasionally a hair shows
one or two transverse walls. Most of the hairs contain only air ; others
show a little granular matter which acquires a greenish hue on addition
of alcoholic solution of perchloride of iron. If moistened with chromic
acid, no structural peculiarity is revealed that calls for remark. The
walls however are somewhat separated into indistinct layers, the pre-
sence of which is confii'med by the refractive power displayed by the
hairs in polarized light.
Chemical Composition — The hairs when treated with sulphuric
acid and iodine assume a dark brown colour. Boiling solution of potash
does not considerably swell or alter them. They are completel}^
decolorized by concentrated nitric acid.
Uses — Cowhage is administered for the expulsion of intestinal
worms, especially Ascarifi lumhricoidcs and A. rennicularis, which it
effects by reason of its mechanical structure. It is given mixed with
syrup or honey in the form of an electuary.
The root and seeds are reputed medicinal by the natives of some
part of India. The pods when young and tender may be cooked and
eaten.
1 On the effirari/ of Stbniohlum or Cow- ^ Hist. Xaf. Brasiil. 18.
hage, Lond. 2n(l eel. 1784.
SEMEN PHYSOSTIGMATIS.
191
SEMEN PHYSOSTIGMATIS.
Faha Calaharka, Faba Physostifjmatis ; Calabar Bean, Ordeal Bean
of Old Calabar, Esere Nat, Chop-nut; F. Feve de Calabar; G.
Calabarbohne.
Botanical Origin — Physostigma venenosiini Balfour, a perennial
plant resembling the common Scarlet Runner {Phaseolm midtijioruH
Lam.) of our gardens, but having a woody stem often an inch or
two thick, climbing to a height of 50 feet or more. It grows near
the mouths of tlic Niger and the Old Calabar River in the Gulf of
Guinea.
The imported seeds germinate freely, but the plant, though it
thrives vigorously in a hothouse, has not yet, we believe, Howered in
Europe. It has already been introduced into India and Brazil. In
the latter country Dr. Peckolt, late of Cantagallo, has i-aised plants
which have blossomed abundantly, ])roducing racemes of about 30
flowers each, pendent from the axils of the ternate leav es.
The flower, which is fully an inch across and of a purplish colour,
has the form of Phaseolus, but is distinguished from that genus by
two special characters, namely that it has the style developed beyond
the stigma backwards as a broad, flat, hooked appendage,' and the seeds
half surrounded by a deeply grooved hilum.
History — The pagan tribes of Tropical Western Africa compel per-
sons accused of witchcraft to undergo the ordeal of swallowing some
vegetable poison. One of the substances employed in tliis horrid
custom is the seed under notice, Avhich is administered in substance or
in the form of emulsion, or even as a clyster. It was first made known
in England by Dr. W. F. Daniell about the year 1840, and subsequently
alluded to in a paper read by him before the Ethnological Society in
1846.^ The highly poisonous effects of the bean were observed in
1855 by Christison^ in his own person, and in 1858 by Sharpey, who
administered it to frogs.
Before the seed became an object of commerce, it was regarded by
the natives with some mystery and was reluctantly parted with to
Europeans. It was moreover customary in Old Calabar to destroy the
plant whenever found, a few only being reserved to supply seeds for
judicial purposes, and of these seeds the store was kept in the custody
of the native chief. In 1859, the Rev W. C. Thomson, a missionary
on the West Coast of Africa, forwarded the plant to Professor Balfour
of Edinburgh, who figured and described it as a type of a new
genus.''
Eraser of Edinburgh (about 1863 or earlier) discovered the specific
power of the seed in contracting the pupil, when the alcoholic extract is
applied to the eye. These myotic effects, counteracting those of atropine
^ The name of the genus, from (pvau, a
bladder, was formed under the notion that
this appendage is hoUoiv, which is not the
fact. — Mucuna cylindrospermaWelwitsch,
from Angola, is probably the same plant.
See Holmes, Pharm. J. ix. (1879) 913.
2 Edmb. A>!w Phil. J. xl. (1846) 313.
^ Edinh. Journ. of Medical Science, xx.
(1855) 193; Pharm. Journ. xiv. (1855) 470.
* Tram. Roij. Soc. of Edinh. xxii. (18G1)
305. t. 16-17 ; see also Baillon, des
Plantes, ii. 206. figsr. 153-155, and Beutley
and Trimen, Med. ^Plani.% part 6 (187C).
192
LEGUMINOS^.
and hyoscyamine, were further examined b}'- many other experimenters
on mammals or birds. The action of the poison when taken internally
was found rapidly to affect the cardiac contractions and finally to
paralyze the heart.
Description — The fruit of Physostigma is a dehiscent, oblong-
legume about 7 inches in length, containing 2 or 3 seeds. The latter,
commonly known as Galahdr Beans, are 1 to If inches long, about ^
of an inch broad, and | to | of an inch in thickness, weighing on an
average twenty seeds, 67 grains each.
They have an oblong, subreniform outline, one side being straight
or but slightly incurved, the other boldly arched. The latter is marked
by a broad furrow, of an inch wide, bordered with raised edges, and
running from the micropyle, which is a small funnel-shaped depression,
quite round the opposite end of the seed. In the middle of this
remarkable furrow the raphe is seen as a long raised suture running
from end to end. The surface of the seed is somewhat rough, but has
a dull polish ; it is of a deep chocolate brown, passing into a lighter
tint on the ridges bordering the furrow. The latter is black, dull, and
finely lugose.
When the seed is broken the cotyledons are found adherent to the
testa, with a large cavity between them. The air thus included causes
the seeds to float on water, but they sink immediately when
broken. After digestion for some hours in warm water, the testa
having been previously cracked, the whole seed softens and swells so
that its structure may be easily studied. Each cotyledon is then seen
to be marked on the hilum - side by a long shallow furrow, at
one end of which, just below the micropyle, lies the plumule and
radicle. A dark brown injier membrane, constituting part of the testa,
surrounds the cotyledons.
The seeds have scarcely any taste, or not more than an ordinary
bean; nor in the dry state have they any odour. After being boiled,
or when their alcoholic tincture is evaporated, an odour suggesting
cantharides is developed.
Microscopic Structure — The cotyledons are built up of large
globular or ovoid cells, those of the outermost layer being smaller and
of rather cubic form. This parenchyme is loaded with starch granules,
frequently as much as 50 mkm. in diameter. Their interior part is less
distinctly stratified than the outer; the hollow centre radiates in
various directions ai'ound the axis of the ovate granule. Polarized
light does not show a cross as in other more globular starch granules,
but two elliptic curves approaching one another near the axis of the
granule. Similar starch granules are commonly met with in the seeds
of Legumivosce.
In the Calabar seeds the starch is accompanied by numerous par-
ticles of albuminous matter becoming distinctly perceptible by addition
of iodine, which imparts to them an orange colouration.
The shell of the seed is built up of four different layers ; the pre-
vailing layer consists of very long, simply cylindrical cells, densely
packed so as to form only one radial row. Tison^has endeavoured
to ascertain in what region of the seed the active principle
' JJisloire de la Ftve de Calabar, Paris, 1873. 38.
SEMEN PHYSOSTIGMATIS.
193
is lodged ; and he has arrived at the conclusion that its seat is the
granular protoplasmic particles, which alone acquire an orange tint by
the action of weak caustic alkalis.
Chemical Composition — Jobst and Hesse ^ proved in 18G3 that
the poisonous nature of Calabar bean depends upon an alkaloid, to which
they gave the name Physostigmine. It is obtained by the method
generally adopted for extracting analogous substances, that is, by preci-
pitating one of its salts from an aqueous solution by bicarbonate of
sodium, and dissolving out the base with ether or benzol. As extracted
by these chemists, physostigmine is an amorphous mass of decidedly
alkaline reaction, soluble in much water and in acids. On exposure to
the air the solution soon becomes red, or sometimes intensely blue, a
partial decomposition of the alkaloid taking place. The red coloration
may even be observed in the aqueous infusion of a few cotyledons. It
disappears by sulphuretted hydrogen or sulphurous acid, but returns if
these reducing agents are allowed to evaporate.
Hesse ascertained (1867) that physostigmine consists of C'^H'^N'O*;
he now obtained it perfectly colourless and tasteless, softening at
40° C, fusing at 45'^, but not supporting a heat of 100° C, without
decomposition, which is manifested by a red coloration.
In 1865 Vde and Leven,^ by treating the powdered unpeeled seed
in nearly the same way, prepared an alkaloid which they called Eserinc.
It differs from Hesse's physostigmine in that it forms colourless, rhom-
boidal, tabular crystals of a bitter taste, melting at 90° C. It dissolves
easily in ether, alcohol, or chloi'oform, but very sparingly in water. The
last named solution is alkaline, and reddens by exposure to the air.
It is assumed by some writers, as Tison,'* that eserine is only the
pure form of physostigmine ; but at present we feel hardly warranted in
admitting the identity of the two substances.
Harnack and Witkowski in 1876 ascertained the presence of
another alkaloid in the seed, which they called C'alaharine. It is nearly
insoluble in ether and also very ditt'ei-ent from physostigunne in its
physiological action, but somewhat similar to strychnine. Calabarine
is consequently not to be found in those preparations of calabar bean
which have been obtained or purified by means of ether.
Hesse (1878) exhausted the cotyledons of Physostigma with petro-
leum ether, and obtained crystals of a new indifferent substance
C""H""0 + 0H2, which he called Phytosterin. It is closely allied to
Cholesterin, but, in its solution in chlorofo -m, devoid of rotatory power
and melting at 133°. Cholesterin melts at 145°, and deviates, in its
ethereal solution, the ray of polarized light to the left. Phytosterin also
occurs in peas; Hesse suggests that the crystallized appearance of
alkaloids as prepared by former observers v.^as perhaps due to
phytosterin.
From the cotyledons ^^er se, cold water extracts mucilage, precipit-
able by neutral acetate of lead. The watery infusion contains also
albumin, which may be coagulated by heat or by alcohol. The infusion
is colourless, does not redden litmus, nor does it contain sugar in ap-
^ hiehig's Aiinalen der Chem. u. Pharin. March 1867, 149.
129 (1864) 115. 3 Comptes Rendus, Ix. (1865) 1194.
'Uhid. 141 (1867) 82 ; Chem. News, 22 ^ Op. cit. chap. 2.
N
194
LEGUMINOS^.
preciable proportion ; a few drops of solution of potash cause it to
assume an orange colour. An infusion of the shell of the seed is already
of this colour, but the tint is intensified by caustic alkali.
The cotyledons yield to boiling ether -g- to ^ per cent, of fatty oil,
and after exhaustion by ether and alcohol, afford to cold water 12 per
cent, of albuminous and mucilaginous constituents. The proportion of
starch according to Teich^ amounts to 48 per cent., the albuminous
matter to 23 per cent. The entire seed furnishes 3 per cent, of ash,
chiefly phosphate of potash. These constituents do not widely differ
in proportion from those found in the common bean, which yields 23 to
25 per cent, of albuminous matters, and 32 to 38 per cent, of starch,
besides 1 to 3 per cent, of oil.
The shells of Calabar bean are stated by Fraser to be by no means
devoid of active principle.
Vee asserts that if to a solution of eserine, a little potash, lime, or
carbonate of sodium be added, there is developed a red colour which
rapidly increases in intensity. This colour is transient, passing into
yellow, green and blue. If chloroform is shaken with such coloured
solution, it takes up the colour ; ether on the other hand remains
uncoloured.
Uses — Calabar has been hitherto chiefly employed as an ophthal-
mic medicine, for the purpose of contracting the pupil. It has however
been occasionally administered in tetanus and in neuralgic, rheumatic,
and other diseases.
Adulteration — Other seeds are sometimes fraudulently mixed with *
Calabar beans. We have noticed in particular those of a Miicuna and
of the Oil Palm, Eloiis guineensis Jacq. The slightest examination
suffices for their detection.
KINO.
Kino, Gum Kino, East Indian Kino ; F. and G. Kino.
Botanical Origin — Pterocarpus Marsupium Roxb., a handsome
tree 40 to 80 feet high, frequent in the central and southern parts of the
Indian Peninsula and also in Ceylon, and affording a valuable timber.
In the Government forests of the Madras Presidency, it is one of the
reserved trees, the felling of which is placed under restrictions.
Pt. indicus VVilld., a tree of Southern India, the Malayan Peninsula
and the Indian and Philippine Islands, is capable of yielding kino, and
is the source of the small supplies of that drug that were formerly
shipped from Moulmein.
Several other plants afford substances bearing the name of Kimo,
which will be noticed at the conclusion of the present article.
History — The introduction of kino into European medicine is due
to Fothergill, an eminent physician and patron of economic botany of
the last century. The drug which Fothergill examined was brought
^ ChemUche Unicrsuclinng der Calabar- matters with reference to yetc/t's analysis,
holme. — Inauguralschrift, St. Petersburg, which proved tlie kernels to contain 3'G5
1867. We calculate the albuminous per cent, of nitrogen.
KINO.
195
from the river Gambia in West Africa as a rare sort of Dragon's Blood,
aad was described by him in 1757^ under the name of Gummi ruhrum
astringens Gambiense. It had been noticed at least twenty years before
as a production of the Gambia, by Moore, factor to the Royal African.
Company, who says that the tree yielding it is called in the Mandingo
language Kano.- Specimens of this tree were sent to England in 18U5
by the celebrated traveller Mungo Park, and recognized some years
later as identical with the Pterocarpus erinaceus of Poiret.
It seems probable that African kino continued to reach England for
some years, for we find " Gummi ruhrum astringens " regularly valued
in the stock of a London druggist^ from 1776 to 1792.
Duncan in the Edinburgh Dispensatory of 1803, while asserting that
"Jdno is brought to us from ^/7'/crt,"admits that some, not distinguishable
from it, is imported from Jamaica. In a later edition of the same woi'k
(1811), he says that the African drug is no longer to be met with, and
alludes to its place being supplied by other kinds, as that of Jamaica,
that imported by the East India Company, and that of New South Wales
derived from Eucalyptiis resinifera Sm. It will thus be seen that at the
commencement of the present century several substances, produced in
widely distant regions, bore the name of Kino. That however which was
principally used in the place of the old African drug, was East Indian
Kino, the botanical origin of which was shown by Wight and by Royle*
(1844-46) to be Pterocarpus MarsupiumJioxh., — a tree which, curiously
enough, is closely allied to the kino tree of Tropical Africa.
This is the drug which is recognized as legitimate kino in all the
principal pharmacopoeias of Europe. It appears to have been first pre-
pared for the European market in the early part of the present century,
on a plantation of the East India Company called Anjarakaudy, a few
miles from Tellicherry on the Malabar Coast ; but as we learn from our
friend Dr. Cleghorn, it was not grown there but on the ghats a short
distance inland.
Extraction — Kino is the juice of the tree, dried without artificial
heat.^ As it exudes, it has the appearance of red currant jelly, but
hardens in a few hours after exposure to the air. In the Government
forests of the Malabar Coast whence the supplies are obtained, permis-
sion to collect the drug is granted on payment of a small fee, and on
the understanding that the tapping is performed skilfully and without
damage to the timber. The method pursued is this : — A perpendicular
incision with lateral ones leading into it, is made in the trunk, at the
foot of which is placed a vessel to recei-ve the outflowing juice. This
juice soon thickens, and when sufficiently dried by exposure to the sun
and air, is packed into wooden boxes for exportation.
Description — Malabar kino*' consists of dark, blackish-red, angular
1 Medical Observations and Inquiries, i.
(1757) 358.
2 Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa,
by Francis Moore, Lond. 1737. pp. 160. 209.
267.
3 J. Gurney Bevan, Plough Court, Lom-
bard Street. — The drug was priced in 1787
as having cost 16s., and in 1790-92, 21.s.
per lb.
* Pharm, Journ. v. (1846) 495.
' Cleghorn, Forests and Gardens of South
India, 1861. 13. — Also from information
communicated by him orally.
^ Our sample obtained from Pt. Marsu-
■piuin Roxb. on the Sigiir Ghat, Feb. 1868,
was kindly submitted to us by Mr.
Mclvor of Ootacamund. — We find it to
agree with commercial East Indian Kino.
196
LEGUMINOSiE.
fragments rarely larger than a pea, easily splitting into still smaller
pieces, which are seen to be perfectly transparent, of a bright garnet
hue, and amorphous under the microscope. In cold water they sink, but
partially dissolve by agitation, forming a solution of very astringent taste,
and a pale flocky residue. The latter is taken up when the liquid is
made to boil, and deposited on cooling in a more voluminous form.
Kino dissolves almost entirely in spirit of wine ('SSS), affording a
dark reddish solution, acid to litmus paper, which by long keeping
sometimes assumes a gelatinous condition. It is readily soluble in
solution of caustic alkali, and to a large extent in a saturated solution
of sugar.
Chemical Composition — Cold water forms with kino a reddish
solution, which is at first not altered if a fragment of ferrous sulphate is
added. But a violet colour is produced as soon as the liquid is cautiously
neutralized. This can be done by diluting it with common water (con-
taining bicarbonate of calcium) or by adding a drop of solution of acetate
of potassium. Yet the fact of kino developing an intense violet colour
in presence of a protosalt of iron, may most evidently be shown by
shaking it with water, and iron reduced by hydrogen. The filtered
liquid is of a brilliant violet, and may be evaporated at 100° without
turning green ; the dried residue even again forms a violet solution with
water. By long keeping the violet liquid gelatinizes. It is decolorized
by acids, and turns red on addition of an alkali, whether caustic or
bicarbonated. Catechu, as well as crystallized catechin, show the
same behaviour, but these solutions quickly turn green on exposure
to air.
Solutions of acids, of metallic salts, or of chromates produce copious
precipitates in an aqueous solution of kino. Ferric chloride forms a
dirty green precipitate, and is at the same time reduced to a ferrous salt.
Dilute mineral acids or alkalis do not occasion any decided change of
colour, but the former give rise to light brownish-red precipitates of
Kino-tannic Acid. By boiling for some time an aqueous solution of
kinno-tannic acid, a red precipitate. Kino-red, is separated.
Kino in its general behaviour is closely allied to Pegu catechu, and
yields by similar treatment the same products, that is to say, it aftbrds
Pyrocatechin when submitted to dry distillation, and Protocatecltuic
Acid together with Fkloroylacin when melted with caustic soda or
potash.
Yet in catechu the tannic acid is accompanied by a considerable
amount of catechin, which may be removed directly by exhaustion with
ether. Kino, on the other hand, yields to ether only a minute pei-centage
of a substance, whose scaly crystals display under the microscope the
character of P^roca^ecA /'j?-, rather than that of catechin, which crystallizes
in prisms. The crystals extracted from kino dissolve freely in cold water,
which is not the case with catechin, and this solution assumes a fine
green if a very dilute solution of ferric chloride is added, and turns
red on addition of an alkali. This is the behaviour of catechin as
well as of pyrocatechin ; but the difference in solubility speaks in
favour of the crystals afforded by kino being pyrocatechin rather than
catechin.
We thought pyrocatechin must also occur in the mother-plant of
KINO.
197
kino, but this does not prove to be the case, no indication of its presence
being perceptible either in the fresh bark or wood.^
Etti (1878) extracted from kino colourless prisms of Kino'in by
boiling the drug with twice its weight of hydrochloric acid, about 1'03
sp. gr. On cooling, kino-i"ed separates, very little of it remaining in
solution together with kinoin. The latter is extracted by exhausting
the liquid with ether, which by evaporation aftbrds crystals of kinoin.
They should be re-crystallized from boiling water ; they agree with the
formula C^^ff "O", which is to be regarded as that of a methylated gallic
other of pyrocatechin, viz., G'R' (OCH'j C'H'Ol
Kinoin by heating it to 130° C. gives off water and turns red:
2 C^ff^'O" =: Off . C=^H"0".
The latter product is an amorphous mass agreeing with kino-red; by heat-
ing it at 1G()-170° it again loses water, thus affording another anhydride.
Etti succeeded in preparing methyl ic chloride, pyrocatechin ^^(OH)^,
as well as gallic acid C''H.*'0^, by decomposing kinoin.
We have prepared kinoin fvom AvMralian kino (seepage 198), but
failed in obtaining it from jMalabar kino, which however Etti states to
have used. Kino affords about 1-^- per cent of kinoin.
The solutions of kinoin turn red on addition of ferric salts.
Commercial kino yielded us 1'3 per cent, of ash.
Commerce — The quantity of true kino collected in the Madras
forests is comparatively small, probably not exceeding a ton or two
annually. The drug is often shipped from Cochin.
Uses — Kino is administered as an astringent. It is said to be used
in the manufacture of wines, and it might be employed if cheap enough
in tanning and dyeing.
Other sorts of Kino.
1. Butea Kino, Biitca Gum, Bengal Kino, Palas or Pnlas Kino,
Gum of tJie Palas or DhaJc Tree.
This is an exudation from Butea frondosa Roxb. (Leguminosce), a
tree of India and Burma, well known under the name Palas or Dhak,
and conspicuous for its splendid, large, orange, papilionaceous flowers.^
According to Roxburgh it flows during the hot season from natural
fissures or from wounds made in the bark, as a red juice which soon
hardens into a ruby-coloured, brittle, astringent gum.
Authentic specimens of this kino have been placed at our disposal
by Mr. Moodeen Sheriff of Madras and by Dr. J. Newton of Bellary.
That received from the first-named gentleman consists of flattish, angular
fi'agments (the largest about | an inch across) and small drops or tears
of a very dark, ruby-coloured gum, which when held to the light is seen
to be perfectly transparent. The flat pieces have been mostly dried on
leaves, an impression of the veins of which they retain on one side,
^ We have to thank Mr. Broughton, late
of the Cinchona Plantations, Ootacamund,
for determining this point. In the bark
almost saturated with fresh liquid kino, he
utterly failed to obtain any indication of
pyrocatechin by the tests which he found
to render it easily evident in diy kino.
^ See Nees von Esenbeck, Plantce medi-
ciiiale.s, Diisseldorf, iii. (1833) tab. 79.
198
LEGUMINOS^.
while the other is smooth and shining. The substance has a pure
astringent taste, but no odour. It yielded us 1'8 per cent, of ash and
contained 13'5 per cent, of water. Ether removes from it a small
quantity of 'pyvocatecltin. Boiling alcohol dissolves this kino to the
extent of 46 per cent. ; the solution which is but little coloured, pro-
duces an abundant greyish-green precipitate with perchloride of iron,
and a white one with acetate of lead. It may be hence inferred that a
tannic acid, probably kino-tannic acid, constitutes about half the weight
of the drug, the remainder of which is formed of a soluble mucilaginous
substance which we have not isolated in a state of purity. By submit-
ting the Butea kino of Mr. Moodeen Sheriff to dry distillation we
obtained pyrocatechin.
The sample from Dr. Newton is wholly in transparent drops and
stalactitic pieces, considerably paler than that just described, but of the
same beautiful ruby tint. The fi-agments dissolve freely and almost
completely in cold water, the solution being neutral and exhibiting the
same reactions as the former sample.
Butea kino, which in India is used in the place of Malabar kino, was
long confounded with the latter by European pharmacologists, though
the Indian names of the two substances are quite difierent. It is not
obtained exclusively from B. frondosa, the allied B. swperha Roxb.
and B. 'parviflora Roxb. affording a similar exudation.
2. Af rican or Gambia Kino — Of this substance we have a specimen
collected by Daniell ' in the very locality whence it was obtained by
Moore in 1733 (see p. 195), and by Park at the commencement of the
present century. The tree yielding it, which still bears the Mandingo
name Kano, and grows to a height of 40 to 50 feet, is Pterocarpus
erinaceus Poiret, a native of Tropical Western Africa from Senegambia
to Angola. The juices exude naturally from crevices in the bark, but
much more plentifully by incisions ; it soon coagulates, becoming deep
blood-red and remarkably brittle. That in our possession is in very
small, shining, angular fi-agments, which in a proper light appear
transparent and of a deep ruby colour. In solubility and chemical
characters, we can trace no ditierence between it and the kino of the
allied Ft. Marsapimn Roxb. This kino does not now find its way to
England as a regular article of trade. From the statement of Wel-
witsch, it appears that the Portuguese of Angola employ it under the
name of Sangue de Drago?
3. Australian, Botany Bay, or Eucalyptus Kino. — For some years
past, the London drug market has been supplied with considerable
quantities of kino from Australia ; in fact at one period this kino was
the only sort to be purchased.
As it is the produce of numerous species of Eucalyptus, it is not
surprising that it presents considei-able diversity of appearance. The
better qualities closely agree with Pterocarpus kino. They are in dark
reddish brown masses or grains, which when in thin fragments are seen
to be transparent, of a garnet red hue and quite amorphous. The sub-
stance is mostly collected by the sawyers and wood-splitters. It is
found within the trunks of trees of all sizes, in flattened cavities of
^ See his paper On the Kino Tree of West ^ Madeiras e Drorjas medicinaesde Angola,
Africa, Pharin. Journ. xiv. (1855) 55. Lisboa, 1862, 37.
LIGNUM PTEROCARPI.
199
the otherwise solid wood which are often parallel to the annual rings.
In such place the kino, which is at first a viscid liquid, becomes inspis-
sated and subsequently hard and brittle. It may also be obtained in
a liquid state by incisions in the stems of growing trees : such liquid
kino has occasionally been brought into the London market ; it is a
viscid treacle-like fluid, yielding by evaporation about 35 per cent, of
solid kino.^
Authentic specimens of the kino of IG species of Eucalyptus sent
from Australia by F. von Miiller, have been examined by Wiesner of
Vienna." He found the drug to be in most cases readily soluble in
water or in spirit of wine, the solution being of a very astringent taste.
The solution gave with sulphuric acid a pale red, flocculent precipitate
of Kino-tannic Acid ; with perchloride of iron (as in common kino) a
dusky greenish precipitate, — except in the case of the kino of E. obl iqua
L'Her. (Stringy-bark Tree), the solution of which was coloured dark
violet.
Wiesner further states, that Eucalyptus kino affords a little
Cdtechin ^ and Pyrocatcchin. It contains no pectinous matter, but
in some varieties a gum like that of Ac<icla. In one sort, the kino
of E. glgantea Hook.,"* gum is so abundant that the drug is nearly
insoluble in spirit of wine.
By Etti's process, as given at page 197, we obtained kinoi'n from an
Australian Kino, which contained numerous fragments of the wood.
We noticed that both Australian and Malabar kino emitted a some-
what balsamic odoui-, when they were treated with hydrochloric
acid.
From this examination, it is evident that the better varieties of Euca-
lyptus kino, such for instance as those derived from E. rostrata
Schlecht. (Red or White Gum, or Flooded Gum of the colonists), E.
corymhosa Sm. {Blood-wood) and E. citriodora Hook., possess the pro-
perties of Pterocarpus kino and might with no disadvantage be substi-
tuted for it.
LIGNUM PTEROCARPI.
Lignum Santalinum rubrum, Santalum ruhrum; Red Sanders
Wood, Ruby Wood; F. Rois de Santal rouge; G. Rothes Sandel-
holz, Caliaturholz.
Botanical Origin — Pterocarpus santalinus Linn. fil. — A smaH
tree not often exceeding 3| to 4 feet in girth, and 20 to 25 feet in height;
it is closely related to Pt. Marsuphim Roxb., from which it differs
chiefly in having broader leaflets always in threes. It is a native of
the southern part of the Indian Peninsula, as Canara, Mysore, Travan-
coi'e and the Coromandel Coast, but also occurs in Mindanao, in the
southern Philippines. In India the districts in which the wood is at
present chiefly obtained are the forests of the southern portion of the
^ Victoria Exhibition, 1861. — Jurors' Re-
port on Class 3. p. 59.
^ Zeitschrift des iisterreich. Apothelcer-
Vereines ix. (1871) 497 ; Pharm. Journ.
Aug. 5, 1871. 102.
^ In our opinion this is doubtful.
''Bentham unites this species to A', obliqua
L'H6r [Flor. Amtr. iii. 204).
200
LEGUMINOSiE.
Kurnool Hills, Cuddapah and North Arcot (W. and N.W. of Madras).
The tree is now being raised in regular plantations.^
The wood is a staple article of produce, and the felling of tlie trees
is strictly controlled by the forest inspectors. The fine trunk- wood is
highly valued by the natives for pillars in their temples and other
buildings, as well as for turnery. The stumps and roots are exported
to Europe as a dye-stutl, mostly from Madras.
History — It is difficult to tell whether the appellation Red Sandal-
wood used in connexion with Yellotu and Wliite Sandal-wood by some of
the earlier writers on drugs, was intended to indicate the inodorous dye-
wood under notice or the aromatic wood of a species of Santaluvi. Yet
when Marco Polo' alludes to the sandal-wood imported into China, and
to the red sandal ("Cendal vermeil") which grows in the island of
Necuveran (Nicobar), it is impossible to doubt that he intended by this
latter name some such substance as that under notice.
Garcia de Orta, who wrote at Goa in the middle of the 16th century,
clearly distinguished the fragrant sandal of Timor from the red inodorous
wood of Tenasserim and the Coromandel Coast. It is remarkable that
the wood of Pt. santalinus is distinguished to the present day in all the
languages of India by names signifying red-coloured sandal-ivood,tho\igh.
it has none whatever of the peculiarities of the odorous wood of
Santaluni. 'Red Sanders Wood was formerly supposed to possess medi-
cinal powers : these are now disregarded, and it is retained in use only
as a colouring a2;ent.
During the middle ages, it was used as well as alkanet for culinaiy
purposes, such as the colouring of sauces and other articles of food.
The price in England between 1326 and 1399 was very variable, but
on an average exceeded 3s. per lb.'* Many entries for the purchase of
Red Sanders along with spices and groceries, occur in the accounts of
the Monastery of Durham, A.D. 1530-34.''
Description — The wood found in English commerce is mostly that
of the lower parts of the stem and that of the thickest roots. It
appears in the market in ponderous, irregular logs, rarely exceeding the
thickness of a man's thigh and commonly much smaller, 3, 4 or 5 feet in
length; they are without bark or sapwood, and are externalh^ of a dark
colour. The internal wood is of a deep, rich, blood-red, exhibiting in
transverse section zones of a lighter tint, and taking a fine polish.
At the present day, druggists generally buy the wood rasped into
small chips, which are of a deep reddish broAvn hue, tasteless and nearly
without odour.
Microscopic Structure — The wood is built up for the greater part
of long pointed cells, having thick walls (libriform). Through this
ligneous tissue, there are scattered small groups of very large vessels.
In a direction parallel to the circumference of the stem, there are less
^ [Beddome], Report of the Conservator
of Forests, for 1869-70, Madras, 1870, pp.
3. 39. 123 ; for figure of the tree, see Flora
Sylvatica of Southern India of the same
author, tab. xxii.
^ Pauthier, Livre de Marco Polo, 580 —
Pt. indicus Willd. grows in the adjacent
Andaman Islands.
^ Rogers, Agriculture and Prices in
England, 1866, i. 631, ii. 545, &c.— The
average price of a sheep during the same
period was about 1.9. 6rf.
•* Durham Household Booh, Surtees Soc.
1844. 215 ; also Pegge, Form of Cvry, Lond.
1780. p. XV.
LIGNUM PTEROCARPI.
201
coloured small parenchymatous layers, running from one vascular
bundle to another. The whole tissue is finally traversed by very narrov*^
medullary rays, which are scarcely perceptible to the unaided eye.
The parenchymatous cells are each loaded with one crystal of oxalate of
calcium, which are so large that, in a piece of the wood broken longi-
tudinally, they may be distinguished without a lens. The colouring
matter is contained especially in the walls of the vessels and the
ligneous cells.
Chemical Composition — Cold water or fatty oil (almond or olive)
abstracts scarcely anything from the wood, and hot water but very
little. On the other hand, ether, spirit of wine, alkaline solutions, or
concentrated acetic acid, readily dissolves out the colouring matter.
Essential oils of bitter almond or clove take up a good deal of the red
substance ; that of turpentine none at all. This resinoid substance,
termed Santalic Acid or Scmtalhi^ is said to form microscopic pris-
matic crystals of a fine ruby colour, devoid of odour and taste, fusing at
104° C, insoluble in water but neutralizing alkalis and forming with
them uncrystallizable salts.
Weidel (1870) exhausted the wood with boiling water, containing a
little potash, and obtained by means of hydrochloric acid a red preci-
pitate, which was redissolved in boiling alcohol and then furnished
colourless crystals of Santal, (J^WO^. They are devoid of odour or
taste, not soluble in water, benzol, chloroform, bisulphide of carbon, and
but sparingly in ether. Santal yields with potash a faintly yellow
solution which soon turns red and green. The wood afforded Weidel
not more than 3 per mille of santal.
Cazeneuve (1874)" mixed 4 parts of the wood with 1 part of slaked
lime, and exhausted the dried powder with ether containing a little
alcohol. After the evaporation of the ether, a small amount of colour-
less crystals of Pterocarpin was obtained, which were purified by re-
crystallization from boiling alcohol. They melt at 83° C, and are
abundantly soluble in chloroform, in bisulphide of carbon, very little
in cold alcohol, not at all in water. Pterocarpin agrees with the
formula C^IP'^Ol It yields a red solution with concentrated sulphuric
acid, and a green with nitric acid 1"4 sp. gr. By submitting it to
destructive distillation pyrocatechin appears to be formed.
Franchimont (1879) assigns the formula C'R^^O" to another princi-
ple of Red Sanders Wood, which he isolated by means of alcohol. It
is an amorphous substance, melting at 105°. By extracting the wood
with a solution of carbonate of sodium, Hagenbach (1872) obtained a
fluorescent solution. Red Sanders Wood yielded us of ash only O'S
per cent.
Commerce — In the official year 18G9-70, Red Sanders Wood pro-
duced to the Madras Government a revenue of 26,015 rupees (£2,601).
The quantity taken from the forests was reported as 1,161,799 lb.
1 Gmelin, Chemistry, xvi. (1864) 259 ; the
formula assigned to santalic acid (CH^^'O'')
appears to be doubtful. Weidel in propos-
ing the formula C^H'-O^ points out that
t may be allied to alizarin, C"H*0^.
- See Dictionnaire de Chimie, art. San-
taline, p. 1434, and for particulars :
Cazeneuve, Recherche et extraction des alca-
Io'ide.% etc. Paris, 1875. 66. It would appear
that the author obtained about 4 per
mille of pterocarpin from the wood.
'20-2
LEGUMINOS^.
Uses — Red Sanders Wood is scarcely employed in pharmacy except
for colouring the Compound Tincture of Lavender ; but it has numerous
uses in the arts. The latter applies also to the wood of Pterocarpus
angolensis DC, which is largely exported from the French colony of
Gaboon ; it is the " Santal rouge d'Afrique of the French," or Barwood of
the English commerce.
BALSAMUM TOLUTANUM.
Balsam of Tola ; F. Baume de Tolu ; G. Toluhalsani.
Botanical Origin— Myroxylon Toluifera H B K. (Toluifem Bal-
samum Miller, Myrospennum tohiiferura A. Rich.),' an elegant and
lofty evergreen tree with a straight stem, often as much as 40 to 60
feet from the ground to the first branch. It is a native of Venezuela
and New Granada, — probably also of Ecuador and Brazil.
History — The first published account of Balsam of Tolu, is that of
the Spanish physician Monardes, who in his treatise on the productions
of the West Indies, which in its complete form first appeared at Seville
in 1574?,^ relates how the early explorers of South America observed
that the Indians collected this drug by making incisions in the trunk
of the tree. Below the incisions they affixed shells of a peculiar black
wax to receive the balsam, which being collected in a district near Car-
tagena called Toho, took its name from that place. He adds that it
is much esteemed both by Indians and Spaniards, that the latter buy
it at a high price, and that they have lately brought it to Spain,
where it is considered to be as good as the famous Balsam of Mecca.
Francisco Hernandez, who lived in 1561-1577 in Mexico, stated ^
that the balsam of the province of Tolu was thought to be quite as
useful as, if not superior to, " balsamum indicum," i.e. peruvianum.
A specimen agreeing with this description was given to Clusius * in
1581 by Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth, but the drug was
certainly not common till a much later period. In the price-list of
drugs of the city of Frankfort of 1669, Balsamtts tolutanum (sic)
is expressly mentioned,' but there can be but little doubt that Bal-
samum Amevicanum resinosum ^ or siccum or durum as occurring in
many other tariffs of the 17th century, printed in Germany, was also
the balsam under notice ; in a similar list emanating from the city of
Basle in 1646,* we noticed B. indicum album, B. peruvianum and
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Plaiit.i, part 23 (1877) under the name of
Toluifera Bakamvm. Though the change
of names may be justified by the strict
rules of j)riority, we are of opinion that at
present it would be fraught with more of
inconvenience than advantage. — Myroxy-
lon punctatum Klotzsch, a tree stated to
grow nearly all over the northern part of
South America, is referred to the same
species by Bentley and Trimen.
2 Bistoria de las cosas que se tracn de
nuestras Indias occidentales, cap. del Bal-
samo de Tolu.
' Nova Plantarum, animal, ei mineral,
mexicanorum. Historia, Recclio's edition,
Roma^ 1651. fol. 53.
^ Exoticor. etc. 1605. lib. x. fol. 305.
5 Pharm. Journ. vi. (1876) 102.
^ Pharmaceutical tariff (" Taxa ") of the
city of Wittenberg 1632 (in the Hamburg
library).
' Fliickiger, Documente zur Gesrhichte der
Pharmacie, Halle, 1876. 49. 50. 53.—
Balsamum Peruvianum first occurs in the
tariff of the city of Worms of 1609.—
Documente, p. 39; Pharm. Journ. I. c.
5 Contained in the Medicine Tariffs, in the
library of the British Museum, bound to-
gether in one volume They include
Schweinfurt 1614, Bremen 1644, Basle
1647, Rostock 1659, Quedlinburg 1665,
Frankfort on Main 1(369 (quoted above).
BALSAMUM TOLUTANUM.
203
B. siccum, — the last with the explanatory words, "trockner Balsam in
der Kiirbsen" {i.e. in gourds), meaning probably balsam of Tolu.
As to the tree, of which Monardes figured a broken pod, leaflets of
it, marked 1758, exist in Sloane's herbarium. Humboldt and Bonpland
saw it in several places in New Granada during their travels (1799-
1804), but succeeded only in gathering a few leaves. Among recent
collectors, Warszewicz, Triana, Sutton Hayes, and Seemann were
successful only in obtaining leaves. Weir in 18G3 was more happy,
for by causing a large tree of nearly 2 feet diameter to be felled,
he procured good herbarium specimens including pods, but no flowers.
Owing to this tree having been much wounded for balsam, its foliage
and fruits were singularly small and stunted, and its branches over-
grown with lichens.
That which botanists had failed to do, has been accomplished by an
ornithologist, Mr. Anton Goering, who, travelling in Venezuela to col-
lect birds and insects, made it a special object, at the urgent request of
one of us (H.), to procure complete specimens of the Balsam of Tolu
tree. By dint of much perseverance and by watching for the proper
season, Mr. Goering obtained in December 1868 excellent flowering
specimens and young fruits, and subsequently mature seeds from which
plants have been raised in England, Ceylon and Java.
Extraction — The most authentic information we possess on this
subject is derived from Mr. John Weir, plant collector to the Royal
Horticultural Society of London, who when about to undertake a
journey to New Granada in 1863, received instructions to visit the
locality producing Balsam of Tolu. After encountering considerable
difficulties, Mr. Weir succeeded in observing the manner of collectins:
the balsam in the forest near Plato, on the right bank of the Mag-
dalena. Mr. Weir's information^ may be thus summarized : —
The balsam tree has an average height of 70 feet with a straight
trunk, generally rising to a height of 40 feet before it branches. The
balsam is collected by cutting in the bark two deep sloping notches,
meeting at their lower ends in a sharp angle. Below this V-shaped
cut, the bark and wood is a little hollowed out, and a calabash of the
size and shape of a deep tea-cup is fixed. This arrangement is repeated,
so that as many as twenty calabashes may be seen on various parts of
the same trunk. When the lower part has been too much wounded to
give space for any fresh incisions, a rude scaffold is sometimes erected,
and a new series of notches made higher up. The balsam-gatherer goes
from time to time round the trees with a pair of bags of hide, slung
over the back of a donkey, and empties into them the contents of
the calabashes. In these bags the balsam is sent down to the ports
where it is transferred to the cylindrical tins in which it reaches
Europe. The bleeding of the trees goes on for at least eight months of
the year, causing them ultimately to become much exhausted, and thin
in foliage.
In some districts, as we learn from another traveller, it is customary
to let the balsam flow down the trunk into a receptacle at its base,
formed of the large leaf of a sp?cies of Calathea.
From the observations of Mr. Weir, it appears that the balsam tree
1 Journ. of the R. Hort. Soc, May 1864; Pharm. Journ. vi. (1865) 60.
204
LEGUMINOS.E.
is plentifully scattered throughout the Montana around Plato and other
small ports on the right bank of the Magdalena. He states that he
saw at least 1,500 lb. of the drug on its way for exportation. From
another source, we know that it is largely collected in the valley of the
Sinu, and in the forests lying between that river and Cauca. None is
collected in Venezuela.
Description — Balsam of Tolu freshly imported is a light brown,
slow-flowing resin, soft enough to be impressible with the finger, but
viscid on the surface.^ By keeping, it gradually hardens so as to be
brittle in cold weather, but it is easily softened by the warmth of the
hand. Thin layei's show it to be quite transparent and of a yellowish
brown hue. It has a very agreeable and delicate odour, suggestive of
benzoin or vanilla, especially perceptible when the resin is warmed, or
when its solution in spirit is allowed to evaporate on paper. Its taste
is slightly aromatic with a barely ])erceptible acidity, though its
alcoholic solution decidedly reddens litmus.
In very old specimens, such as those which during the last century
reached Europe in little calabashes - of the size and shape of an
orange, the balsam is brittle and pulverulent, and exhibits when broken
a sparkling, crystalline surface. This old balsam is of a fine deep
amber tint and superior fi-agrauce.
When Balsam of Tolu is pressed between two warmed plates of glass
so as to obtain it in a thin even layer, and then examined with a lens,
it exhibits an abundance of crystals of cinnamic acid. Balsam of Tolu
dissolves easily and completely in glacial acetic acid, acetone, alcohol,
chloroform or solution of caustic potash ; it is less soluble in ether,
scarcely at all in volatile oils, and not in benzol or bisulphide of carbon.
The solution in acetone is devoid of rotatory power in polarized light.
Chemical Composition — The balsam consists partly of an
amorphous resin, not soluble in bisulphide of carbon, which is supposed
to be the same as the dark resin precipitated by the bisulphide from
balsam of Peru. Scharling (1856) assigned the formula C^'^H"''0' to that
part of the balsam which is soluble in potash.
If Tolu balsam is boiled with water, it yields to it cinnamic and
benzoic acid, which we have (1877) perfectly succeeded in separating by
repeated recrystallization from water ; we have before us good speci-
mens of either, showing not only different melting points (133° C. and
121° C), but as to our crystals of benzoic acid, isolated from the balsam
as stated above, we find that they also do not evolve bitter almond oil
when mixed with sulphuric acid and chromate of potassium. The acids
may also be removed by boiling bisulphide of carbon.
Busse^ showed that henzylic ethers of both benzoic and cinnamic
acid are also constituents of the balsam, the cinnamate of benzyl being
present in larger quantity.
Upon distilling the balsam with water, it affords 1 per cent, of
Tolene, (J'W\ boiling at about 170° C. This liquid rapidly absorbs
oxygen from the air. By destructive distillation, the balsam affords the
1 I have seen it imported very fluid into - The gourds, " Klirbsen," of the list of
London by way of New York. — Sept. Basle of 1647.
1878 — F A. F. ^ BericJite der Dnttschcn Chemischen Ga-
seV-ichaft, 1876. 833.
BALSAMUM PERUVIANUM.
205
same substances as those obtainable from balsam of Peru, among which
Phenol and Styrol have been observed.
Commerce — The balsam is exported from New Granada, packed in
C3diudrical tins holding about 10 lb. each. The quantity shipped from
Santa Marta in 1870 was 2,002 lb. ; in 1871, 2,183 lb. ; in 1872,
1,20G lb. In 1876 from the port of Savanilla 27,180 kilogrammes are
stated to have been exported.
Uses — Balsam of Tolu has no important medicinal properties. It
is chiefly used as an ingi-edient in a pleasant-tasting syrup and in
lozenges.
Adulteration — We have twice met with spurious Balsam of Tolu,
but in neither instance did the fraudulent drug bear any great resem-
blance to the genuine.
Colophony, which might be mixed with the balsam, can be detected
by warm bisulphide of carbon which dissolves it, but removes from the
pure drug almost exclusively cinnamic and benzoic acid.
BALSAMUM PERUVIANUM.
Balsam umindicum nigmm ; Balsam of Peru ; F. Baume de Pevou,
Baume de San Salvador ; G. Peruhalsam.
Botanical Origin — Myroxylon Pereirw Klotzsch {Myrosperviura
Pereiroi Royle), a tree attaining a height of about 50 feet, and throw-
ing outspreading, ascending branches at G to 10 feet from the ground.^
It is found in a small district of the State of Salvador in Central
America (formerly jmrt of Guatemala), lying between 13°"35 and 14<°-10
N. lat., and 89° and 89°"4!0 W. long., and known as the Costa del Balsanao
or Balsam Coast. The trees grow naturally in the dense forests ; those
from which the balsam is obtained are, if in groups, sometimes enclosed,
in other cases only marked, but all have their distinct owners. They
are occasionally rented for a term of years, or a contract is made for
the produce of a certain number.
The principal towns and villages around which balsam is produced,
are the following : — Juisnagua, Tepecoyo or Coyo, Tamanique, Chiltiua-
pan, Talnique, Jicalapa, Teotepeque, Comasagua and Jayaque. All the
lauds on the Balsam Coast are Indian Reservation Lands.
The Balsam of Peru tree was introduced in 1861 into Ceylon, where
it flourishes with extraordinary vigour.
1 We are not yet prepared to accept the opinion of Baillon, that M. Pereircv is
specifically identical with M. Toluife.ra, though we admit they are very closely related.
According to our observations, the two trees exhibit the following differences : —
M. Toluifera. M. Pereirce.
Trunk tall and bare, branching at 40
to 60 feet from the ground, and forming a
roundish crown of foliage.
Calyx rather tubular.
Racemes dense, 3 to 4^- inches long.
Legume scarcely narrowed towards the
stalk-end.
Trunk throwing off ascending branches
at 6 to 10 feet from the <n-ound.
Calyx widely cup-shaped, shallow.
Racemes loose, 6 to 7 inches long.
Legume much narrowed towards the
stalk-end.
See also Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, part 10 (1876), Tohdfera Pereirce.
206
LEGUMINOS^.
History — As in the case of Balsam of Tolu, it is to Monardes of
Seville that we are indebted for the earliest description of the drug
under notice. In a chapter headed Del Balsamo,^ he states that at the
time he wrote (1565) the drug was not new, for that it had been
received into medicine immediately after the discovery of New Spain.
As the conquest of Guatemala took place about 1524, we may conclude
that the balsam was introduced into Europe soon afterwards.
Monarde.s further adds, that the balsam was in such high estimation
that it sold for 10 to 20 ducats (£4 108. to £9) the ounce ; and that
when taken to Rome, it fetched even 100 ducats for the same quantity.
The inducement of such enormous prices brought plenty of the drug
to Europe, and its value, as well as its reputation, was speedily
reduced.
The description given by Monardes of extracting the balsam by
boiling the chopped wood of the trunk and branches, raises a doubt as
to whether the drug he had in view was exactly that now known ; but he
never was in America, and may have been misinformed. Evidence that
our drug was in use, is afforded by Diego Garcia de Palacio, who, in his
capacity of Auditor of the Royal Audiencia of Guatemala, wrote an
account to Philip II., king of Spain, describing the geography and pro-
ductions of this portion of his majesty's dominions. In this interesting
document, which bears date 1576 and has only recently been published,^
Palacio tells the king of the great balsam trees of Guaymoco and of the
coasts of Tonala,^ and of the Indian method of promoting the exudation
of the balsam by scorching the trunk of the tree. Prior to the conquest
of the country by the Spaniards and for a short time after, balsam
formed part of the tribute paid to the Indian chiefs of Cuscatlan, to
whom it was presented in curiously ornamented earthen jars.
The idea of great virtues attaching to the balsam is shown by the
fact that, in consequence of representations made by missionary priests
in Central America, Pope Pius V. granted a faculty to the Bishops of
the Indies, permitting the substitution of the balsam of Guatemala for
that of Egypt, in the preparation of the chrism used in the Roman
Catholic Church. This document, bearing date August 2, 1571, is still
preserved in the archives of Guatemala.*
In the 16th century, the balsam tree grew in the warm regions of
Panuco and Chiapan in Mexico, whence it was introduced into the
famous gardens of Hoaxtepec near the cit}^ of Mexico, described by
Cortes in his letter to Charles V. in 1552.^
A rude figure of the tree, certainly a Myroxylon and probably the
species under notice, was published in the TJtesaurus Rerum Medicarum
Novce Hisjmniai of Hernandez,^ who also says that it had been trans-
' Occurring in the first book of the work
quoted in the Apisendix, which was pub-
lished sejmrately at Se\'ille in 1565.
2 Squier, Documents and Relations con-
cerninn the Discovery and Conquest of
America, New York, 1859. — Frantzius,
San Salx'ador unci Honduras ini Jalire
1576. Berlin, 1873.
The ancient name of the Balsam Coast;
Guaymoco is a village between Sonsonate
and San Salvador. The pillars of wood of
Myroxylon in the church are, perhaps, says
Squier, the very same as those mentioned
with admiration by Palacio.
■* It may be found in extenso in the original
Latin in P/un-m. Journ. ii. (1861)447 as well
as in Hanbury's Science Pa])ers, 1876. 294.
^ Clavigero, Hist, of Mexico, English
trans, i. (1787) pp. 32. 379.
"Rome, 1628; 2nd ed. 1651. fol. 51; the
book written in the town of Mexico, bears at
the same time also the title given in the
Appendix.
BALSAMUM PERUVIANUM.
207
feired to the " Hoaxtepecences hortos " of the Mexican kings " deliti-
arum et magnificentipe gratia."
Balsam of Peru was well known in German pharmacy in the begin-
ing of the 17th century (see article Balsamiim Tolutcmum).
The exports of Guatemala being shipped chietij^ at Acajutla, were
formerly carried to Callao, the port of Lima, whence they were trans-
mitted to Spain. This circumstance led to the balsam acquiring the
misleading name of Peru, and in part to the notion that it was a produc-
tion of South America.
The history of Balsam of Peru was much amplified by a communica-
tion of the late Dr. Charles Dorat, of Sonsonate, Salvador, in 1860 to the
American Journal of Pharmacy, and by still further information accom-
panied by drawings and specimens, transmitted to one of us in 1863.^
These statements have lastly been confirmed again on the spot by Mr.
Theophilus Wyss, a Swiss apothecary, established in San Miguel la
Union, San Salvador.^
Extraction of the Balsam — Early in November or December, or
after the last rains, the stems of the balsam trees are beaten with the
back of an axe, a hammer or other blunt instrument, on four sides, a
similar extent of bark being left unbruised between the parts that are
beaten. The bark thus injured soon cracks in long strips, and may be
easily pulled off". It is sticky as well as the surface below it, and there
is a slight exudation of fragrant resin, but not in sufficient quantity to
be worth collecting. To promote an abundant flow, it is customary, five or
six days after the beating, to apply lighted torches or bundles of burning
wood to the injured bark, whereby the latter becomes charred. About
a week later, the bark either drops or is taken off", and the stem commences
to exude the balsam. This is collected by placing rags (of any kind or
colour), so as entirely to cover the bare wood. As these rags in the course
of some days become saturated with the exudation, they ai-e collected,
thrown into an earthen vessel of water, and gently boiled and stirred
until they appear nearly clean, the balsam separating and sinking to the
bottom. This process goes on for some hours, the exhausted rags being
from time to time taken out, and fresh ones thr-own in. As the rags are
removed they are wrung out in a sort of rope bag, and the balsam so saved
is added to the stock. When the boiler has cooled, the water is decanted,
and the balsam is poured into tecomates or gourds, ready for the market.
The balsam prepared by means of rags is termed " balsamo de trapo;"
a little balsam of inferior quality is also produced, according to Wyss,
by boiling the bark with water. This L.iethod affbi-ds " Tacuasonte " or
" balsamo de cascara," which is sometimes mixed with the balsamo de
trapo. Tacuasonte means prepai-ed without fire.
The Indians work a tree a second year, by bruising the bark that was
left untouched the previous year. As the bark is said to be renewed
in the short space of two years, it is possible to obtain from the same
tree an annual yield of about 2 lb. of balsam for many years, provided
^ Hanbury in Pharni. Joiirii. v. (1864)
241. 315 ; also Science Paper.% 294-309.
-See my paper, with ma,p, in SchweizeriscJie
Wocheiischrift fiir Pharmacie, 1878. 219
(Library of the Pharm. Soc, London).—
In the Catalogue of the contributions of
San Salvador to the Paris exhibition, p. 33,
Dr. D. J. Guzman gives : "Details sur le
moyen d'extraire et travailler le Balsamo
neijro du Salvador," which ai-e farfrom satis-
factory.— F. A. F.
20S
LEGUMINOS^.
- a few years of rest be occasionally allowed. Clay or earth is sometimes
smeared over the bare wood.
The trees sometimes exude spontaneously a greenish gum-resin of
slightly bitter taste, but totally devoid of balsamic odour. It has been
analyzed by Attfield (see opposite page).
Secretion of the Balsam — No observations have yet been made
as to the secretion of the balsam in the wood, or the part that is played
by the operation of scorching the bark. Neither the unscorched bark
nor the wood, as we have received them, possess any aromatic odour.
The old accounts speak of a very fragrant resin, far more valuable
than the ordinary balsam, obtained by incisions. We have made many
inquiries for it, but without the least success. Such a resin is easily
obtainable from the trunk of 31. Toluifera.
Description — Balsam of Peru is a liquid having the appearance of
molasses, but rather less viscid. In bulk it appears black, but when
examined in a thin layer, it is seen to be of a deep orange brown and
perfectly transparent. It has a balsamic, rather smoky odour, which is
fragrant and agreeable when the liquid is smeared on paper and warmed.
It does not much aftect the palate, but leaves a disagreeable burning
sensation in the fauces.
The balsam has a sp. gr. of 115 to 1'16. It may be exposed to the
air for years without undergoing alteration or depositing crystals. It is
not soluble in water, but yields to it a little cinnamic and traces of
benzoic acid ; from G to 8 parts of crystallized carbonate of sodium are
required to neutralize 100 parts of the balsam. It is but partially
and to a small extent dissolved by dilute alcohol, benzol, ether or
essential or fatty oils, not at all by petroleum-ether. The balsam
mixes readily with glacial acetic acid, anliydrous acetone, absolute
alcohol or chloroform. Its rotatory power is very insignificant.
Chemical Composition — The peculiar process by which balsam of
Peru is obtained, causes it to contain a variety of substances not found
in the more natural resin of Myroxylon Toluifera ; hence the two drugs,
though derived from plants most closely allied, possess very different
properties.
Three parts of the balsam mix readily with one part of bisulphide of
carbon, yet a further addition of the latter will cause the separation of a
brown flocculent resin. If the balsam be mixed with thrice its weight
of bisulphide, a coherent mass of dark resin, sometimes amounting to
about 38 per cent, of the balsam, is precipitated. The bisulphide of
carbon forms then a perfectly transparent brown liquid. If this solution
is shaken with water, the latter removes Cinnamic and Benzoic acids. To
separate them, ammonia is cautiously added, yet not in excess.^ The
solution of cinnamate and benzoate thus obtained and duly concentrated,
yields both these acids in white crystals on addition of acetic or hydro-
chloric acid.
The resin separated by means of bisulphide of carbon as above stated,
is a black brittle amorphous mass, having no longer the specific odour of
the balsam. It is soluble in caustic alkalis, also in alcohol ; the solution
^ By saturating the acid aqueous liquid forms the whole mixture into an emulsion,
with ammonia, it assumes a transient bright from which the cinnamein again separates
yellow hue ; an excess of ammonia traus- but imperfectly.
BALSAMUM PERUVIANUM.
209
in the latter which may be considerably purified by charcoal, reddens
litmus, and is abundantly precipitated by an alcoholic solution of neutral
acetate of lead. Kachler (1869) by melting this resin with potash
obtained about f of its weight of proto-catechuic acid.^ By destructive
distillation, it furnishes benzoic acid, styrol, Cff, and toluol, C^H^.
As to the solution obtained with bisulphide of carbon, it forms, after
the bisulphide has evaporated, a brownish aromatic liquid of about
1"1 sp. gr., termed Cinnamein. This substance may also be obtained
by distillation, yet less easily, on account of its very high boiling point,
about 300° C.
Cinnamein, C^H^^O', is resolved by concentrated caustic lye into
benzylic alcohol, C"H"0^ and cinnamic acid, Cff 0", whence it follows
that cinnamein is Benzylic Cinnamate. This is, according to Kraut
(1858, 1869, 1870) and to Kachler (1869, 1870), the chief constituent of
the balsam. The former chemist obtained from it nearly 60 per cent,
cinnamein. Kachler assigns to the balsam the following composition :
46 per cent, of cinnamic acid, 32 of resin, 20 of benzylic alcohol. These
latter figures however are not quite consistent : 46 parts of cinnamic
acid (molecular weight = 148) would answer to 73 parts of benzylic
cinnamate ; and 20 parts of benzylic alcohol require on the other hand
only (mol. weight = 108) 27'4 parts of cinnamic acid in order to form
benzylic cinnamate (mol. = 238).
Benzylic cinnamate, prepared as above stated, is a thick liquid,
miscible both with ether or alcohol, not concreting at — 12° C, boiling
at 305° C, yet under ordinary circumstances not without decomposition.
By exposure to air, it slowly acquires an acid reaction ; by prolonged
action of potash, especially in an alcoholic solution, toluol is also formed.
In this process, cinnamate of potassium finally forms a crystalline mass,
while an oily mixture of benzylic alcohol and toluol, the so-called
" Peruvin," constitutes the liquid part of the whole.
Grimaux (1868) has artificially prepared benzylic cinnamate by
heating an alkaline cinnamate with benzylic chloride. Thus obtained,
that substance forms crystals, which melt at 39° C, and boil at 225 to
235° C. They consequently diflfer much from cinnamein.
Delafontaine (1868) is of the opinion, that cinnamein contains besides
benzylic cinnamate, cinnamylic cinnamate, C^'^H'^'O*, the same substance
as described under the name of styracin in the article Styrax liquida.
He states that he obtained benzylic and cinnamylic alcohol when he
decomposed cinnamein by an alkali. The two alcohols however were
separated only by fractional distillation.
From the preceding investigations it must be concluded, that the
bai'k of the tree contains resin and probably benzylic cinnamate. The
latter is no doubt altered by the process of collecting the balsam, which
is followed on the Balsam Coast. To this are probably due the free
acids in the balsam and its dark colour.
Another point of considerable interest is the fact, that the tree exudes
a gum-resin, containing according to Attfield 77"4 per cent, of resin,^
which is non-aromatic and devoid of cinnamic acid, and therefore
entirely distinct from balsam of Peru. The leaves of the tree contain
a fragrant oil.
^ Numerous resins as benzoin, guaiacum, other substances are capable of affording
dragon's blood, myrrh, etc., and many the same acid.
- Pharm. Jmirn. v. (1864) 248.
O
210
LEGUMIN08^.
Commerce — The balsam is shipped chiefly at Acajutla. It used
formerly to be packed in large earthenware jars, said to be Spanish
wine-jars, which, wrapped in straw, were sewed up in raw hide. These
packages have of late been superseded by metallic drums, Avhich have
the advantage of being much less liable to breakage. We have no exaci
statistics as to the quantity exported from Central America. In th(
catalogue of San Salvador (quoted above, page 207, note 2) p. 39, tin
value of the balsam exported in 1876 from that country is stated t(
have been 78,189 dollars. The value of tobacco amounted to 09,711
dollars, that of coffee to I3- millions of dollars, indigo to 2^ millions.
Uses — Occasionally prescribed in the form of ointment as a stimu
lating application to old sores, sometimes internally for the relief o
asthma and chronic cough. It is said to be also employed for scenting
soap.
Adulteration — We have before us a sample of an adulteratec
balsam, which, we are told, is largely prepared at Bremen. It is les!
aromatic, less rich in acids, and contains usually much less than 38 pe:
cent, of resin separable, as above stated, by means of bisulphide of carbon
At first sight however the adulterated drug is not so easily recognized.
Other sorts of Balsam of Peru.
The value anciently set upon balsam for religious and medicina
uses, led to its being extracted from the pods and also from trees nc
longer employed for the purpose ; and many of the products so obtainec
have attracted the attention of pharmacologists.^ Parkinson writin'
in 1640 observes that — " there have been divers other sorts of liqueurs
called Balsamum for their excellent vertues, brought out of the Wes
Indies, every one of which for a time after their first bringing was o
great account with all men and bought at great prices, but as greate:
store was brought, so did the prices diminish and the use decay . . ."
In Salvador, the name Balsamo bianco (White Balsam) is applied t(
the soft resin contained in the large ducts of the legume of Myroxyloi
Pereirce. This, when pressed out, forms a golden yellow, semi-fluid
granular, crystalline mass, hardening by age, having a rather unpleasan
odour suggestive of melilot. Stenhouse (1850) obtained from it th(
neutral resin Myroxocarpin, C"H'^0', in thin colourless prisms, an incl
or more in length. We have succeeded in extracting it directly fron
the pods. This White Balsam, which is distinctly mentioned in th<
letter of Palacio in 1576 (see p. 206), is a scarce and valuable article
never prepared for the market. A large jar of it was sent to Pereira ii
1850 f Guzman' and Wyss state that it is known in the country a:
" Balsamito," or " Balsamo catolico or Virgin Balsam."
A fragrant balsamic resin is collected, though in but very smal
quantity, from Myvoxylon jjeriiifenim Linn, f, a noble tree of New
Granada, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. A fine sample of thi;
substance, accompanied by herbarium and other specimens, was pre
sented to one of us (H.) by Mr. J. Correa de Mello of Campinas (Brazil)
' Guibourt, Hist, dcfi Droq. iii. (1850) ■' In the Catalogue alluded to, page 207
4-10. ■ note 2.
^ Pharin. Jouni. x. (1851) 280,
SEMEN BONDIJCELL^.
211
it is a resin haviug a general resemblance to Balsam of Tolu, but of
somewhat deeper and redder tint, and greater hardness. Pressed be-
tween two slips of warmed glass, it does not exhibit any crystals.
In a treatise on Brazil written by a Portuguese friar about 1570-
1600,^ mention is made of the " Cabueriba" (Cabitre-iba), from which a
much-esteemed balsam was obtained by making incisions in the stem,
and absorbing the exudation with cotton wool, somewhat in the same
way as Balsam of Peru is now collected in Salvador. This tree is
Ili/rocarjms frondosus Allem., now called Cabriuva 2')Teta- The genus
is closely allied to Myroxylon.
Another fragrant oleo-resin, which has doubtless been confounded
with that of a Myroxylon, is obtained in Central America from
Liquidambar styraciflua L., either by incision or by boiling the bark.
SEMEN BONDUCELL^.
Semen Oiiilandince ; Bonduc Seeds, Grey Nicker Seeds or Nuts; F.
Graines de Bonduc ou du Cniquier, Pais Queniques, Pois Guenic.
Botanical Origin — Ccesaljyinia Bonducella Roxb. (Guilandina
Bond'iicella L.), a prickly, pubescent, climbing shrub^ of wide distribu-
tion, occurring in Tropical Asia, Africa and America, especially near the
sea. The compressed, ovate, spiny legume is 2 to 3 inches long, and
contains one or two, occasionally three or four, hard, grey, globular
seeds.
The plant is often confounded with C. Bonduc Roxb., a nearly
allied but much rarer species, distinguished by being nearly glabrous,
having leaflets very unequal at the base, no stipules, erect bracts, and
yellow seeds.
History — "Puti-Karanja," stinking Karanja, in Susruta (1. 223,1) is
the plant under notice. The word Bunduk, occurring in the writings
of the Arabian and Persian physicians, also in Constantinus Africanus,
mostly signifies hazel-nut.'^ One of these authors, Ibn Baytar,** who
flourished in the 18th century, further distinguished a drug called
Bunduk Hindi (Indian hazel-nut), giving a description which indicates
it plainly as the seed under notice. Both Bunduk RndBunduk Hindi
are enumerated in the list of drugs of Noureddeen Mohammed Abdullah
Shirazy,® physician to the Mogul emperor Shah Jehan, a.d. 1628-1661.
The pods of C. Bonducella were figured by Clusius in 1605, under
the name of Lobus echinodes, and the plant both by Rheede ^ and
Rumphius. Piso and Marcgraf (1648) noticed it in Brazil and gave
some account of it with a bad Avoodcut, under the designation of
Tnimbdy (now Inimboja), or in Portuguese Silva do Praya.
In recent times, Bonduc seeds have been employed on account of
their tonic and antiperiodic properties by numerous European practi-
1 Purchas, His Pilgrhncs, iv. (1625) 1308.
- Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Plavts, part 24 (1877).
^ The word also means a little ball or a
round stone. Bundnk Hindi is frequently
used by Arabic authors to denote also
Areca-nut.
"* Sontheimer's translation, i. 177.
^ Ul/'az Udtviyeh, translated by Gladwin,
1793. No. 543. 551.
^ Hort. Ilalah. ii. (1679) tab. 22, sub
nom. Curefti.
212
LEGUMINOSiE.
tioners in the East, and have been included in the Pharmacopoeia of
India, 1868.
Description — The seeds are somewhat globulai' or ovoid, a little
compressed, to of an inch in diameter and weighing 20 to 40
grains. They are of a bluish or greenish grey tint, smooth, yet marked
by slightly elevated horizontal lines of a darker hue. The umbilicus
is surrounded by a small, dark brov/n, semilunar blotch opposite the
micropyle. The hard shell is from to -f^ of an inch thick, and
contains a white kernel, representing from 40 to 50 per cent, of the
weight of the seed. It separates easily from the shell, and consists of
the two cotyledons and a stout radicle. When a seed is soaked for
some hours in cold water, a very thin layer can be peeled from tlie sur-
face of the testa. The kernel is bitter, but with the taste that is
common to most seeds of the family Leguminosce.
Microscopic Structure — The outer layer of the testa, the
epidermis above alluded to, is composed of two zones of perpendicular,
closely packed cells, the outer measuring about 130 mkm., the inner
100 mkm. iu length and only 5 to 7 mkm. in diameter. The walls of
these cylindrical cells are thickened by secondary deposits, which in
transverse section show usually four or more channels running down
nearly perpendicularly through the whole cell.
The spongy parenchyme, which is covered by this very distinct
outer layer, is made up of irregular, ovate, subglobular or somewhat
elongated cells with large spaces between them, loaded with brown
masses of tannic matter, assuming a blackish hue when touched with
perchloride of iron. The thick walls of these cells frequently exhibit,
chiefly in the inner layers, undulated outlines. The tissue of the coty-
ledons is composed of very large cells, swelling considerably in water,
and containing some mucilage (as may be ascertained when thin slices
are examined in oil), small starch granules, fatty oil, and a little albumi-
nous matter.
Chemical Composition — According to the medical reports alluded
to in the Pliarmacopozia of India (1868), Bonduc seeds, and still more
the root of the plant, act as a powerful antiperiodic and tonic.
The active principle has not yet been adequately examined. It may
perhaps occur in larger proportion in the bark of the root, which is said
to be more efficacious than the seeds in the treatment of intermittent
fever.^
In order to ascertain the chemical nature of the princi23le of the
seeds, one ounce of the kernels^ was pow^dered and exhausted with
slightly acidulated alcohol. The solution after the evaporation of the
alcohol was made alkaline with caustic potash, which did not pro-
duce a precipitate. Ether now shaken with the liquid, completely
removed the bitter matter, and yielded it in the form of an amor
phous white powder, devoid of alkaline properties. It is spaiingly
soluble in water, but readily in alcohol, forming intensely bitter
solutions ; an aqueous solution is not precipitated by tannic acid. It
]3roduces a yellowish or brownish solution with concentrated sulphuric
^ Waring, Bazaar Medicines,TY&\a.uc.ove, - Kindly furnislied us Ly Dr. Waring.
18C0. 18.
LIGNUM H/EMATOXYLI.
213
acid, which acquires subsequeutly a violent hue. Nitric acid is without
manifest influence. From these experiments, we may infer tliat the
active principle of the Bonduc seed is a bitter substance not possessing
basic properties.
Uses — The powdered kernels either ^jcr se, or mixed with black
pepper {Pulvis Bonducellce compositus Ph. Ind.), are employed in
India against intermittent fevers and as a general tonic.
The fatty oil of the seeds is sometimes extracted and used in India ;
it was shown at the Madras Exhibitions of 1855 and 1857.
LIGNUM HiEMATOXYLI.
Lignum Campecliianavi v. Campescanum ; Logivood, Peachiuood ;
F. Bois de Campeclie, Bois d'Inde; G. Campecheholz, Blauholz.
Botanical Origin — Hcematoxylon eampecliianum L., a spreading
tree ^ of moderate size, seldom exceeding 40 feet in height, native of the
bay of Cam])eachy, Honduras and other parts of Central America.
It was introduced into Jamaica by Dr. Barham ^ in 1715, and is now
completely naturalized in that and other of the West Indian Islands.
History — Hernan Cortes in his letter to the Emperor Charles V.,
giving an account of his expedition to Honduras in 1525,'* refers to the
Indian towns of Xiculango and Tabasco as carrying on a trade in cacao,
cotton cloth, and colours for dyeing, — in which last phrase there may
be an allusion to logwood. We have sought for some more definite
notice of the wood in the Historia de las Tndias of Oviedo,'* the first
chronicler of America, but without much success.
Yet the wood must have been introduced into England in the latter
half of the IGth century, for, in 1581, an Act of Parliament^ was passed,
abolishing its use and ordering that any found should be forfeited and
burned. In this Act the obnoxious dye is described as " a certain liind
of ware or stuff" called Logivood alias Blochivood ... of late years
. . . . brought into this realm of England." The object of this
measure was to protect the public against the bad work of the dyers,
who, it seems, wei-e unable at that period to obtain durable colours by
the use of logwood. Eighty years later the art of dyeing had so far
improved that logwood was again permitted,** the colours produced by
it being declared as lasting and serviceable as those made by any other
sort of dyewood whatsoever.
The wood is mentioned by De Laet (1633) as deriving its name
from the town of Campeachy, whence, says he, it is brought in great
plenty to Europe.^
As a medicine, logwood was not employed until shortly before the
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Plants, part 5 (1876).
^ Hortus Americanus, Kingston, Jamaica,
1794. 91.
^ Fifth Letter of Hernan Cortes to the
Emperor Charles V., Lond. (Hakluyt
Society) 1868. 43.
^ The first edition bears date 1535. We
have used the modern one of Madrid,
1851-55, 4to., and may refer in particular
to torn. i. lib. ix. c. 15, iii. lib. xxxi. c. 8
and 0. 11. — iSee Appendix: Fernandez.
5 23 Eliz. c. 9.
« 13-14 Car. ii. c. 11. sect. 26 (a.D.
1662), by which the Act of Elizabeth was
repealed.
' Novus Orbis, 1633. 274 and 265.
LEGUMINOS^.
year 17^6, when it was introdviced into the London Pharmacopceia under
the name of Lignum finctile Campechense.
Description — The tree is fit to be felled when about ten years old ;
the dark bark and the yellowish sap-wood are chipped off", the stems
cut into logs about three feet long, and the red heart-wood alone
exported. By exposure to air and moisture, the wood acquires exter-
nsdly a blackish red colour ; internally it remains brownish red. It
splits well, although of a rather dense and tough texture.
The transverse section of a piece of logwood exhibits to the naked
eye a series of very narrow concentric zones, formed by comparatively
large pores, and of small parenchymatous circles separated by the larger
and darker rings of the proper woody tissue. The numerous medul-
lary rays are visible only by means of a lens. The wood has a pleasant
odour.
For use in pharmacy, logwood is always purchased in the form of
chips, which are produced by the aid of powerful machinery. The
chips have a feeble, seaweed-like odour, and a slightly sweet, astringent
taste, better perceived in a watery decoction than by chewing the dry
wood, which however quickly imparts to the saliva its brilliant colour.
Microscopic Structure — Under a high magnifying power, the
concentric zones are seen to run not quite regularly round the centre,
but in a somewhat undulating manner, because they do not correspond,
as in our indigenous woods, to regular periods of annual growth. The
vascular bundles contain only a few vessels, and are transversely united
by small lighter parenchymatous bands. The latter are made up of
large, cubic, elongated or jiolygonal cells, each loaded with a crystal of
oxalate of calcium. The large punctuated vessels having frequently
loO mkm. diameter, are surrounded by this woody parenchyme, while
the prevailing tissue of the wood is composed of densely packed
prosenchyme, consisting of long cylindrical cells (lihriform) with thick,
dark red-brown walls having small pores.
The medullaiy^ rays are of the usual structural character, running
transversely in one to three straiglit rows ; in a longitudinal section,
the single rays show from 4 to 40 rows succeeding each other perpen-
dicularly. No regular arrangement of the rays is obvious in a longi-
tudinal section made in a tangential direction. The colouring matter
is chiefly contained in the walls of the ligneous tissue and the vessels,
and sometimes occurs in crystals of a greenish hue within the latter, or
in clefts of the wood.
Chemical Composition — Logwood was submitted to analysis by
Chevreul as early as the year 1810,^ since which period all contribu-
tions to a knowledge of the drug refer exclusively to its colouring-
principle Hmnatoxylin, which Chevi'eul obtained in a crystallized
state and called Hematine. The very interesting properties of this
stibstance have been chiefly examined by Erdmann (1842) and by O.
Hesse <1858-o9).
Erdmann obtained from logwood 9 to 12 per cent, of crystallized
haematoxylin, which he showed to have the formula C'^ff^O*^. In a
pure state it is colourless, crystallizing with 1 or with 3 equivalents of
water, and is readily soluble in hot water or in alcohol, but sparingly
^Annakdc Chimie, Ixxxi. (1812) 128.
LIGNUM H/EMATOXYLI.
215
in cold water or in ether. It has a persistent sweet taste like liquorice.
The crj'stals of hfematoxylin acquire a red colour by the action of sun-
light, as likewise their aqueous solution. They are decomposed by
ozone but not by pure and dry oxygen. In presence of alkalis,
hferaatoxylin exposed to the air quickly yields dark purplish violet
solutions, which soon acquire a yellowish or dingy brownish colour ;
hence in analytical chemistry h;iematoxylin is used as a test for
alkalis.
By the combined action of ammonia and oxygen, dark violet
crystalline scales of Hcematein, C'H^O" + 3 OH'^ are produced.^ They
show a fine green hue, which is also very commonly observable on
the surface of the logwood chips of commerce. Hsematein may again
be transformed into ha^matoxjdin by means of hydrogen or of sulphurous
acid.
Htematoxylin separates protoxide of copper from an alkaline solu-
tion of the tartrate, and deviates the ray of polarized light to the right
hand. It is not decomposed by concentrated hydrochloric acid ; by
melting hcematoxylin with potash, pyrogallol (pyrogalHc acid, C^H*'0'^)
is obtained. Alum and the salts of lead throw down pi'ecipitates from
solutions of hnematox^din, the latter being of a bluish-black colour.
Logwood affords upon incineration 'S S per cent, of ash.
The colouring matter being abundantly soluble in boiling water, an
Extract of Logivood is also ]Drepared on a large scale. It occurs in
commerce in the form of a blackish brittle mass, taking the form of the
wooden chest into which it is put while soft. The extract shares the
chemical properties of ha^matoxylin and hpematein : whether it also
contains gum requires investigation.
Production and Commerce — The felling and shipping of logwood
in Central America have been described by Morelet,^ who states that in
the woods of Tabasco and Yucatan the trade is carried on in the most
irrational and reckless manner. By advancing money to the natives, or
by furnishing them with spirits, arms, or tools, the proprietors of the
woods engage them to fell a number of trees in proportion to their debts.
This is done in the dry season, the rainy period being taken for the
shipment of the logs, which are conveyed chiefly to the island of Carmen
in the Laguna de Terminos in South-western Yucatan, and to Frontera
on the mouths of the Tabasco river, at which places European ships
receive cargoes of the wood.
In 1877 the export of Laguna dt Terminos amounted to 528,605
quintals (one quintal = 46 kilogrammes), that from Port-au-Prince,
Hayti, in 1872, nearly to 90,000 tons.
Four sorts of logwood are found in the London market, namely Cam-
peachy, quoted^ at £8 10s. to £9 10s. per ton; Honduras, £6 10s.
to £6 15s.; St. Domingo, £5 15s. to £6 ; Jamaica, £5 2s. Qdj. to £5 10s.
The imports into the United Kingdom were valued in 1872 at £233,035.
The quantities imported during that and the previous three years were
as follows : —
1869 1870 1871 1872
50,458 tons. 62,187 tons. 39,346 tons. 46,039 tons.
^ Benedikt, in 1875, assigned them the
formnla C^sH^aQ'SN + 9 0H-.
- Voyage dans I'Amdrique centrale, Vile
de Cvha et le Yucatan, Paris, 1857.
3 Pidylic Ledger, 28 Feb. 1 874,
216
LEGUMINOS^.
In 1876 the import was 64,215 tons, valued at £415,857. The
largest quantity is supplied by the British West India Islands. Ham-
burg also imports annually about 20,000 tons of logwood.
Uses — Logwood in the form of decoction is occasionally administered
in chronic diarrhoea, and especially in the diarrhoea of children. Cases
have occurred in which its use has been followed by phlebitis. Its
employment in the art of dyeing is far more important.
Adulteration — The woods of several species of GcesaVpinia imported
under the name of Brazil Wood and used for dyeing red, bear an
external resemblance to logwood, with which it is said they are some-
times mixed in the form of chips. They contain a crystallizable colour-
ing principle called Brasilin, C"H"°0', or, according to Liebermann and
Burg (1876), C'^H^'O', which affords with alkalis red and not bluish
or purplish solutions, and yields trinitrophenol, C'^H'(NO")'OII (picric
acid), when boiled with nitric acid, while heematoxylin j'ields oxalic
acid only. The best source for brasilin is the wood of Ccescdpinia
Sappan L., a tree of the East Indies, well known as Bakam, Brazil
Wood, Lignum Brasile, Verzino of the Italians, an important object of
commerce during the middle ages.^
FOLIA SENNiE.
Senna Leaves ; F. Feuilles de Sene ; G. Sennesbldtter.
Botanical Origin — The Senna Leaves of commerce are afforded
by two species of Cassia" belonging to that section of the genus which
is distinguished by having leaves without glands, axillary racemes
elongating as inflorescence advances, membranaceous bracts which in
the young raceme conceal the flower buds but drop off" during flower-
ing, and a short, broad, flat legume.
The senna plants are low perennial bushy shrubs, 2 to 4 feet high,
having pari-pinnate leaves with leaflets unequal at the base, and yellow
flowers. The pods contain 6 or more seeds in each, suspended on alter-
nate valves by long capillary funicles. These run towards the pointed
end of the seed, but are curved at their attachment to the hilum just
below. The seeds are com^iressed and of an obovate-cuneate or oblong
form, beaked at the narrower end.^
The species in question are the following : —
1. Cassia acutifolta Delile^ — a shrub about 2 feet high, with pale
subterate or obtusely angled, erect or ascending branches, occasionally
slightly zigzag above, glabrous at least below. Leaves usually 4-5-jugate ;
leaflets oval or lanceolate, acute, mucronate, usually more or less distinctly
1 See Yule, 3farco Polo, ii. (1874). 369.
^ Some writers have removed these plants
from Cassia to a separate genus named
Senna, but such subdivision is repudiated
by the principal botanists. The intricate
synonymy of the senna plants has been well
woi-ked out by J. B. Batka in his memoir
entitled Monographie dfr Cassien-Grappe
Senna (Prag, 1866), of which we have made
free use. We have also had the advantage
of the recent Revision of the Genus Cassia
by Bentham (Linn. Trans., xxvii. 1871.
503) and of the labours of Oliver on the
same subject in his Flora of Tropical
Africa, ii. (1871) 268-282.
On the structure of the seed, see Batka,
Pharvi. Journ. ix. (1850) 30.
* Synonyms — C. Senna p. Linn. ; C. lan-
ceo/ato- Nectoux ; C. lenitiva ^isch.; Senna
acutifolia Batka.
FOLIA SENN^.
217
puberulous or at length glabrous, pale or subglaucous at least beneath,
subsessile. Stijiules subulate, spreading or reflexed, 1-2 lines long.
Racenies axilliary, erect, rather laxly many-flowered, usually consider-
ably exceeding the subtending leaf. Bracts membranous, ovate or
obovate, caducous. Pedicels at length 2-3 lines. Sepals obtuse, mem-
branous. Two of the anterior anthers much exceeding the rest of the
fertile stamens. Legume flat, very broadly oblong, but slightly curved
upwards, obliquely stipitate, broadly rounded at the extremity with a
minute or obsolete mucro indicating the position of the style on the
upper edge; l-^-Sj inches long, f-1 inch broad; valves chartaceous,
obsoletely or thinly puberulous, faintly transverse-veined, una]jpendaged.
Seeds obovate-cuueate, compressed ; cotyledons plane, extending the
large diameter of the seed in transverse section.^
The plant is a native of many districts of Nubia (as Sukkot, Mahas,
Dongola, Berber), Kordofan and Sennaar ; grows also in Timbuktu and
Sokoto, and is the source of Alexandrian Senna.
2. C. au(justifolia, Vahl" — This species is closely related to the
preceding, the general description of which is applicable to it with the
following exceptions. In the present plant the leaflets, which are
usually 5-8-jugate, are narrower, being oval-lanceolate, tapering from
the middle towards the apex ; they ai"e larger, being from one to nearly
2 inches long, and are either quite glabrous or furnished with a very
scanty pubescence. The legume is narrower (7-8 lines broad), with the
base of the style distinctly prominent on its upper edge.
The plant abounds in Yemen and Hadramaut in Southern Arabia ;
it is also found on the Somali coast, in Sind and the Punjab. In
some parts of India it is now cultivated for medicinal use.
The uncultivated plant of Arabia supplies the so-called Bombay
Senna of commerce, the true Senna Meld-.i of the East. The cultivated
and more luxuriant plant, raised originally from Arabian seeds, furnishes
the Thinevdlij Senna of the drug market.
History — According to the elaborate researches of Carl Martins,^ a
knowledge of senna cannot be ti'aced back earlier than the time of the
Elder Serapion, who flourished in the 9th or 10th century; and it is in
fact to the Arabian physicians that the introduction of the drug to
Western Europe is due. Isaac Judpeias,'' who wrote probably about A.D.
8oO-9UO and who was a native of Egypt, mentions senna, the best kind
of which he says is that brought from Mecca.
Senna (as Ssinen or Ssenen) is enumerated among the commodities
liable to duty at Acre in Palestine at the close of the 12th century.'
In France in 1542, a pound of senna was valued in an official tariff^ at
15 sols, the same price as pepper or ginger.
The Arabian and the mediaeval physicians of Europe used both the
pods and leaves, preferring however the former. The pods {Folliculi
Sennce) are still employed in some countries.
^ We bon-ow the above description from
Prof. Oliver.
- Synonyms — C. lanceolata Roxb. ; C.
elongata Lem. Lis.; Senna officinalis B.oxh. ;
S. anr/ustifoUa Batka.
^ Verstich einer JUonor/raphie der Sennes-
hldtter, Leipz. 1867.
* Opera Omnia, Lugd. 1515, lib. 2. Prac-
tices, c. 39,
^ Recneil des Historicns des Croisades,
Lois, ii. (1843) 177.
^ Fontanon, Edicts et Ordonnances des
Roys de France, ed. 2, ii. (1585) 349.
21S
LEGUMINOSyE.
Cassia obovata CoW was the species first known to botanists, and it
was even cultivated in Italy for medicinal use during the first half of
the IGth century. Hence the term Italian Senna used by Gerarde
and others. In the records of the " Cinque savii alia mercanzia " at
Venice we found an order bearing date 1526 to the effect that Senna
leaves of Tuscany were inadmissible ; the same was applied in 1676 to
the drug from Tripoli in Barbaria, that from Cairo being exclusively
permitted.
Production — According to Nectoux,- whose observations relate to
Nubia at the close of the last century, the peasants make tM^o senna
harvests annually, the first and more abundant being at the termination
of the rains, — that is in September ; while the other, which in dry
seasons is almost nil, takes place in April.
The gathering consists in simply cutting down the shrubs, and
exposing them on the rocks to the burning sun till completely dry.
The drug is then packed in bags made of palm leaves holding about a
quintal each, and conveyed by camels to Es-souan and Darao, whence it
is transported by water to Cairo. By many travellers it is stated that
Senna jebeli, i.e. mountain senna {G. acutifolia), finds its way to the
ports of Massowhah and Suakin, and thence to Cairo and Alexandria.
Cassia obovata, which is called by the Arabs Senna baladi, i.e. indi-
genous or wild senna, groM^s in the fields of durra (Sorghum) at Karnak
and Luxor, and in the time of Nectoux was held in such small esteem
that it fetched but a quarter the price of the Senna jebeli hrought
by the caravans of Nubia and the Bisharrin Arabs. It is not now
collected.
Description — Thi'ee kinds of senna are distinguished in English
commerce : —
1. Alexandrian Senna — This is furnished by Cassia acutifolia
and is imported in large bales. It used formerly always to arrive in a
very mixed and dirty state, containing, in addition to leaflets of senna,
a variable pi'oportion of leafstalks and broken twigs, pods and flowers ;
besides which there was almost invariably an accompaniment of the
leaves, flowers and fruits of Solenostemma Argel Hayne (p. 220), not to
mention seeds, stones, dust and heterogeneous rubbish. Such a drug
required sifting, fanning and picking, by which most of these impurities
could be separated, leaving only the senna contaminated with leaves of
argel. But Alexandrian Senna has of late been shipped of much better
quality. Some we have recently seen (1872) was, as taken from the
original package, wholly composed of leaflets of C. acutifolia in a well-
preserved condition ; and even the lower qualities of senna are never
now contaminated with argel to the extent that was usual a few
years ago.
The leaflets, the general form of which has already been described
^ It is a glaucous shrub ■with obovate
leaflets, broadly rounded and mucronulate,
reiiiform legume terminated by persistent
style, and marked along the middle of each
valve by a series of crest-shaped ridges
corresponding to the seeds. It is more
widely distributed in the Nile region than
the other species, and is also found in
iSindh and Gujerat and (naturalized) in the
West Indies. Its leaflets (also jjods) may
occasionally be picked out of Alexandrian
Senna.
^ Voyage dans la Haute Eyypfe . . aver
lies observations sur les diverses esjitces dc
Senc qui sont r^pandties dans le commerce.
Paris, 1808. fol.
Folia senn^.
219
(p. 216), are f to 1} iuch.es long, rather stiff and brittle, generally a little
incurled at the edges, conspicuously veined, the midrib being often
brown. They are covered with a very short and fine pubescence which
is most dense on the midrib. The leaves have a peculiar opaque, light
yellowish green hue, a somewhat agreeable tea-like odour, and a
mucilaginous, not very marked taste, which however is sickly and
nauseous in a watery infusion.
2. Arahimi Moha, Bomhaj/ or East Indian Senna — This drug
is derived from Cassia aiujustifolia, and is produced in Southern
Arabia. It is shipped from Moka, Aden and other Red Sea ports to
Bombay, and thence reaches Europe.
Arabian senna is usually collected and dried without care, and is
mostly an inferior commodity, fetching in London sometimes as low a
price as Id. to per lb. Yet so for as we have observed, it is never
adulterated, but consists wholly of senna leaflets, often brown and
decayed, mixed with flowers, pods, and stalks. The leaflets have the
form already described (p. 217); short adpressed hairs are often visible
on their under surface.
3. TimiercUi/ Senna — Derived from the same species as the last,
but from the plant cultivated in India, and in a state of far greater
luxuriance than it exhibits in the drier regions of Ai-abia where it
grows Avild. It is a very superior and carefully collected drug, consist-
ing wholly of the leaflets. These are lanceolate, 1 to 2 inches in length,
of a yellowish green on the upper side, of a duller tint on the under,
glabrous or thinly pubescent on the under side with short adpressed
hairs. The leaflets are less rigid in texture than those of Alex-
andrian senna, and have a tea-like, rather fragrant smell, with but
little taste.
Tinnevelly senna has of late fallen off" in size, and some importa-
tions in 1873 were not distinguishable from Arabian senna, except from
having been more carefully prepared. The drug is generally shipped
from Tuticorin in the extreme south of India.
Chemical Composition — The analysis of senna with a view to
the isolation of its active pi'inciple has engaged the attention of nume-
rous chemists, but as yet the results of their labours are not quite
satisfactory.
Ludwig (ISC-i) treated an alcoholic extract of senna with charcoal,
and obtained from the latter by means of boiling alcohol two bitter
principles, Sennacrol, soluble in ethtr, and Sennapicrin, not dissolved
by ether.
Dragendorfl' and Kubly (1866) have shown the active substance of
senna to be a colloid body, easily soluble in water but not in strong
alcohol. When a syrupy aqueous extract of senna is mixed with an
equal volume of alcohol, and the mucilage thus thrown down has been
removed, the addition of a further quantity of alcohol occasions the fall
of a dark brown, almost tasteless, easily alterable substance, which is
indued with purgative properties. It was further shown that this
precipitate was a mixture of calcium and magnesium salts of phosphoric
acid and a peculiar acid. The last named, separated by hydrochloric
acid, has been called Cathartic Acid; it is a black substance which in
the mouth is at first insipid, but afterwards tastes acid and somewhat
220
LEGUMINOS75i.
astringent. In water or sti-ong alcohol it is almost insoluble, and
entirely so in ether or chloroform ; but it dissolves in warm dilute
alcohol. From this solution it is precipitable by man}' acids, but not
by tannic.
Groves' in 1868, unaware of the researches of DragendorfT and
Kubly, arrived at similar results as these chemists, and proved con-
clusively that a cathartate of ammonia possesses in a concentrated form
the purgative activity of the original drug.
The exactness of the chief facts relative to the solubility in weak
alcohol of the active principle of senna set forth by the said chemists,
was also remarkably supported by the long practical experience of
T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh."
When cathartic acid is boiled with alcohol and hydrochloric acid, it
is resolved into sugar and Cathartogenic Acid.
The alcoliolic solution from which the cathartates have been separated
contains a yellow colouring matter which was called Chrysoretin by
Bley and Diesel (1849), but identified as Chrysoj)han^ by Martius, Batka
and others. Dragendorft" and Kubly regard the identity of the two
substances as doubtful.
The same alcoholic solution which contains the yellow colouring
matter just described, also holds dissolved a sugar which has been
named Catharto-mannite. It forms warty crystals, is not susceptible
of alcoholic fermentation, and does not reduce alkaline cupric tartrate.
The formula assigned to it is C^ff'd
Senna contains tartaric and oxalic acids with traces of malic acid.
The large amount of ash, 9 to 12 per cent., consisting of earthy and
alkaline carbonates, also indicates the presence of a considei-able quantity
of organic acids.
Commerce — Alexandrian Senna, the produce of Nubia and the
regions further south, was formerly a monopoly of the Egyptian Govern-
ment, the enjoyment of which was granted to individuals in return for
a stipulated payment : hence it was known in continental trade as
Sene de la 'palte, while the depots were termed jKdtes and those who
farmed the monopoly paltiers.* All this has long been abolished, and
the trade is now free, the drug being shipped from Alexandria.
Arabian senna is brought into commerce by way of Bombay. The
quantity of senna imported thither from the Red Sea and Aden in the
year 1871-72 was 4,195 cwt., and the quantity exported during the
same period, 2,180 cwt.^
Uses — Senna leaves are extensively employed in medicine as a
purgative.
Adulteration — The principal contamination to which senna is at
present liable arises from the presence of the leaves of Solenostemma
Argel Hayne, a plant of the order Asdepiadece, 2 to 3 feet high, grow-
ing in the arid vallej's of Nubia. Whether these leaves are used for the
direct purpose of adulteration, or under the notion of improving the
drug, or in virtue of some custom or prejudice, is not very evident. It
1 Pharm. Journ. x. (1869) 196.
2 Jbid. 315.
3 vSee Art. Eadix Rhei.
* From Italian appaltare, to let or farm.
^ Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of the Presidency of Bombay for 1871-72,
pt. ii. 21. 98.
FRUCTUS CASSIiE FISTULvE.
221
is certain however that druggists have been found who 'preferred senna
that contained a good percentage of argel.
Nectoux, to whom we owe the first exact account of the argel or
hargel plant/ describes it as never gathered with the senna by accident
or carelessness, but always separately. In fact he saw, both at Esneh
and Phile, the orifjinal bales of aro-el as well as those of senna : and at
Boulak near Cairo, at the beginning of the present century, the argel
used to be regularly mixed with senna in the proportion of one to
four.
The leaves of argel after a little practice are very easily recognized;
but their complete separation from senna by hand-picking is a tedious
operation. They are lanceolate, equal at the base, of the same size as
senna leaflets but often larger, of a pallid, opaque, greyish-green, rigid,
thick, rather crumpled, wrinkled and pubescent, not distinctly veined.
They have an unmistakeably bitter taste. The small, white, star-like
flowers, or more often the flower buds, in dense coiymbs are found in
plenty in the bales of Alexandrian senna. The slender, pear-shaped
follicles, when mature 1| inches long, with comose seeds are less fre-
quent. It has been shown by Christison^ that argel leaves administered
per se have but a feeble purgative action, though they occasion griping.
It is plain therefore that their admixture with senna should be
deprecated.
The leaves or leaflets of several other plants were formerly mixed
occasionally with senna, as those of the poisonous Coriaria myrtifolia
L., a Mediterranean shrub, of Colutea arborescens L.,a native of Central
and Southern Europe, and of the Egyptian Tephrosia Apollinea Delile.
We have never met with any of them.^
FRUCTUS CASSIiE FISTULiE.
Cassia Fistula ; Purging Cassia; F. Casse Canefice, Fruit dit Caneficer ;
G. Rohrencassie.
Botanical Origin — Cassia Fistida L. {Cathartocarpus Fistula Pers.,
Bactyrilohiuni Fistula Willd.) a tree indigenous to India, ascending to
4000 feet in the outer Himalaya, but now cultivated or subspontaneous
in Egypt, Tropical Africa,^ the West Indies and Brazil. It is from 20 to
30 feet high (in Jamaica even 50 feet) and bears long pendulous racemes
of beautiful fragrant, yellow flowers. Some botanists have established
for this tree and its near allies a separate genus, on account of its
elongated, cylindrical indehiscent legume, but by most it is retained in
the genus Cassia.
History — The name Casia or Cassia was originally applied ex-
clusively to a bark related to cinnamon which, when rolled into a tube or
pipe, was distinguished in Greek by the word a-vpiy^, and in Latin by
that of fistula. Thus Scribonius Largus,' a physician of Rome during
1 Op. cit. (See p. 218).
^Dispensatory, ed. 2. 1848. 850.
The reader will find figures of these
leaves contrasted with Seuna in Pereira s
E'j'vi. of Mat. Med. ii. part ii (1853) 18GG.
Schweinfurth found it in 6° N. lat. and
28-29° E. long., in the country of the Dor,
where the tree may also be indigenous.
^ Conipositiones Medicamentorivm, cap. 4.
sec. 36.
222
LEGUMINOSiE.
the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius, with the latter of whom he is said
to have visited Britain, a.d. 43, uses the expi-ession " Casice rufm fistu-
larum" in the receipt for a coUyrium. Galen^ describing the different
varieties of cassia, mentions that called Gizi'^ (yi^eig) as being quite like
cinnamon or even better ; and also names a well-known cheaper sort,
having a strong taste and odour which is cidled fistula, because it is
rolled up like a tube.
Oribasins, physician to the Emperor Julian in the latter half of the
4th and beginning of the 5th century, describes Cassia fistula as a bark
of which there are several varieties, having pungent and astringent
properties (" oynnes cassioi fistula vires hahent acriter exal/acientes ct
stringentes "), and sometimes used in the place of cinnamon.''
It is doubtless the same drug which is spoken of by Alexander
Trallianus* as Kao-Za? crvpiy^ (casia fistula) in connexion with costus,
pepper and other aromatics ; and named by other Greek writers as
Kaa-la arvpiyycoS}]? (casia fistularis). Alexander still more distinctly
calls it also Kaa-la aiyuTTTia.^
The tree under examination and its fruit were exactly described in
the beginning of the 13th century by Abul Abbas Annabati of Sevilla f
the fruit, the Cassia Fistula of modern medicine, is noticed by Joannes
Actuarius, who flourished at Constantinople towards the close of the
13th century ; and as he describes it with particular minuteness," it is
evident that he did not consider it well known. The drue; is also
mentioned by several writers of the school of Salernum. The tree
would appear to have found at an early period its way to America, if
we are correct in referring to it the Cassia Fistula enumerated by Petrus
Martyr among the valuable products of the New World.* The drug-
was a familar remedy in England in the time of Turner, 1568.°
The tree was figured in 1553 by the celebrated traveller Belon who
met with it in the gardens of Cairo, and in 1592 by Prosper Alpinus
who also saw it in Egypt.
Description — The ovary of the flower is one-celled with numerous
ovules, which as they advance towards maturity become separated by
the growth of intervening septa. The ripe legume is cylindrical, dark
chocolate-brown, I-2- to 2 feet long by f to 1 inch in diameter, with a
strong short woody stalk, and a blunt end suddenly contracted into a
point. The fibro-vascular column of the stalk is divided into two
broad parallel seams, the dorsal and ventral sutures, running down the
whole length of the pod, The sutures are smooth, or slightly striated
longitudinally; one of them is formed of two ligneous bundles coalescing
^De Antklot. i. c. 14.
" Noticed likewise among the commodities
liable to duty at Alexandria in the 2nd cen-
tury.—Vincent, Commerce of the Ancients,
ii. 712.
^ Phyttka HUdegardis, Argent. 1533. 227.
Libri xii. J. Guinterio intei prete, Basil. ,
1556. lib. vii. c. 8.
^ Pusehmann's edition (quoted in the ap-
pendix) i. 435.
" Meyer, Geschichte der Botanik, iii. (1850).
226.
^ " Quemadmodum si ventrem mollire
fuerit animus, pruna, et prwcipu^ Damas-
cena adjicimus, atque qiiipjjiam fere nigra?
nominate casife. Est autem fructus ejus
fistulus et oblongus, nigTum intus liumorem
concretum gestans, qui haudquaquam una
continuitate coaluit, sedex intervallo tenui-
bus lignosisque membranulis dirimitur.
habens ad speciei propagationem, graiia
qusedam seminalia, siliquae illi quse nobis
innotuit, adsimilia." — 3Ielhodiis Medendi,
lib. V. c. 2.
^ De uvper suh D. Carolo repertis iiuidis,
Basil. 1521.
s Herbal/, part. 3. 20.
FRUCTUS CASSL^ FISTULA.
223
hy a narrow line. If the legume is curved, the ventral suture commonly
occupies its inner or concave side. The valves of the pods are marked
by slight transverse depressions (more evident in small specimens)
corresponding to the internal divisions, and also by inconspicuous
transverse veins.
Each of the 25 to 100 seeds which a legume contains, is lodged in a
cell formed by very thin woody dissepiments. The oval, flattish seed
from iij- to of an inch long, of a reddish- brown colonr, contains a
large embryo whose yellowish veined cotyledons cross diagonally, as
seen on tranverse section, the horny white albumen. One side is
marked by a dark line (the raphe). A very slender funicle attaches the
seed to the ventral suture.
In addition to the seeds, the cells contain a soft saccharine pulp
which in the recent state fills them up, but in the imported pods appears
only as a thin layer, spread over the septum, of a dark viscid substance
of mawkish sweet taste. It is this pulp which is made use of in
pharmacy.
Microscopic Structure — The bands above described running
along the whole pod, are made up of strong fibro-vascular bundles mixed
with sclerenchymatous tissue. The valves consist of parenchymatous
cells, and the whole [iod is coated with an epidermis exhibiting small
tabular cells, which are filled with dark granules of tannic matter. A
few stomata ai'e also met with. The thin brittle septa of the pod are
composed of long ligneous cells, enclosing here and there crystals of
oxalate of calcium.
The pulp itself, examined under water, is seen to consist of loose
cells, not forming a coherent tissue. They enclose chiefly granules of
albuminoid matters and stellate crystals of oxalate of calcium. The
cell wall assumes, on addition of iodine, a blue hue if they have been
previously washed by potash lye. The seeds are devoid of starch, but
yield a copious amount of thick mucilage, which surrounds them like a
halo if they are macerated in water.
Chemical Composition — No peculiar principle is known to exist
either in the woody or the pulpy portion of cassia fistula. The pulp
contains sugar in addition to the commonly occurring bodies noticed in
the previous section.
Uses — The pulp separated from the woody part of the pods by
crushing the latter, digesting them in hot water, and evaporating the
strained liquor, is a mild laxative ii common domestic use in the
South of Europe,^ but in England scarcely ever now administered except
in the form of the well-known Lenitive Electuary (Confectio senncB) of
which it is an ingredient.
Commerce — Cassia fistula is shipped to England from the East and
West Indies, but chiefly from the latter. The pulp per se has been
occasionally imported, but it should never be employed when the
legumes for preparing it can be obtained.
Substitutes — The pods of some other species of Cassia share the
structure above described and have been sometimes imported.
^ Tlius there were imported into Leg- and Tamarinds. — Consular Reports, 1873,
horn ui 1871, 103 tons of Ca>isin Fhttiln part i.
224
LEGUMINOS^.
Those of C. grandis L. f. {C. hrasiliana Lamarck), a tree of Central
America and Brazil, are of much larger size, showing when broken
transversely an elliptic outline, whose longer diameter exceeds an inch.
The valves have very prominent sutures and transverse branching veins.
The pulp is bitter and astringent.
The legumes of Cassia moschata H B K.,' a tree 30 to 40 feet high,
growing in New Granada and known there as Canafistola de purgar,
bear a close resemblance to those of Cassia Fistula L., except that they
are a little smaller and rather less regularly straight. They contain a
sweetish astringent pulp of a bright brown hue. When crushed and
exposed to the heat of a water-bath, they emit a pleasant odour like
sandal- wood. The pulp is coloured dark blackish green by perchloride
of iron.
TAMARINDI PULPA.
Tamarindus, Fritctus Tamarindi; Tamarinds; F. Tamarins ;
G. Tamarinden.
Botanical Origin — Tamarindus indica L. — The tamarind is a
large handsome tree, growing to a height of GO to 80 feet, and having
abruptly pinnate leaves of 10 to 20 pairs of small oblong leaflets, con-
stituting an abundant and umbrageous foliage. Its purplish flower buds
and fragrant, red-veined, white blossoms, ultimately assuming a yellow-
ish tinge, contribute to its beautiful aspect and cause it to be generally
cultivated in tropical countries.
T. indica appears to be truly indigenous to Tropical Africa between
12° N. and 18° S. lat. It grows not only in the Upper Nile regions
(Sennaar, Kordofan, Abyssinia), but also in some of the remotest dis-
tricts visited by Speke, Grant, Kirk, and Stanley, and as far south
as the Zambesi. According to F. von Miiller,^ it occurs in Tropical
Australia.
It is found throughout India, and as it has Sanskrit names it may
even be really wild in at least the southern parts of the peninsula. It
grows in the Indian islands, and Crawfurd'* has adduced reasons to show
that it is probably a true native of Java. The mediaeval Arabian
authors describe it as growing in Yemen, India, and Nigritia.
The tamarind has been naturalized in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico.
Hernandez,'* who resided in the latter country from 1571 to 1575, speaks
of it as " nuper . . . ad eas oras hxmslata." It abounds in the West
Indies where it was also introduced together with ginger by the
Spaniards at an early period. The tree found in these islands bears
shorter and fewer-seeded pods than that of India, and hence was for-
merly regarded as a distinct species, Tamarindus occidentalis Giirtn.
History — The tamarind was unknown to the ancient Greeks
and Romans ; nor have we any evidence that the Egyptians were
1 H anbury in Linn. Trans, xxiv. 161. V^gitatton de I'AmtraUe, Melk, 186G. 8.
p. 26; Pharni. Jonrn. v. (U64) 348; ^ Diet, of hidian Jslmuh, iSHG. 425.
Science Paper.i, p. 318. ^ I\ova planiarvm, unmcdivm et mine-
-Exposition intercoloniale,— jN^o^es /a rcdiiirn liisioria, Eomae, 1C51. 83.
TAMARIND! PULPA.
225
acquainted with it/ which is the more surprising considering that the
tree appears indigenous to the Upper Nile countries, and that its fruit
is held in the greatest esteem in those regions.^
The earliest mention of tamarind occurs in the ancient Sanskrit
writings where it is spoken of under several names.^ From the Hindus,
it Avould seem that the fruit became known to the Arabians, who called
it Tamare-hi ndi, i.e. Indian Date. Under this name it was mentioned
by Isaac Judteus,^ Avicenna,'' and the Younger Mesne,'' and also by
Alhervi,'' a Persian physician of the 10th century who describes it as
black, of the flavour of a Damascene plum, and containing fibres and
stones.
It was doubtless from the Arabians that a knowledge of the tamarind,
as of so many other eastern drugs, passed during the middle ages into
Europe through the famous school of Salernum. Oxyphcenica ('O^v-
0om/fa) and Dactyli acetosi are names under which we meet with it in
the writings of Matthteus Platearius and Saladinus, the latter of whom,
as well as other authors of the period, considered tamarinds as the fruit
of a wild palm growing in India.
The abundance of tamarinds in Malabar, Coromandel, and Java was
reported to Manuel, king of Portugal, in the letter of the apothecary
Pyres'* on the drugs of India, written in Cochin, January 27th, 1516.
A correct description of the tree was given by Garcia de Orta about
fifty years later.
Preparation — Tamarinds undergo a certain preparation before being
bi-ouglit into commerce.
In the West Indies, the tree matures its fruit in June, July and
August, and the pods are gathered when fully ripe, which is known by
the fragility of the outer shell. This latter, which easily breaks between
the finger and thumb, is then removed, and the pods deprived of shelly
fragments are placed in layers in a cask, and boiling syrup is
poured over them till the cask is filled. When cool, the cask is closed
and is then ready for sale. Sometimes layers of sugar are placed
between the fruits previous to the hot syrup being added."
East Indian tamarinds are also sometimes preserved with sugar, but
usually they are exported without such addition, the outer shell being
removed and the fruits being pressed together into a mass.
In the Upper Nile regions (Darfur, Kordofan, Sennaar) and in
Arabia, the softer part of tamarinds is, for the sake of greater perman-
ence and convenience of transport, kneaded into flattened round cakes,
4 to 8 inches in diameter and an inch cr two thick, which are dried in
the sun. They are of flrm consistence and quite black, externally
'Sir Gardner Wilkinson (Ancient Egyp-
tians, i. 1841, 78) says that tamarind stones
have been found in the tombs of Thebes ;
but on consulting Dr. Birch and the collec-
tions in the British Museum we have ob-
tained no contirmation of the fact.
-Barth speaks of it as an inviluahle gift
of Providence : Reisen und Entderlcangen in
Nord- und Centralaf rica, Gotha, 1858. i.
614; iii. 334. 400; iv. 173.— The same
says Rohlfs, Reisen durch Nordafric:i,
Gotha (1872) 23.
' Susrutas Ayurvedas, ed. Hessler, i.
(1844) 141, iii. (1850) 171.
'• Opera Omnia, Lugd. 1515, lib. ii. Prac-
tices, c. 41.
5 Opera, Venet. 1564. ii. 339.
" Opera, Venet. 1561. 52.
" Fundanienta Pharinacologiw, ed. Selig-
mann, Vindob. 1830, 49.
^Journ. de Soc. Pharm. Lusit. ii. (1838)
36. — See also Appendix.
"Lunan, Hortus Jamaicensis, ii. (1814)
224 ; Macfadyen, Fto7-a of Jamaica, 1837.
335.
P
226
LEGUMINOS^.
strewn with hair, sand, seeds and other impurities ; they are hirgely
consumed in Egypt and Central Africa, and sometimes find their way to
the south of Europe as Egyptian Tamarinds,
Description — The fruit is an oblong, or hnear oblong, strictly com-
pressed, curved or nearly straight, pendulous legume, of the thickness
of the finger and 3 to C inches in length, supported by a woody stalk.
It has a thin but hard and brittle outer shell or epicarp, which does
not split into valves or exhibit any very evident sutures. Within the
epicarp is a firm, juicy pulp, on the surface of which and starting from
the stalk are strong woody ramifying nerves; one of these extends
along the dorsal (or concave) edge, two others on either side of the
ventral (or convex) edge, while between these two there are usually 2,
3, or 4 less regular and more slender nerves, — all running towards the
apex and throwing out bi'anching filaments. The brownish or reddish
pulp has usually an acid taste, though there are also sweetish varieties.
The seeds, 4 to 12 in number, are each of them enclosed in a tough,
membraneous cell (endocarp), surrounded by the pulp (sarcocarp). They
are flattened and of irregular outline, being roundish, ovate, or obtusely
four-sided, about of an inch long by -^jj thick, with the edge broadly
keeled or more often slightly furrowed. The testa is of a rich brown,
marked on the flat sides of the seed by a large scar or oreole, of rather
duller polish than the surrounding portion which is somewhat radially
striated. The seed is exalbuminous, with thick hard cotyledons, a
short straight included radicle, and a plumule in which the pinnation of
the leaves is easily perceptible.
Tamarinds are usually distinguished in trade as West Indian and
East Indian, the former being preserved with sugar, the latter without.
1. West Indian Tamarinds, Brovn or Bed Tamarinds. — A
bright reddish brown, moist, saccharine mass consisting of the pulpy
internal part of the fruit, usually unbroken, mixed with more or less of
syrup. It has a very agreeable and refreshing taste, the natural acidity
of the pulp being tempered by the sugar. It is this form of tamarinds
that is usually found in the shops.
2. East Indian Tamarinds, Blaclc Tamarinds. — These differ
from the last described in that they are preserved without the use of
sugar. They are found in the market in the form of a firm, clammy,
black mass, consisting of the pulp mixed with the seeds, stringy
fibres, and some remains of the outer shell. The pulp has a strong
acid taste.
Notwithstanding the rather uninviting appearance of East Indian
tamarinds, they afford a good pulp, which may be satisfactorily used in
making the Confectio Sennoi of pharmacy. In fact, on the continent
this sort of tamarind alone is employed for medicinal purposes.
Microscopic Structure — The soft part of tamarind consists of a
tissue of thin-walled cells of considerable size, Avhich is traversed by
long fibro-vascular bundles. In the former a few very small starch-
granules are met with, and more numerous crystals, which are probably
bitartrate of potassium.
Chemical Composition — Water extracts, from unsweetened tama-
rinds, sugar together with acetic, tartaric and citric acids, the acids
BALSAMUM COPAIBA.
227
being combined for the most part with potash. The neutralized
solution reduces alkaline cupric tartrate after a while without heat, and
therefore probably contains grape sugar. On evaporation, cream of
tartar and sugar crystallize out. The volatile acids of the fatty series,
the presence of which in the pulp has been pointed out by Gorup-
Besanez, have not been met with by other chemists. Tannin is absent
as well as oxalic acid. We have ascertained that in East Indian
tamarinds, citric acid is present in but small quantity. No peculiar
principle to which the laxative action of tamarinds can be attributed
is known.
The fruit-pulp diffused in water forms a thick, tremulous, somewhat
glutinous and turbid liquid. It was examined as early as the year 1790
by Vauquelin under the name of vegetable jelly" — the first described
among the pectic class of bodies.
The hard seeds have a testa which abounds in tannin, and after long
boiling is easily separated, leaving the cotyledons soft. These latter
have a bland mucilaginous taste, and are consumed in India as food
during times of scarcity.
Commerce — Tamarinds are shipped in comparatively small quan-
tities from several of the West Indian islands, and also from Guayaquil.
The export from the Bombay Presidency in the year 1871-72 was
628G cwt., which quantity was shipped chiefly to the Persian Gulf,
Sind, and ports of the Red Sea.^ 128,144; centners were re-exported in
1877 from Trieste.
Uses — In medicine, tamarinds are considered to be a mild laxative ;
they are sometimes used to make a refrigerant <lrink in fever. In
hot countries, especially the intei-ior of Africa, they are regarded
as of the highest value for the preparation of refreshing beverages.
The Black Tamarmds are said to be used in the manufacture of
tobacco.
BALSAMUM COPAIBA.
Copaiba ; Balsam of Copaiba or Copaiva, Balsam Capivi ; F, Baume
ou OMo-resine de Copahu; G. Copaivabalsam.
Botanical Origin — The drug under notice is produced by trees
belonging to the genus Coj)aifera, natives of the wai'mer countries
of South America. Some are found in moist forests, others exclusively
in dry and elevated situations. They vary in height and size, some
being umbrageous forest trees, while others have only the dimension of
shrubs ; it is from the former alone that the oleo-resin is obtained.
The following are reputed to furnish the drug, but to what extent
each contributes is not fully known.
1. Gopaifera officinalis L. (C. Jacquini Desf ), a large tree of the hot
coast region of New Granada as far north as Panama, of Venezuela and
the island of Trinidad.
2. C. guianensis Desf, a tree of 30 to 40 feet high, very closely
related to the preceding, native of Surinam, Cayenne, also of the Rio
^Statement of the Trade caul Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay, 1871-72, pt. ii. 65.
228
LEGUMlNOSvE.
Negro between Manaos and Barcellos (Spruce). According to Ben tham
it seems to be the same species as the G. hijuga of Hayne/
3. G. coriacea Mart. (C. cordifolia Hayne), a large tree found in the
caatingas or dry woods of the Brazilian provinces of Bahia and
Piauhy.
4. G. Langsdorffii Desf ^ (C. nitida Hayne, G. Selloivii Hayne, ? G.
Jussieui Hayne), a polymorphous species, varying in the form and size
of leaflets, and also in dimensions, being either a shrub, a small bushy
tree, or a large tree of 60 feet high. Bentham admits, besides the type,
three varieties : — (B. glabra (G. glabra Vogel), y. grandifolia, S. laxa
(G. laxa Hayne). The tree grows on dry campos, caatingas and other
places in the provinces of S. Paulo, Minas Geraes, Goyaz, Mato Grosso,
Bahia and Ceara; it is therefore distributed over a vast area. Accord-
ing to Gardner,^ the Brazilian traveller, it yields an abundance of
balsam.
In addition to these species, must be mentioned a tree described by
Hayne and commonly cited under the name of Gopaifera multijuga, as
a special source of the drug shipjied from Para.* As its name implies,
it is remarkable for the number of leaflets (6 to 10 pairs) on each leaf.
But it is only known from some leaves in the herbarium of Martins
which Bentham, who has examined them, informs us are unlike those
of any Gopaifera known to him, though certainly the leaflets are dotted
with oil-vessels as in some species. In the absence of flowers and
fruits, there is no suflicient evidence to prove that it belongs even to
the genus Gopaifera. It is not mentioned by Martins in his Systema
Materioe Medico} Bi^asiliensis (1843) as a source of the drug.
History — Among the early notices of Brazil is a treatise by a
Portuguese friar who had resided in that country from 1570 to 1600.
•The manuscript found its way to England, was translated, and was
published by Purchas ^ in 1625. Its author notices many of the natural
productions of the country, and among others Gwpayba which he de-
scribes as a large tree from whose trunk, when wounded by a deep
incision, there Hows in abundance a clear oil much esteemed as a
medicine.
Balsam. Gopce. yvoi is already enumerated in the 6th edition of the
Pharmacopoea of Amsterdam, A.D. 1636."
Father Cristoval d'Acuna," who ascended the Amazon from Para,
arriving at Quito in 1638, mentions that the country affords very large
Cassia fistula, excellent sarsaparilla, and the oils of Andirova (Garapa
guianensis Aublet, Meliacece), and Gopaiha, as good as balsam for
curing wounds.
Piso and Marcgraf,* who in 1636 accompanied the Count of Nassau
^ Hayne (1827) enumerated and figured
15 species, some of tliem founded on very
imperfect materials. Bentham in tlie Flora
Brasiliaim of Martius and Eudlicher (fasc.
50, Leguminosa', ii. 1870. pp. 2.39-244) ad-
mits only 11, one of which is doubtful as
to the genus.
- Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Plants, part 32 (1878) ; Langsdorffii, not
Lansdorffii, is to be written ; see Pharm.
Journ. ix. (1879) 773.
^ MS. attached to specimens in the Kew
Herbarium.
^ " Alle Arten geben mehr oder weniger
Balsam, und den meisten giebt die in der
Provinz Para vorkommende Copaifera
multijuga." — Hayne, Linncea, i. (1826)
429.
Pilgrimes and Pilqrimage, Lond. iv.
(1C25) 1308.
« Pharm.. Jom-n. vi. (1876) 1021.
Nuevo Descubrimiento del gran Rio de
las Amazonas, Madrid, 1641, No. 30.
» Hist. Nat. Brasiliai, 1648, Piso, 56,
Marcgraf, 130.
BALSAMUM COPAIBA.
229
to the Dutch establishments in Brazil, each give an account of
the Copaiba and the method of obtaining its oleo-resin. The former
states that the tree grows in Pernambuco and the island of Maranhon,
whence the balsam is conveyed in abundance to Europe.
The drug was formerly brought into European commerce by the
Portiiguese, and used to be packed in earthen pots pointed at the lower
end ; it often arrived in a very impure condition.^ In the London
Pharmacopoeia of 1677, it was called Balsamum Capivi, which is still
its most popular name.
Secretion — Karsten states that he observed resiniferous ducts,
frequently more than an inch in diameter, running through the whole
stem. He is of the opinion that the cell-walls of the neighbouring
parenchyme are liquefied and transformed into the oleo-resin.^ We are
not able to offer any ai-gument in favour of this opinion.
In the vessels already alluded to, the balsam sometimes collects in
so large a quantity, that the trunk is unable to sustain the inward
pressure, and hursts. This curious phenomenon is thus referred to in a
letter addressed to one of us by Mr. Spruce : — " I have three or four
times heard what the Indians assured me was the bursting of an old
capivi-tree, distended with oil. It is one of the strange sounds that
sometimes disturb the vast solitudes of a South American forest. It
resembles the boom of a distant cannon, and is quite distinct from
the crash of an old tree falling from decay which one hears not
unfrequently."
A similar phenomenon is known in Borneo. The trunks of aged
trees of Dryohalanops avomatica contain large quantities of oleo-resin
or Camphor Oil,^ which appears to be sometimes secreted under such
pressure that the vast trunk gives way. " There is another sound,"
says Spenser St. John,'* " only heard in the oldest forests, and that is as
if a mighty tree were rent in twain. I often asked the cause, and was
assured it was the camphor tree splitting asunder on account of the
accumulation of camphor in some particular portion."
Extraction — Balsam Capivi is collected by the Indians on the banks
of the Orinoco and its upper affluents, and carried to Ciudad Bolivar
(Angostura) ; some of this balsam reaches Europe by way of Trinidad.
But it is obtained much more largely on the tributaries of the Cais-
quiari and Rio Negro (the Siapa, l9anna, Uaupes, etc.) and is sent down
to Para. Most of the northern tributaries of the Amazon, as the
Trombetas and Nhamunda, likewise furnish a supply. According to
Spruce, in the Amazon valley it is the tall virgin foi'est, Gaaguagu of
the Brazilians, Monte Alto of the Venezuelans, that yields most of the
oils and gum-resins, and not the low, dry caatingas, or the riparial
forests. The same observant traveller tells us that in Southern Vene-
zuela, capivi is known only as el Aceite de palo {wood-oil), the name
Balsamo being that of the so-called Sassafras Oil, obtained from a
species of Nectandra.
Balsam Copaiba is also largely exported from Maracaibo where,
1 Valmont de Bomare, Diet. iVHist. Nat. ^Motley in Hooker's Jouri>. of Botany,
i. (1775) 387. iv. (1852) 201.
- Botaiiische Zeituiuj, xv. (1857) 316. ■* Life in the Forcstx of the Far East,
ii. (1862) 152.
230
LEGUMINOS^.
according to Engel/ it is produced by C. officinalis, the Canime of the
natives.
The finest sort, called by the collectors white copaiba, is met with
in the province of Para, where Cross" saw a tree of a circumference of
more than 7 feet at 3 feet from the ground. Its trunk was clear of
branches to a height of at least 90 feet. The collector commenced the
work by hewing out with his axe a hole or chamber in the trunk about
a foot square, at a height of two feet from the ground. The base or
floor of the chamber should be carefully and neatly cut with a gentle
upward slope, and it should also decline to one side, so that the balsam
on issuing may run in a body until it reaches the outer edge. Below
the chamber a pointed piece of bark is cut and raised, which, enveloped
with a leaf, serves as a spout for conveying the balsam from the tree to
the tin.^ The balsam, continues Cross, came flowing in a moderate sized
cool current, full of air bubbles. At times the flow stopped for several
minutes, when a singular gurgling noise was heard, after which followed
a rush of balsam. When coming most abundantly a pint jug would
have been filled in the space of one minute. The whole of the wood cut
through by the axeman was bedewed with drops of balsam; the bark is
apparently devoid of it. Trees of the largest size in good condition will
sometimes yield four " potos," equal to 84 English imperial pints.
Description — Copaiba is more or less viscid fluid, varying in tint
from a pale yellow to a light golden brown, of a peculiar aromatic, not
unpleasant odour, and a persistent, acrid, bitterish taste. Para copaiba
newly imported is sometimes nearly colourless and almost as fluid as
water.' The balsam is usually quite transparent, but there are varieties
which remain always opalescent. Its sp. gr. varies from 0"940 to
0"993, according as the drug contains a greater or less proportion of vola-
tile oil. Copaiba becomes more fluid by heat ; if heated in a test-tube
to 200° C. for some time, it does not lose its fluidity on cooling. It is
sometimes slightly fluorescent. It dissolves in several times its weight
of alcohol 0 830 sp. gr., and generally in all proportions in absolute
alcohol,^ acetone, or bisulphide of carbon, and is perfectly soluble in an
equal volume of benzol. Glacial acetic acid readily dissolves the resin
but not the essential oil.
Copaiba that is rich in resin of an acid character, unites with the
oxides of baryum, calcium, or magnesium, to form a gradually hardening
mass, provided a small proportion of water is present. Thus 8 to Itj
parts of balsam will combine as a stiff" compound when gently warmed
with 1 part of moistened magnesia ; and still more easily with lime or
baryta.
Buignet has first shown (1861) that copaiba varies in its optical
power. A sample from Trinidad examined by one of us was strongly
' Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde
zu Berlin, v. (1870) 435.
^ Report to the Under Secretary of State
for India, on the investigation and collect-
ing of plants and seeds of the india-rubber
trees of Pani and Ceara, and Balsam of
Copaiba. March 1877,-8.
^ See figure in the above Report.
* We saw such as this which had been
imported into London in 1873 ; though re-
garded by the dealers with suspicion, we are
not of opinion that it was sophisticated.
^ Such is the case with some very
authentic specimens collected for one of us
in Central America by De Warszewicz, but
other samples which we had no reason to
suppose adulterated, left a certain amountof
white residue when treated with twice their
wei<jlit of alcohol sp. gr. 0796.
BALSAMUM COPAIBA.
231
dextrogyre.and also several samples imported in 1877 fromMaturin (near
Aragua, Venezuela), and Maracaibo into Hamburg, whereas we found Para
balsam to be levogyre.^
The Para and Maranham balsams are regarded in wholesale trade as
distinct sorts, and experienced druggists are able to distinguish them
apart by odour and appearance, and especially by the greater consistence
of the Maranham drug. Maracaibo balsam is reckoned as another
variety, but is now rarely seen in the English market. West Indian
copaiba is usually said to be of inferior quality, but except that it is
generally opalescent, we know not on what precise grounds.
Chemical Composition — The balsam is a solution of resin in
volatile oil; the latter constitutes about 40 to 60 per cent, of the balsam,"
according to the age of the latter and its botanical origin. The oil
has the composition C"H''^ ; its boiling point is 245° C. or even higher.
It smells and tastes like the balsam, and dissolves in from 8 to 30 parts
of alcohol 0'830 sp. gr. The oil exhibits several modifications differing
in optical as well as in other physical properties, but numerous samples
of the drug, either dextrogyre or levogyre, invaiiably afforded us essential
oils deviating to the left; their sp. gr. varies from about 0-88 to 09L
After the oil of copaiba has been removed bj^ distillation, there remains
a brittle amorphous resin of an acid character soluble both in benzol
and amylic alcohol, and yielding only amorphous salts. Sometimes
copaiba contains a small amount of crystallizable resin-acid, as first
pointed out in 1829 by Schweitzer. By exposing a mixture of 9 parts
of copaiba and two parts of aqueous ammonia (sp. gr. ()'95) to a tempera-
ture of — 10° C, Schweitzer obtained crystals of the acid resin termed
Cojyaivic Acid. They were analysed in 1834 by H. Rose, and exactly
measured and figured by G. Rose. Hess (1839) showed that Rose's and
his own analyses assign to copaivic acid the formula C""H'''Ol It agrees
with Maly's abietic acid from colophony in composition, but not in any
other way. Copaivic acid is readily soluble in alcohol, and especially in
warmed copaiba itself ; much less in ether. We have before us crystals,
no doubt of copaivic acid, which have been spontaneously deposited in
an authentic specimen of the oleo-resin of Gopaifera ojficmalis from
Trinidad, which we have kept for many years. The crystals may be
easily dissolved by warming the balsam ; on cooling the liquid, they
again make their appearance after the lapse of some weeks. After
recrystallization from alcohol they fuse at 116-117 C°., forming an
amorphous transparent mass which quickly crystallizes if touched with
alcohol.
An analogous substance, Oxycopaivic Acid, C-'H'^G^was examined in
1841 by H. von Fehling, who met with it as a deposit in Para Copaiba.
And lastly Strauss (1865) extracted Metacopaivic Acid, C'-H^^O*, from
the balsam imported from Maracaibo. He boiled the latter with soda-
lye, which separated the oil ; the heavier adjacent liquid was then
mixed with chloride of ammonium, which threw down the salts of the
amorphous resin-acid, leaving in solution those of the metacopaivic acid.
The latter acid was separated by hydroeliloric acid and recrystallization
from alcohol. We succeeded in obtaining metacopaivic acid by washing
^ Fluckiger in Wiggers and Husemann's
Jahresbericht for 1867. 162, and for 1868. 140.
- Or 18 to 65 per cent., sp. gr. 0'915 to
0'995, according to Siebold (1877).
232
LEGUMINOS^.
the balsam with a dilute solutiou of carbonate of ammonium, and pre-
cipitating by hydrochloric acid. The precipitate dissolved in dilute
alcohol yields the acid in small crystals, but to the amount of only
about one per cent.
These resin-acids have a bitterish taste and an acid reaction ; their
salts of lead and silver are crystalline but insoluble ; metacopaivate of
sodium may be crystallized from its watery solution.
Commerce— The balsam is imported in barrels direct from Para and
Maranham, sometimes from Rio de Janeiro, and less often from Demerara,
Angostura, Trinidad, Mai'acaibo, Savanilla, and Cartagena. It often
reaches England by way of Havre and New York. In 1875 there were
exported 10,150 kilogrammes from Savanilla, 99,800 lb. from Ciudad
Bolivar (Angostura), and 65,243 kilos, from Para.
Uses — Copaiba is employed in medicine on account of its stimulant
action on the mucous membranes, more especially those of the urino-
genital organs.
Adulteration — Copaiba is not unfrequently fraudulently tampered
with before it reaches the pharmaceutist; and owing to its natui*ally
variable composition, arising in part from its diverse botanical origin, its
purity is not always easily ascertained.
The oleo-resin usually dissolves in a small proportion of absolute
alcohol : should it refuse to do so, the presence of some fatty oil other
than castor oil may be surmised. To detect an admixture of this latter,
one part of the balsam should be heated with four of spirit of wine
(sp. gr. O'SSS). On cooling, the mixture separates into two portions, the
upper of which will contain any castor oil present, dissolved in alcohol
and the essential oil. On evaporation of this upper layer, castor oil
may be recognized by its odour ; but still more positively by heating it
with caustic soda and lime, when oenanthol will be formed, the presence
of which may be ascertained by its peculiar smell. By the latter test
an admixture of even one per cent, of castor oil can be proved.
The presence of fatty oil in any considerable quantity is likewise
made evident hy the greasiness of the residue, when the balsam is
deprived of its essential oil by prolonged boiling with water.
The admixture of some volatile oil with copaiba can mostly be
detected by the odour, especially when the balsam is dropped on a piece
of warmed metal. Spirit of wine may also be advantageously tried
for the same purpose. It dissolves but very sparingly the volatile oil
of copaiba : the resins of the latter are also not abundantly soluble
in it. Hence, if shaken with the balsam, it would remove at once
the larger portion of any essential od that might have been added.
For the recognition of Wood Oil if mixed with copaiba, see page 233,
note 1.
Substitutes — Under this head two drugs deserve mention, namely
Gnrjim Balsam or Wood Oil, described at p. 88, and
Oleo-resin of Hardwiclda pinnata Roxb. — The tree, which is of
a large size, belongs to the order Leguminosoi and is nearly related to
Copaifera. According to Beddome,^ it is very common in the dense
moist forests of the South Travancore Ghats, and has also been found in
^ Flora Sylvatica for Southern India, Madras, part 24 (1872), 255.
GUMMI ACACIA.
233
South Cauara. The natives extract the oleo-resin in exactly the same
method as that followed by the aborigines of Brazil in the case of
copaiba, — that is to say, they make a deep notch reaching to the heart
of the trunk, from, which after a time it flows out.
This oleo-resin, which has the smell and taste of copaiba, but a much
darker colour, was first examined by one of us in 1865, having been
sent from the India Museum as a sample of Wood Oil ; it was sub-
quently forwarded to us in more ample quantity by Dr. Bidie of
Madras. It is a thick, viscid fluid, which, owing to its intense tint,
looks black when seen in bulk by reflected light ; yet it is perfectly
transparent. Viewed in a thin layer by transmitted light, it is light
l/ellotvish-grcen, in a thick layer vinous-red, — hence is dichromic. It
is not fluorescent, nor is it gelatinized or rendered turbid by being
heated to 130" C, thus difiering from Wood Oil.^ Broughton" obtained
by prolonged distillation with water an essential oil to the extent of
25 per cent, from an old specimen, and of more than -iO per cent., from
one recently collected. The oil was found to have the same composi-
tion as that of copaiba, to boil at 225° C, and to rotate the plane of
polarization to the left. The resin ^ is probably of two kinds, of which
one at least possesses acid properties. Broughton made many
attempts, but without success, to obtain from the resin ciystals of
copaivic acid.
The balsam of Hardwickia has been used in India for gonorrhoea,
and with as much success as copaiba.
GUMMI ACACIA.
Gumvii Arahicum ; Gum Arabic; F. Gomme Arabique ; G.
Arabisches Gumvii, Acacien-Giimmi, Kordofan Gummi.
Botanical Origin — Among the plants abounding in mucilage,
numerous Acacire of various countries are in the flrst line. The species
particularly known for aftbrding tiie largest quantities of the finest gum
arable is Acacia Senegal^ Willdenow (syn. Mimosa Senegal L., A.
Verek Guillemin et Perrottet), a small tree not higher than 20 feet,
growing abundantly on sandy soils in Western Africa, chiefly north of
the river Senegal, where it constitutes extensive forests. It is called
by the negroes Verek. The same tree is likewise found in Southern
Nubia, Kordofan, and in the region cf the Atbara in Eastern Africa,
where it is known as Hasliah. It has a greyish bark, the inner layers
' It may be furthei" distinguished from '
Wood Oil as well as from copaiba, if tested
in the following simple manner: — Put into
a tube 19 drops of bisulphide of carbon and
one drop of the oleo-resin, and shake them
together. Then add one drop of a mixture
of equal parts of strong sulphuric and
nitric (1'42) acids. After a little agitation
the appearance of the respective mixtures
will be as follows : —
Copaiba — Colour faint reddish brown,
with deposit of resin on sides of tube.
IVood Oil — Colour intense purplish-red,
becoming violet after some minutes.
Oleo-resin of Hardwickia — No percept-
ible alteration ; the mixture pale greenish
yellow.
By this test the presence in copaiba of
one-eighth of its volume of Wood Oil may
be easily sho^vn.
^ Beddome, op. cit.
^ See also Hazlett, Madras Monthly
Journ. of Med. Science, June 1872.
^Figures in Guillemin and Perrottet
Flone Senegamb. tent. 1830, p. 246, tab.
56 ; also Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants,
part 17 (1877).
234
LEGUMINOSiE.
of which are strongly fibrous, small yellowish flowers densely arranged
in spikes 2 to 3 inches long, and exceeding the bipinnate leaves, and a
broad legume 3 to 4 inches in length containing 5 to 6 seeds.
According to Schweinfurth,^ it is this tree exclusively that yields
the fine white gum of the countries bordering the Upper Nile, and
especially of Kordofan. He states that only brownish or reddish sorts
of gum are produced by the Talch, Talha or Kakul, Acacia stenocarpa
Hochstetter, by the Ssoftar, A. fistula Schweinf (A. Seyal Delile, var.
Fistula), as well as by the Ssant or Sont, A. nilotica Desfont (A.
arabica. Willd.). These trees grow in north-eastern Africa ; the last-
named is, moreover, widely distributed all over tropical Africa as far as
Senegambia,^ Mozambique and Natal, and also extends to Sindh,
Gujarat^ and Central India. We find even the first sort, " Karami,"
of gum exported from the Somali coast,^ to be inferior to good common
Arabic gum. Hildebrandt (1875) mentions that gum is there lai-gely
collected from Acacia abyssinica Hochst. and A. glaucophylla Steudel.
History — The history of this drug carries us back to a remote anti-
quity. The Egyptian fleets brought gum from the gulf of Aden as
early as the 17th century B.C. Thus in the treasury of king Rhampsinit
(Ram.ses III.) at Medinet Abu, there are representations of gum-trees,
together with heaps of gum. The symbol used to signify gum, is read
Kami-en-j>unt. i.e. gum from the country of Punt. This, in all proba-
bility, includes both the Somali coast as well as that of the opposite
parts of Arabia (see article Olibanum, p. 13G). Thus, gum is of
frequent occurrence in Egyptian inscriptions; sometimes mention is
made of gum from Canaan. The word kami is the original of the
Greek koix/xi, whence through the Latin our own word giim.^
The Egyptians used gum largely in painting ; an inscription exists
which states that in one particular instance a solution of Kami (gum)
was used to render adherent the mineral pigment called ckesteb,^ the
name applied to lapis lazuli or to a glass coloured blue by cobalt.
Turning to the Greeks, we find that Theophrastus in the 3rd and
4th century B.C. mentioned Ko/^i/xt as a product of the Egyptian "A/caj^0a,
of which tree there was a forest in the Thebais of Upper Egypt.
Strabo also, in describing the district of Arsinoe, the modern Fayum,
says that gum is got from the forest of the Thebaic Akanthe.
CelsLis in the 1st century mentions Gimimi acanthinum ; Dios-
corides and Pliny also describe Egyptian gum, which the latter values
at 3 denarii [2s.] per lb.
In those times gum no doubt used to be shipped from north-eastern
Africa to Arabia ; there is no evidence showing that Arabia itself had
ever furnished the chief bulk of the drug. The designation gum arabic
^ AufzdJdunr/ und Beschre'ihuinj der Aca-
cien-ArtendesNilrjebiets. — Linncea, i. (1867)
308-37G, with 21 plates. Schweinfurth's
observations are strongly confirmed by an
account of the commerce of Khartum in
the Zeitschrift fur Erdkiinde, ii. (1867,
Berlin) 474.
The A. Adansonii Giiill. et Perr. is the
Bame tree.
'The " Kikar" of the Punjaub, or
"Babul " or " Bahur " of Central India.
■* As presented to me by Capt. Hunter
of Aden, July 1877.— F. A. F.
5 We have to thank Professor Diimichen
for most of the information relating to
Egypt, wliich may be partly found in liis
own works, and partly in those of Brugsch,
Ebers, and Lepsius.
^ Lepsius, Abhandl. der Akademie der
Wisscnsch. zu Berlin for 1871, p. 77. 126.
Metalle in den Aegyptischen Inschriften.
GUMMI ACACIiE.
235
occurs in Diodorus Siculus (2, 49) in the first century of our era,
also in the list of goods of Alexandria mentioned in our article on
Galbanum.
Gum was employed by the Ai-abian physicians and by those of the
school of Salerno, yet its utility in medicine and the arts was but little
appreciated in Europe until a much later period. For the latter purpose
at least the gummy exudations of indigenous trees were occasionally
resorted to, as distinctly pointed out about the beginning of the 12th
century, by Theophilus or Rogker:^ "gummi quot exit de arbore
ceraso vel pruno."
During the middle ages, the small supplies that reached Europe were
}»rocured through the Italian traders from Egypt and Turkey. Thus
Pegolotti,' who wrote a work on commerce about A.D. 1340, speaks of
gum arable as one of the drugs sold at Constantinople by the pound
not by the quintal. Again, in a list of drugs liable to duty at Pisa in
1305,^ and in a similar list relating to Paris in 1349,'' Ave find mention
of gum arable. It is likewise named by Pasi,^ in 1521, as an export
from Venice to London.
Gum also reached Europe from Western Africa, with which region
the Portuguese had a direct trade as early as 1449.
Production — Respecting the origin of gum in the tribe Acaciw, no
observations have been made similar to those of H. von Mohl on traga-
canth.^
It appears that gum generally exudes from the trees spontaneously,
in sufiicient abundance to render wounding the bark superfluous. The
Somali tribes of East Africa, however, are in the habit of promoting the
outflow by making long incisions in the stem and branches of the tree.''
In Kordofan the lumps of gum are broken oft' with an axe, and collected
in baskets.
The most valued product, called Hashabi gum, from the province of
Dejara in Kordofan, is sent northward from Bara and El Obeid to
Dabbeh on the Nile, and thence down the river to Egypt; or it reaches
the White Nile at Mandjara.
A less valuable gum, known as Hashabi el Jesire, comes from Sennaar
on the Blue Nile; and a still worse from the barren table-land of
Takka, lying between the eastern tributaries of the Blue Nile and the
Atbara and Mareb ; and from the highlands of the Bisharrin Arabs
between Khartum and the Red Sea. This gum is transported by way of
Khartum or El Mekheir (Berber), or by Suakin on the Red Sea. Hence,
the worst kind of gum is known in Egypi as Samagh Savakumi (Suakin
Oum).
According to Munzinger,^ a better sort of gum is produced along the
Samhara coast towards Berbera, and is shipped at Massowa. Some of
it reaches Egj^pt by way of Jidda, which town being in the district of
' Schedula diversarum artium, Ilg'a edition
in Eitelberger's Qudlenschriften fiir Kunst-
geschichtc, vii. (1874) 60.
^ Delia Decimn e di varie allre fjravezze
imposte dal commune di Firenze, iii. (1766)
18.
^ Bonaini, Statuti inediii della citta di
Pisa, Firenze, iii. (1857) 106. 114.
* Ordonnaiices des Eoi^ de France,ii. (1729)
310.
^ Tariffa de pest e misure, Venet. 1521.
204. First edition, 1503.
" See, however, MoUer, Academy of
Vienna, Sitzuni/sberichtc, June 1875.
' Vaughan (Drugs of Aden), Pharm.
Joiirn. xii. (1853) 226".
^ Private information to F. A. F.
236
LEGUMINOS^.
Arabia called the Hejaz, the gum thence brouglit receives the name of
Samagh Hejazi ; it is also called Jiddah or Gedda Gum. The gums of
Zella, Berbera and the Somali country about Gardafui, are shipped to
Aden, or direct to Bombay. A little gum is collected in Southern
Arabia, but the quantity is said to be insignificant.'
In the French colony of Senegal, gum, which is one of its principal
productions, is collected chiefly in the country lying north of the river,
by the Moors who exchange it for European commodities. The gather-
ing commences after the rainy season in November when the wind
begins to set from the desert, and continues till the month of July.
The gum is shipped for the most part to Bordeaux. The quantity
annually imported into France since 1828 from Senegal is varying from
between li to 5 millions of kilogrammes.
Description — Gum arable does not exhibit any very characteristic
forms like those observable in gum tragacanth. The finest white gum
of Kordofan, which is that most suitable for medicinal use, occurs in
lumps of various sizes from that of a walnut downwards. They are
mostly of ovoid or spherical form, rarely vermicular, with the surface in
the unbroken masses, rounded, — in the fragments, angular. They are
traversed by numerous fissures, and break easily and with a vitreous
fractu4-e. The interior is often less fissured than the outer portion. At
100° C. the cracks increase, and the gum becomes extremely friable.
In moist air, it slowly absorbs about 6 per cent of water.
The finest gum arabic is perfectly clear and colourless ; inferior
kinds have a brownish, reddish or yellowish tint of greater or less
intensity, and are more or less contaminated with accidental impurities
such as bark. The finest white gum turns black and assumes an
empyreumatic taste, when it is kept for months at a temperature of
about 98° C, either in an open vessel, or enclosed in a glass tube, after
having been previously dried over sulphuric acid or not.
An aqueous solution of gum deviates the plane of polarization 5°
to the left in a column 50 mm. long ; but after being long kept, it
becomes strongly acid, the gum having been partly converted into
sugar, and its optical properties are altered. An alkaline solution of
cupric tartrate is not reduced by solution of gum even at a boiling heat,
unless it contains a somewhat considerable proportion of sugar, extrac-
table by alcohol, or a fraudulent admixture of dextrin.
We found the sp. gr. of the purest pieces of colourless gum dried in
the air at 15° C, to be 1"487 ; but it increases to 1'525, if the gum is
dried at 100°.
The foregoing remarks apply chiefly to the fine white gum of
Kordofan, the Picked Turkey Gum or White Sennaar Gum of druggists.
The other sorts which are met with in the London market are the
following : —
1. Senegal Qiim — As stated above, this gum is an important item
of the French trade with Africa, but is not much used in England.
Its colour is usually yellowish or somewhat reddish, and the lumps,
which are of large size, are often elongated or vermicular. Moreover
Senegal gum never exhibits the numerous fissures seen in Kordofan
gum, so that the masses are much firmer and less easily broken. In
^Vaughan, Lc.
GUMMI ACACIA.
237
every other respect, whether chemical or optical, we find' Senegal gum
and Kordofan gum to be identical ; and the two, notwithstanding their
different appearance, are produced by one and the same species of
Acacia, namely Acacia Senegal.
2. SnaJcin Gum, Talca or Talha Gum, yielded by Acacia steno-
carpa, and hj A. Seyal var. Fistula, is remarkable for its brittleness,
which occasions much of it to arrive in the market in a semi-pulveru-
lent state. It is a mixture of nearl}' colourless and of brownish gum,
with here and there pieces of a deep reddish- brown. Large tears have
a dull opaque look, by reason of the innumerable minute fissures which
penetrate the rather bubbly mass. It is imported from Alexandria.
3. Morocco, Mogador or Brovui Barharij Gum — consists of tears
of moderate size, often vermiform, and of a rather uniform, light, dusky
brown tint. The tears which are internally glassy become cracked on
the surface and brittle if kept in a warm room ; they are perfectly
soluble in water. The above mentioned Acacia nilotica is supposed to
be the source of the gum exported from Morocco, and also from Fezzan.
Gums of various kinds, including the resin Sandrac, were exported
from Morocco in the year 1872 to the extent of 5110 cwt., a quantity
much below the average.^
4. Cape Gum — This gum, which is uniformly of an amber brown,
is produced in plenty in the Cape Colon}^, as a spontaneous exudation
of Acacia liorrida Willd. {A. Karroo Hayne, A. capensis Burch.),
a large tree, the Doornboom, Wittecloorn or Karrddoorn of the Cape
colonists, the commonest tree of the lonely deserts of South Africa.
The Blue Booh of the Cape Colony, published in 1873, states the export
of gum in 1872 as 101,241 lb.
5. East India Gum — The best qualities consist of tears of various
sizes, sometimes as large as an egg, internally transparent and vitreous,
of a pale amber or pinkish hue, completely soluble in water. This gum
is largely shipped from Bombay, but is almost wholly the produce of
Africa ; the imports into Bombay from the Red Sea ports, Aden and
the African Coast in the year 1872-73, were 14,352 cwt. During the
same year the shipments from Bombay to the United Kingdom
amounted to 4,561 cwt.^
6. Ausfraliaii Gum, Wattle Gum — This occurs in large hard
globular tears and lumps, occasionally of a pale yellow, yet more often
of an amber or of a reddish-brown hue. It is transparent and entirely
soluble in water ; the mucilage is strongly adhesive, and said to be less
liable to crack when dry than that of some other gums. The solution,
especially that of the darker and inferior kinds, contains a little tannin,
evidently derived from the very astringent bark which is often attached
to the gum.
A. 'pycnantha Benth. ; A. dectirr ens Willd. {A. mollissima Willd.,
A. dealbata Link), Black or Green Wcdtle-tree of the colonists, and A.
homalophylla A. Cunn., are the trees which furnish the gum arable of
Australia.*
^ Fliickiger, in the Jahreshericht of Wig-
gers and Husemami, 1SG9. 149.
- Consular Reports, August, 1873. 917.
* Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of the Presidency of Bombay for 1872-73,
pt. ii. .34. 77.
^P. von Miiller, Select Plants for ind%ts-
trial culture in Victoria. 1876 ; 2. 4.
238
LEGUMINOStE.
Chemical Characters and Composition — At ordinary tem-
peratures gum dissolves very slowly and without affecting the thermo-
meter in an equal weight of water, forming a thick, glutinous, slightly
opalescent liquid, having a mawkish taste and decidedly acid reaction.
At higher temperatures the dissolution of gum is but slightly accele-
rated, and water does not take up a much larger quantity even at 100°.
The finest gum dried at 100° C. forms with two parts of water a
mucilage of sp. gr. 1"149 at 15° C.
This solution mixes with glycerine, and the mixture may be evapo-
rated to the consistence of a jelly without any separation taking place.
Solid gum in lumps, on the contrary, is but little aftected by concen-
trated glycerine. In other liquids, gum is insoluble or only slightly
soluble, unless there is a considerable quantity of water present. Thus
100 parts of spirit of wine containing 22 volumes per cent, of alcohol,
dissolve 57 parts of gum ; spirit containing 40 per cent, of alcohol
takes up 10 parts, and spirit of 50 per cent, only 4 parts. Aqueous
alcohol of GO per cent, no longer dissolves gum, but extracts from it a
small quantity (i to ^ per cent, according to the variety) of resin
colouring matter, glucose, calcium chloride, and other salts.
Neutral acetate of lead does not precipitate gum arable mucilage ;
but the basic acetate forms, even in a very dilute solution, a precipitate
of definite constitution.
Soluble silicates, borates, and ferric salts render gum solution turbid,
or thicken it to a jelly. It is not a compound of gum with any of these
substances which is formed, but in the cases of the first, basic silicates
separate. No alteration is produced by silver salts, mercuric chloride
or iodine. Ammonium oxalate throws down the lime contained in a
solution of gum. Gum dissolves in an ammoniacal solution of cupric
oxide. Acted upon by nitric acid, mucic acid is produced.
Small, air-dried lumps of gum lose by desiccation over concentrated
sulphuric acid (or by heating them in the water-bath) 12 to IG per
cent, of water. If gum independently of its amount of lime, be presented
by the formula Qi'^H^^O" -|- 3 H^O, the loss of 3 molecules of water will
correspond to a decrease in weight of 13'6 per cent.; in carefully
selected colourless pieces, we have found it to amount to 13'14 per
cent. At a temperature of about 150° C, gum parts with another mole-
cule of water, and partly loses its solubility and assumes a brownish hue
and empyreumatic taste. Gum already by keeping it for a week at a
temperature not exceeding 95° C. gradually acquires a decidedly empy-
reumatic taste. We have also observed, on the other hand, a fine white
gum affording an imperfect solution which was glairy, like the mucilage
of marsh-mallow, but in no other respect could we find that it differed
from ordinaiy gum. On exposing it for some days to a temperature of
95° C, it afforded a solution of the usual character.
When gum arable is dissolved in cold water and the solution is
slightly acidulated with hydrochloric acid, alcohol produces it in a
])veG\i)itsite of A rabin or Arabic Acid. It may be also prepared by
placing a solution of gum (1 gum + 5 water), acidulated with hydro-
chloric acid, on a dialyser, when the calcium salt will diffuse out, leaving
behind a solution of arabin.
Solution of arabin differs from one of gum in not being precipitated
by alcohol. Having been dried, it loses its solubility, merely swelling
GUMMI ACACIiE.
239
in water, but not dissolvinoj even at a boiling heat. If an alkali is
added, it forms a solution like ordinary gum. Neubauer who observed
these facts (185-t-.57) showed that gum arable is essentially an acid
calcium salt of arable acid.
Arabic Acid dried at 100° C. has the composition C'^H^'^O^^ and
gives up H-0 when it unites with bases. It has however a great
tendency to form salts containing a large excess of acid. An acid
calcium arabate of the composition (C'-H-'0")2 Ca + 3 (C'-ir'O" + 5 0H=)
would aftbrd by incinei'ation 4 95 per cent, of calcium carbonate.
Nearly this amount of ash is in fact sometimes yielded by gum. The
most carefully selected colourless pieces of it yield from 27 to 4 per
cent, of ash, consisting mainly of calcium carbonate, but containing also
carbonates of potassium and magnesium. Phosphoric acid appears
never to occur in gums.
Natural gum may therefore be regarded as a salt of arable acid
having a large excess of acid, or perhaps as a mixture of such salts
of calcium, potassium and magnesium. It is to the presence of these
bases, which are doubtless derived from the cell-wall from which the
gum exuded, that gum owes its solubility.
It still remains unexplained why certain gums, not unprovided
with mineral constituents, merely swell up in water without dissolving,
thus materially differing from gum arable. There is also a marked
difterence between gum arable and many other varieties of gum or
mucilage, which immediately form a plumbic compound if treated with
neutral acetate of lead. The type of the swelling, but not really soluble
gums, is Tragacanth, but there are a great many other substances of
the same class, some of them perfectly resembling gum arable in
external appearance. The name of Bassora (jum has also been applied
to the latter kinds.
Commerce — The imports of Gum Arabic into the United Kingdom
have been as follows : —
The country whence by far the largest supplies are shipped, is
Uses — Gum is employed in medicine rather as an adjuvant than
as possessing any remedial powers of its own.
Substitutes — A great number of trees are capable of affording
gums more or less similar to gum arable. There is to be mentioned for
instance Proso2ns gla-ndulosa Torrey, a tree growing from 30 to 40
feet in height, occurring very abundantly in Texas, and extending as
far west as the Colorado and the gulf of California. It is universally
known by its Mexican name Uesquite. It belongs to the same
suborder of the Mimoste like the Acacise tribe of the Adenantherete.
Mesquite gum agrees not with the fine description, but with the inferior
sorts of gum arable, and is sometimes used in America,^ since 1854,
in the manufactui-e of confectionery and the arts.
Feronia Gtim or Wood Apple Gum. This is the produce of Feronia
1871
76,136 cwt., value £250,088.
1872
42,837 cwt., value £123,080.
Egypt.
' See Proceedings of Am. Pkarm. Asitoc. 1875. 647; Am. Joiirn. of Pharm. 1878. 480.
240
LEGUMINOS^.
Mephantum Correa, a spiny tree, 50 to 60 feet high, of the order of
Aurantiacece, common throughout India from the hot valleys of the
Himalaya to Ceylon, and also found in Java. There exudes from its
bark abundance of gum, which appears not to be collected for exporta-
tion per se, but rather to be mixed indiscriminately with other gum, as
that of Acacia.
Feronia gum sometimes forms small roundish transparent, almost
colourless tears, more frequently stalactitic or knobby masses, of a
brownish or reddish colour, more or less deep. In an authentic sample,
for which we are indebted to Dr. Thwaites of Ceylon, horn-shaped
pieces about | an inch thick and two inches long also occur.
Dissolved in two parts of water, it affords an almost tasteless
mucilage, of much greater viscosity than that of gum arable made in
the same proportions. The solution reddens litmus, and is precipitated
like gum arable by alcohol, oxalate of ammonium, alkaline silicates,
])erchloride of iron, but not by borax. Moreover, the solution of
Feronia gum is precipitated by neutral acetate of lead or caustic
baryta, but not by potash. If the solution is completely precipitated
by neutral acetate of lead, the residual liquid will be found to contain
a small quantity of a different gum, identical apparently with
gum arabic, inasmuch as it is not thrown down by acetate of
lead. If the lime is precipitated from the Feronia mucilage by
oxalate of potassium, the gum partially loses its solubility and forms a
turbid liquid.
From the preceding experiments, it follows that a larger portion of
Feronia gum is by no means identical with gum arabic. The former,
when examined in a column of .50 mm. length, deviates the rays of
polarized light 0°-4 to the right, — not to the left as gum arabic. This
was, we believe, the first instance of a dextrogyre gum ; ^ Scheibler has
afterwards shown (1873) that there are also dextrogyre varieties among
the African gum from Sennar. Gum arabic may be combined with
oxide of lead; the compound (arabate of lead) contains 30G per cent,
of oxide of lead, whereas the plumbic compound of Feronia gum, dried
at 110° C, yielded us only 14"76 per cent, of PbO. The formula
(C^^H-'0")2Pb + 2 (C^'H"0") supposes 14-2 per cent, of oxide of lead.
Feronia gum repeatedly treated with fuming nitric acid produces
abundant crystals of mucic acid. We found our sample of the gum to
yield 17 per cent, of water, when dried at 110° C. It left 3 55 per cent,
of ash.
CATECHU.
Catechu nigrum; Black Catechu, Pegu Catechu, Cutch, Terra
Japonica ; F. Cachou, Cachou brun ou noir ; G. Catechu.
Botanical Origin — The trees from which this drug is manufactured
are of two species, namely : —
1. Acacia Catechu Willd. (Mimosa Catechu L. fil., M. Sundra
Roxb.^), a tree 30 to 40 feet high, with a short, not very straight trunk
^ FlUckiger, Pharm. Journ. x. (1869). gard Mimosa (Acacia) Sundra as distinct
G4l. from A. Catechu. — Fig. in Bentley and
^ Some Indian botanists, as Beddome, re- Trimen, part 17.
CATECHU.
241
4 to 6 feet in girth, straggling thorny branches, light feathery foliage,
and dark grey or brown bark, reddish and fibrous internally.
It is common in most parts of India and Burma, where it is highly
valued for its wood, which is used for posts and for various domestic
purposes, as well as for making catechu and charcoal, while the astrin-
gent bark serves for tanning. It also grows in the hotter and drier
pai'ts of Ceylon. A. Catechu abounds in the forests of Tropical Eastern
Africa ; it is found in the Soudan, Sennaar, Abyssinia, the Noer
country, and Mozambique, but in none of these regions is Sioy astringent
extract manufactured from its wood.
2. A. Suma Kurz ^ {Mimosa Suma Roxb.), a large tree with a red
heartwood, but a white bark, nearly related to the preceding but not
having so extensive a geographical range. It grows in the South of
India (Mysore), Bengal and Gujerat. The bark is used in tanning,
and catechu is made from the heart-wood.
The extract of the wood of these two species of Acacia is Catecliv
in the true and original sense of the word, a substance not to be con-
founded with Oamhier, which, though very similar in composition, is
widely diverse in botanical origin, and always regarded in commerce as
a distinct article.
History — Barbosa in his description of the East Indies in 1514'
mentions a drug called Cacho as an article of export from Cambay to
Malacca. This is the name for Catechu in some of the languages of
Southern India.^
About fifty years later, Garcia de Orta gave a particular account of
the same drug"* under its Hindustani name of Kat, first describing the
tree and then the method of preparing an extract from its wood. This
latter substance was at that period made up with the flour of a cereal
(Eleusive coracana Gartn.) into tablets or lozenges, and apparently not
sold in its simple state : compositions of this kind are still met with in
India. In the time of Garcia de Orta the drug was an important
article of traffic to Malacca and China, as well as to Arabia and Persia.
Notwithstanding these accounts, catechu remained unknown in
Europe until the 17th century, when it began to be brought from
Japan, or at least said to be exported from that country. It was known
about 1641 to Johannes Schroder,^ and is quoted at nearly the same
time in several tariffs of German towns, being included in the simples
of mineral origin.''
In 1671, catechu was noticed as a useful medicine by G. W. Wedel
of Jena,*^ who also called attention to the diversity of opinion as to its
^ Brandis, Forest Flora of North- Western
and Central India, Lond. 1874. 187, from
which excellent work we also borrow the
description of A. Catechu.
- Published by the Hakluyt Society,
Lond. 1866. p. 191.
^ As Tamil and Canarese, in wliich ac-
cording to modern spelling the word is
written Kdahu or Kdchu. — Moodeen
Sheriff, Suppl. to Pharmacopeia of India,
1879. 96.
* Aromatum Hi-itoria, ed. Clusius, 1574.
44. — He writes the word Cate.
■' Pliarmaropma medico-physica, Ulmse,
1649. lib. iii. 516. "Est et genus terr^
exoticse, colore purpurenm, punctulia albis
intertextum, ac si situm contraxisset, sapore
aiisteriusculum, masticatnm liquescens,
subdulcemque post se relinqueus saporem,
Catechu vocsLiit, seu Terram japoniram. . .
Particulam hujus obtinni a Pharmacopwo
nostrate curiosissimo Dn. Matthia Bansa. "
The preface is dated Frankfurt a.d. 1641.
6 Pharm. Journ. vi. (1876) 1022.
^ Usus noviiH Catechu seu Terrce Japonicce,
— Ephemerides Nat. Cur. Dec. i. ann. 2
(1671) 209.
242
LEGUMINOSiE.
mineral or vegetable nature. Schrock ' in 1677 combated the notion of
its mineral origin, and gave reasons for considering it a vegetable sub-
stance. A few years later, Cleyer,^ who had a personal knowledge of
China, pointed out the enormous consumption of catechu for mastication
in the East, — that it is imported into Japan, — that the best comes from
Pegu, but some also from Surat, Malabar, Bengal, and Ceylon.
Catechu was received into the London Pharmacopoeia of 1721, but
was even then placed among " Terrce medicamentoscc."
The wholesale price in London in 1776 was £16 16s. per cwt. ; in
1780 £20 ; in 1793 £14 14s., from which it is easy to infer that the
consumption could only have been very small.^
Manufacture — Cutch, commonly called in India Kdt or Kut, is an
aqueous extract made from the wood of the tree. The process for
preparing it varies slightly in different districts.
The tree is reckoned to be of proper age when its trunk is about
a foot in diameter. It is then cvit down, and the whole of the woody
part, with the exception of the smaller branches and the bark, is
chopped into chips. Some accounts state that only the darker heart-
wood is thus used. The chips are then placed with water in earthen
jars, a series of which is arranged over a mud-built fire-place, usually
in the open air. Here the water is made to boil, the liquor as it
becomes thick and strong being decanted into another vessel, in which
the evaporation is continued until the extract is sufficiently inspissated,
when it is poured into moulds made of clay, or of leaves pinned together
in the shape of cups, or in some districts on to a mat covered with the
ashes of cow-dung, the drying in each case being completed by exposure
to the sun and air. The product is a dark brown extract, which is the
usual form in which cutch is known in Europe.
In Kumaon in the north of India,* a slight modification of the
process affords a drug of very different appearance. Instead of evapo-
rating the decoction to the condition of an extract, the inspissation is
stopped at a certain point and the liquor allowed to cool, " coagulate,"
and crystallize over twigs and leaves thrown into the pots for the pur-
pose. How this drug is finished off we do not exactly know, but we
are told that by this process there is obtained from each pot about 2 lb.
of " Kath " or catechu, of an ashy whitish appearance, which is quite in
accordance with the specimens we have received and of which we shall
speak further on.
In Burma the manufacture and export of cutch form, next to the
sale of timber, the most important item of forest revenue. According
to a report by the Commissioner of the Prome Division, the trade returns
of 1869-70 show that the quantity of cutch exported from the province
during the year was 10,782 tons, valued at £193,602, of which nearly
one-half was the produce of manufactories situated in the British terri-
tory. Vast quantities of the wood are consumed as fuel, especially for
the steamers on the Irrawadi.^
1 Ibid. Dec. i. ann. 8 (1G77) 88.
- Ibid. Dec. ii. ann. 4 (1685) 6.
' Pegu Cutch is quoted in a London price-
current, March 1879, £1. 2s. per cwt.
^ Madden in J own. of Asiat. Soc. of
Bengal, xvii. part i. (1848) 565 ; also pri-
vate communication accompanied by speci-
mens of tree, wood, and extract from Mr.
F. E. G. Matthews, of the Kumaon Iron
Works, Nynee Tal.
5 Pearson (G. P.) Report of the Adminis-
tration of the Forest Department in the
several provinces under the Oovernment of
India, 1871-72, Calcutta, 1872, part 5. p. 22.
CATECHU.
243
Description — Cutch is imported in mats, bags, or boxes. It is a
dark brown, extractiform substance, hard and brittle on the surface of
the mass, but soft and tenacious within, at least when newly imported.
The large leaf of Dipterocarpus hibermlaius Roxb., the Eiv or Enghen
of the Burmese, is often placed outside the blocks of extract.
Cutch when dry breaks easily, showing a shining but bubbly and
slightly granular fracture. When it is soft and is pulled out into a thin
film, it is seen to be translucent, granular and of a bright orange-brown.
When further moistened and examined under the microscope, it exhibits
an abundance of minute acicular crystals, precisely as seen in gambler.
We have observed the same in numerous samples of the dry drug when
rendered pulpy by the addition of water, or moistened with glycerin
and viewed by polarized light.
The pale cutch referred to as manufactured in the north of India, is
in the form of irregular fragments of a cake an inch or more thick, which
has a laminated structure and appears to have been deposited in a round-
bottomed vessel. It is a poi*ous, opaque, earthly-looking substance of
a pale pinkish brown, light, and easily broken. Under the microscope
it is seen to be a mass of needle-shaped crystals exactly like gambler,
with which in all essential points it corresponds. We have received
from India the same kind of cutch made into little round cakes like
lozenges, with apparently no addition. The taste of cutch is astringent,
followed by a sensation of sweetness by no means disagreeable.
Chemical Composition — Extractiform cutch, such as that of Pegu,
which is the only sort common in Europe, when immersed in cold water
turns whitish, softens and disintegrates, a small proportion of it dis-
solving and forming a deep brown solution. The insoluble part if
Catechin in minute acicular crystals. If a little of the thick chocolate-
like liquid made by macerating cutch in water, is heated to the boiling
point, it is rendered quite transparent (mechanical impurities being
absent), but becomes turbid on cooling. Ferric chloride forms with this
solution a dark green precipitate, immediately changing to purple if
common water or a trace of free alkali be used.
Ether extracts from cutch, catechin. This substance has been in-
vestigated by many chemists, but as yet with discrepant results. It
agrees, according to Etti (1877), with the formula C^ff^O^ when dried
at 80° C. By gently heating catechin, Gatechutannic acid, C^'H^^G",
is produced :
This is an undoubted acid, readily soluble in water, of decidedly tanning
properties, precipitating also the alkaloids and albumin. Catechutannic
acid being the first anhydride of catechin, there are several more su!)-
stances of that class; one of them is called Catechuretin. This blackish
brown almost insoluble substance is obtained by heating catechin with
concentrated hydrochloiic acid at 180° :
2(C"H^'0'') — 4 OH^ = C^'H^'O^-.
Catechin, by melting it with caustic potash, affords Protocatechuic acid,
C^ff (0H)2C00H, and Phloroglucin, C'H'(OH)' :
Qi9jji308_[.2 0H2z= 4H ■ UWO* ■ 2C'H^0*.
2U
ROSACEiE.
Gautier (1877) also obtained the two latter products, but he is of the
opinion that they are due to a somewhat different reaction, the formula
of catechin, as derived from his analyses, being C^'ff He also as-
serts that the so-called catechin from Uncaria (see Gambler) is not
identical with the substance under notice, nor with that found in the
Mahogan wood, to which Gantier assigns the formula C^^H^^O"'.
Crj'stallized deposits of catechin are sometimes met with in fissures
of the trunk of Acacia Catechu, and used medicinally in India under the
name Keersal}
Lowe (1873), by exhausting cutch with cold water and then agita-
ting the solution with ether, obtained upon the evaporation of the latter
a yellow crystalline substance which he ascertained to be Quercetin,
Q27gi8Qi2 solubility in water is probably favoured by the presence
of catechin, water having but very little action upon pure quercetin.
The amount of quercetin in cutch is exceedingly small.
When either cutch or gambler is subjected to dry distillation it
yields, in common with many other substances, Pyrocatechin, C^H^(OH)".
Commerce — The importations of cutch into the United Kingdom
from British India (excluding the Straits Settlements and Ceylon) were
as under, almost the whole being from Bengal and Burma : — •
1869 1870 1871 1872
'22'u tons. 5252 tons. 4335 tons. 5240 tons.
The total value of the cutch imported in 1872 was estimated at
£124,458.
Uses — Cutch under the name of Catechu, which name it shares
with gambler, is employed in medicine as an astringent.
Analogous Products — See our articles Semen Arcca^ and Gambier.
ROSACEA.
AMYGDALiE BULGES.
Sweet Almonds ; F. Amavchs douce s ; G. Silsse Mamlelv.
Botanical Origin — Primus Amygdalus Baillon^ var. /3. dulcis
{Amygclalus communis L. var. /3. dnJcis DC.) — The native country of the
almond cannot be ascertained with precision. A. de Candolle,^ after
reviewing the statements of various authors concerning the occurrrence
of the tree in an apparently wild state, arrives at the conclusion that
its original area possibly extended from Persia, westward to Asia Minor
and Syria, and even to Algeria. The tree is found ascending to 4000
feet in the Antilebanon, to 3000 in Mesopotamia, and even to 9000 feet
in the Avroman range, not far from Sulemania, Southern Kurdistan."
At an early period the tree was spread throughout the entire Medi-
terranean region, and in favourable situations, far into the continent of
Europe. It was apparently introduced into Italy from Greece, where
^ Dymock, Ph. Journ. vii. (1876) 109. ^ 04orjrapMe Botanique, ii. (1855) 888.
^ Hist.flex P/anfci ( Movogr. de.'! Rosac6e.% * Boissier, Flora Orievtali.t, ii. (1872) 641.
1869) i. 415.
AMYGDALA DULCE8.
245
according to Heldreich/ the bitter variety is truly wild. The almond-
tree matures its fi-uit in the south of England, but is liable to destruc-
tion by frost in many parts of central Europe.
History — The earliest notice of the almond extant is that in the
Book of Genesis/ where we read that the patriarch Israel commanded
his sons to carry with them into Egypt a present consisting of the pro-
ductions of Palestine, one of which is named as almonds.
From the copious references to the almond in the writings of Theo-
phrastus, one cannot but conclude that in his day it was familiarly
known.
In Italy, M. Porcius Cato mentions towards the middle of the 2nd
century B.C. Avellance Grceccti which we know from later authors signi-
fied almonds. Columella, who wrote about A.D. 60, calls them Nuces
Groicoi. Bitter almonds {" Amygdali amarl") are named about this
latter period by Scribonius Largus.
As to more northern Europe, almonds are mentioned together with
other groceries and spices as early as A.D. 716, in a charter granted by
Chilperic II., King of France, to the monastery of Corbie in Normandy.*
Iq 812 Charlemagne ordered the trees (A/mandalarii) to be introduced
on the imperial farms. In the later middle ages, the cultivation of the
almond was carried on about Speier and in the Rhenish Palatinate.
We learn from Marino Sanudo ^ that in the beginning; of the 14th
centuiy, almonds had become an important item of the Venetian trade
to Alexandria. They were doubtless in large part produced by the
islands of the Greek Archipelago, then under Christian rule. In Cyprus
for instance, the Knights Templar levied tithes in 1411 of almonds,
honey, and sesame seed.*^
The consumption of almonds in mediseval cookery was enormous.
An inventory made in 1372 of the effects of Jeanne d'Evreux, queen of
France, euumerates only 20 lb. of sugar, but 500 lb. of almonds.'^
In the Form of Gary, a manuscript written by the master cooks of
King Richard II., a.d. 1390, are receipts for " Creme of Almand, Greivel
of Almand, Catvdel of Almand Mylke, Jowt of Almand Mylke," <fec.^
Almonds were sold in England by the " hundred " i.e. 108 lb.
Rogers® gives the average price between 1259 and 1350 as 2d., and
between 1351 and 1400 as 3^d. per lb.
Description — The fruit of the almond tree is a drupe, with a
velvety sarcocarp which at maturity dries, splits, and drops off, leaving
bare and still attached to the branch, an oblong, ovate pointed stone,
pitted with irregular holes. The seed, about an inch in length, is ovate
or oblong, more or less compressed, pointed at the upper, blunt at the
lower end, coated with a scurfy, cinnamon-brown skin or testa. It is
connected with the stone or putamen by a broad funicle, which runs
^ Nutzpjlanzen Gnechenlaiida, Ath.en,\862.
67.
- Ch. xliii. V. 1 1 ; Num. xvii. 8.
^ De Re Ruslka, cap.
* Pardessus, Diplomata Chart<£, etc.,
Paris, 1849. ii. 309.
5 Liher Secretormi Fidelium, ed. Bongars,
1611. 24.
^ De ilas Latrie, Hist, de Vile de Chyprc,
ii. (1852) 500:
" Leber, Appridat'wii de la fortune priv6e
au moyen-dge, ed. 2, Paris, 1847. 95.
s Published by Pegge, Lond. 1780.—
Boorde in his Dyetary of Helth, 1542, men-
tions AliiioH Mylke and Almon Butter, the
latter " a commendahle dys^ihe, specyallye in
Lent."
8 Agriculture and Prices in England, i.
(1866) 641.
ROSACEiE.
along its edge for more than a third of its length from the apex ; hence
the raphe passes downwards to the rounded end of the seed, where a
scar marks the chalaza. From this, a dozen or more ramifying veins
run up the brown skin towards the pointed end. After an almond has
been macerated in warm water, the skin is easily removed, bringing
with it the closely attached ti^anslucent inner membrane or endopleura.
As the seed is without albumen, the whole mass within the testa con-
sists of embryo. This is formed of a pair of plano-convex cotyledons,
within which lie the flat leafy plumule and thick radicle, the latter
slightly projecting from the pointed or basal end of the seed.
Almonds have a bland, sweet, nutty flavour. When triturated
with water, they afford a pure white, milk-like emulsion of agreeable
taste.
Varieties— The different sorts of almond vary in form and size, and
more particularly in the firmness of the shell. This in some varieties
is tender and easily broken in the hand, in others so hard as to require
a hammer to fracture it. The form and size of the kernel likewise
exhibit some variation. The most esteemed are those of Malaga, known
in trade as Jordan Almonds. They are usually imported without the
shell, and differ from all other sorts in their oblong form and large
size. The other kinds of sweet almonds known in the London mar-
ket are distinguished in the order of value as Valencia, Sicily, and
Barhary}
Microscopic Structure — Three different parts are to be distin-
guished in the brown coat of an almond. First, a layer of very large
(as much as \ mm. in diameter) irregular cells, to which the scurfy
surface is due. If these brittle cells are boiled with caustic soda, they
make a brilliant object for microscopic examination in polarized light.
The two inner layers of the skin are made up of much smaller cells,
traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles. The brown coat assumes a
bluish hue on addition of perchloride of iron, owing to the presence of
tannic matter.
The cotyledons consist of thin-walled parenchyme, fibro-vascular
bundles being not decidedly developed. This tissue is loaded with
granular albuminous matter, some of which exhibits a crystalloid
aspect, as may be ascertained in polarized light. Starch is altogether
wanting in almonds.
Chemical Composition— Tlic sweet almond contains fixed oil
extractable by boiling ether to the extent of 50 to 55 per cent. A
produce of 50 per cent, by the hydi'aulic press is by no means
uncommon.
The oil {Oleum Amygdalce) is a thin, light yellow fluid, of sp. gr.
0'92, which does not solidify till cooled to between —10 and —20° C.
When fresh, it has a mild nutty taste, but soon becomes rancid by
exposure to the air ; it is not, however, one of the drying oils. It con-
sists almost wholly of the glycerin compound of Oleic Acid, C^'H^Ol
Almonds easily yield to cold water a sugar tasting like honey, which
reduces alkaline cupric tartrate even in the cold, and is therefore in
part grape-sugar. Pelouze however (1855) obtained from almonds 10
1 To be consultedfor further information : Mandorlo in Sic/lia, Palermo, 1874 (444
Bianca, O. ilanua'c. delta Cidtivazioiie del pages).
AMYGDALA AMARtE.
247
per cent, of cane-sugar. The amount of gum appears to be very small ;
Fleury (1865) found that the total amount of sugar, dextrin and muci-
lage was altogether onl}^ 6'29 per cent.
If almonds are kept for several days in alcohol, crystals of aspara-
gine (see article Had. Alth0ea3, p. 93) make their appearance, as
shown by Henschen (1872), and by Fortes (1876).
The almond yields 3 7 per cent, of nitrogen, corresponding to about
24 per cent, of albuminoid matters. These have been elaborately ex-
amined by Robiquet (1837-38), Ortlofr(184;6),Bull (1849), and Ritthausen
(1872).' The experiments tend to show that there exist in the almond
two different protein substances ; Robiquet termed one of these bodies
Synaptase, while others applied to it the name Emidsin? Commaille
(1806) named the second albuminous substance Amandin; it is the
Almond-legumin of Gmelin's Chemistry, the Conglutin of Ritthausen.
Emulsia has not yet been freed from earthly phosphates which, when
it is precipitated by alcohol from any aqueous solution, often amount
to a third of its weight. Amandin may be precipitated from its aqueous
solution by acetic acid. According to Ritthausen, these bodies are to
be regarded as modifications of one and the same substance, namely
vegetable casein.
Blanched almonds comminuted yield, when slightly warmed with
dilute potash, a small quantity of hydrocyanic acid and of ammonia;
the former may be made manifest by means of Schonbein's test pointed
out at p. 250.
The ash of almonds, amounting to from 3 to nearly 5 per cent., con-
sists chiefly of phosphates of potassium, magnesium and calcium.
Production and Commerce — The quantity of almonds imported
into the United Kingdom in 1872 was 70,270 cwt., valued at £204,592.
Of this quantity, Morocco supplied 33,500 cwt., and Spain with the
Canary Islands 22,000 cwt., the remainder being made up by Italy,
Portugal, France, and other countries. The imports into the United
Kingdom in 1876 were 77,169 cwt., valued at £244,078. Almonds are
largely shipped from the Persian Giilf: in the year 1872-73, there were
imported thence into Bombay, 15,878 cwt., besides 3,049 cwt. from other
countries.*
Uses — Sweet almonds may be used for the extraction of almond oil,
yet they are but rarely so employed (at least in England) on account
of the inferior value of the residual cake. The only other use of the
sweet almond in medicine is for making the emulsion called Mistura
Amygdalce.
AMYQ'DPs.L.M AMARiE.
Bitter Almonds; F. Amandes ameres; G. Bittere Mandeln.
Botanical Origin — Prunus Amygdalus Baillon var. a. amara
(Amygdalus communis L. var. a. amara DC). The Bitter Almond tree
is not distinguished from the sweet by any permanent botanical character,
and its area of growth appears to be the same (see p. 244).
1 Die Eiweisshiirper der Getreidearten, " Gmelin, Chemistry, xviii. (1871) 452.
Hi'dsen/ruchte und Oelsamen, Bonn, 1872. ' Statement of the Trade and Navigation
199. of Bombay for 1872-73, pt. ii. .SI.
248
ROSACEA.
History — (See also preceding article.) Bitter almonds and their
poisonous properties were well known in the antiquity, and used
medicinally during the middle ages. Valerius Cordus prescribed them
as an ingredient of trocliisci/
As early as the beginning of the present century, it was shown by
the experiments of Bohra, a pharmaceutical assistant of Berlin, that the
aqueous distillate of bitter almonds contains hydrocyanic acid and a
peculiar oil which cannot be obtained from sweet almonds. It was
then inferred that hydrocyanic acid itself might be poisonous, a fact
which, strange to say, had not been noticed by Scheele, when he
discovered that acid in 1782, as obtained by distilling potassium
ferrocyanate with sulphuric acid. The dangerous action of hydrocyanic
was then ascertained in 1802 and 1803 by Schaub and Schrader.-
Description — Bitter almonds agree in outward appearance, form,
and structure with sweet almonds; they exist under several varieties,
but there is none so far as we know that in size and form resembles the
long sweet almond of Malaga.^ In general, bitter almonds are of smaller
size than sweet. Triturated with water, they afford the same white
emulsion as sweet almonds, but it has a strong odour of hydrocyanic
acid and a very bitter taste.
Varieties — These are distinguished in their order of goodness, as.
French, Sicilian, and Barbary.
Microscopic Structure — In this respect, no difference between
sweet and bitter almonds can be pointed out. If thin slices of the latter
are deprived of fat oil by means of benzol, and then kept for some years
in glycerin, an abundance of crystals is slowly formed, of what we
suppose to be amygdalin.
Chemical Composition — Bitter almonds, when comminuted and
mixed with water, immediately evolve the odour of bitter almond oil.
The more generally diffused substances are the same in both kinds of
almond, and the fixed oil in particular of the bitter almond is identical
with that of the sweet. Bitter almonds however contain on an average
a somewhat lower proportion of oil than the sweet. In one instance
that has come to our knowledge in which 28 cwt. of bitter almonds were
submitted to pressure, the yield of oil was at the rate of 43'6 per cent.
Mr. Umney, director of the laboratory of Messrs. Herrings and Co., where
large quantities of bitter almonds are submitted to powerful hydraulic
pressure, gives 44*2 as the average percentage of oil obtained during the
years 1871-2.
Robiquet and Boutron-Charland in 1830 prepared from bitter almonds
a crystalline substance, Amygdalin, and found that bitter almond oil
and hydrocyanic acid can no longer be obtained from bitter almonds, the
amygdalin of which has been removed by alcohol. Liebig and Wohler
in 1837 showed that it is solely the decomposition of this body (under
conditions to be explained presently), that occasions the formation of
1 Dispmsator., Paris, 1548. 336. 337. 343.
^ J. B. Richter, Neuere GegensUmde. der
Chymie,'BTesla,n, xi. (1802) 65. J.B. Tromms-
dorffs Journ. d. Pharm. xi (Leipzig, 1SC3)
262. Preyer, Die Blausdiire, Bonn, 1870.
152.
' Hence to avoid bitter almonds being
used instead of sweet, the British Pharma-
copceia directs that Jordan Almonds alone
shall be employed for Confection of
Almonds.
AMYGDALiE AMARtE.
249
the two compounds above named. Disregarding secondary products
(ammonia and formic acid), the reaction tal^es place as represeated in the
following equation:
C20H27NO" + 3 OH^ -OH- • 2 (C«Hi20«) • NCH •
Crystallized Amygdalin. Anhydrous Hydro- Bitter Almond
Dextro-glucose. cyanic Acid. Oil.
This memorable investigation first brought under notice a body of
the glucoside class, now so numerous.
Amygdalin may be obtained crystallized when almonds deprived of
their oil are boiled with alcohol of 84 to 94 per cent. The product
amounts at most to 2^ or 3 per cent. Amygdalin ^je/^ se dissolves in 15
parts of water at 8-12° C, forming a neutral, bitter, inodorous liquid,
quite destitute of poisonous properties.
It would appear from the investigations of Portes (1877) that in
young almonds, amygdalin is formed before the emulsin.
When bitter almonds have been freed from amygdalin and fixed oil,
cold water exti'acts from the residue chiefly emulsin and another
albuminoid matter separable by acetic acid. The emulsin upon adchtion
of alcohol falls down in thick flocks, which, after draining, form with
cold water a slightly opalescent solution. This liquid added to an
aqueous solution of amygdalin, renders it turbid, and developes in it
bitter almond oil. The reaction takes place in the same manner, if the
emulsin has not been previously purified by acetic acid and alcohol, or
if an emulsion of sweet almonds used. But after boiling, an emulsion
of almonds is no longer capable of decomposing amygdalin.
What alteration the emulsin itself undergoes in this reaction, or
whether it suffers any alteration at all, has not been clearly made out.
The reaction does not appear to take place necessarily in atomic propor-
tions ; it does not cease until the emulsin has decomposed about
three times its own weight of amygdalin, provided always that sufficient
water is present to hold all the products in solution.
The leaves of Primus Lauro-cerasus L., the bark of P. Padus L.,
and the organs of many allied plants, also contain emulsin or a
substance analogous to it, not yet isolated. In the seeds of various
plants belonging to natural orders not botanically allied to the almond,
as for example in those of mustard, hemp, and poppy, and even in
yolk of egg, albuminous substances occur which are capable of acting
upon amygdalin in the same manner. Boiling dilute hydrochloric acid
induces the same decomposition, with the simultaneous production of
formic acid.
The distillation of bitter almonds is known to offer some difficulties
on account of the large (quantity present of albundnous substances, which
give rise to bumping and frothing. Michael Pettenkofer (1861) has
found that these inconveniences may be avoided by immersing 12 parts
of powdered almonds in boiling water, whereby the albuminous matters
are coagulated, whereas the amygdalin is dissolved. On then adding an
emulsion of only 1 part of almonds (sweet or bitter), the emulsin con-
tained in it will suffice to effect the required decomposition at a tempera-
ture not exceeding 40° C. In this manner, Pettenkofer obtained in some
experiments performed with small quantities of almonds, as much as
0 9 per cent, of essential oil. In the case alluded to on the opposite
250
EOSACEiE.
page, in which 28 cwt. of ahnonds were treated, the yield of essential
oil amounted to 0'87 per cent. From data obligingly furnished to us
by Messrs. Herrings and Co. of London, who distill large quantities of
almond cake, it appears that the yield of essential oil is very variable.
The yearly averages as taken from the books of this firm, show that it
may be as low as 074, or as high as 1"C7 per cent., which, assuming 57
pounds of cake as equivalent to 100 pounds of almonds, would represent
a percentage from the latter of 0'42 and 0'95 per cent, respectively.
Mr. Umney explains this enormous variation as due in part to natural
variableness in the different kinds of bitter almond, and in part to their
admixture with sweet almonds. He also states that the action of the
emulsin on the amygdalin when in contact with water, is extremely
rapid, and that 200 pounds of almond marc are thoroughly exhausted
by a distillation of only three hours.
In the distillation, the hydrocyanic acid and bitter almond oil unite
into an unstable compound. From this, the acid is gradually set free,
and partly converted into cyanide of ammonium and formic acid. Sup-
posing bitter almonds to contain 3"3 per cent, of Amygdalin, they must
yield 0'2 per cent, of hydrocyanic acid. Pettenkofer obtained by
experiment as much as 0"25 per cent., Feldhaus (1863) 0"17 per cent.
Some manufacturers apply bitter almond oil deprived of hydrocyanic
acid, but such purified oil is very prone to oxidation, unless carefully
deprived of water by being shaken with fused chloride of calcium. The
sp. gr. of the original oil is 1"061 — 1"065; that of the purified oil
(according to Umney) 1'049. The purification by the action of ferrous
sulphate and lime, and re-distillation, as recommended by Maclagan
(1853), occasions, we are informed, a loss of about 10 per cent.
Bitter almond oil, ^^(COH), being the aldehyde of benzoic acid,
^^(COOH), is easily converted in that acid by spontaneous or
artificial oxidation. The oil boils at 180° C. and is a little soluble in
water ; 300 parts of water dissolve one part of the oil.
There are a great number of plants which if crushed, moistened with
water, and submitted to distillation, yield both bitter almond oil
and hydrocyanic acid. In many instances the amount of hydrocyanic
acid is so extremely small, that its presence can only be revealed by the
most delicate test, — that of Schonbein.^
Among plants capable of emitting hydrocyanic acid, probably always
accompanied with bitter almond oil, the tribes Pruncce and Pomece of
the rosaceous order may be particularly mentioned.
The farinaceous rootstocks of the Bitter Cassava, Manihot utilissima,
Pohl, of the order Eujohorbiacece, the source of tapioca in Brazil, have
long been known to yield hydrocyanic acid.
A composite, CJi ardinia xeranthemoides Desf., growing in the Caspian
regions, has been shown by W. Eichler also to emit hydrocyanic acid.^
The same has been observed by the French in Gaboon ^ with regard to
the fruits of Ximenia americana L. of the order Olacinece, and the
^ Applied in the following manner : — Let
bibulous j)aper be imbued with a fresh tinc-
ture of the wood or resin of guaiacum, and
after drying, let it be moistened with a
solution composed of one part of sulphate
of copper in 2000 of water. Such paper
moistened with water will assume an in-
tense blue coloration in the presence of
hydrocyanic acid.
^ Bull, dc la Soc. imp. des naU de Moscoxi,
XXXV. (1862) ii. 444.
^ Exposition Univers. del 867. — Produits
des Colonlets Frani;aises, 92.
FRUCTUS PRUNI.
251
fact has been confirmed by Ernst of Caracas/ near which place the
plant abounds. Mr. Prestoe of the Botanical Garden, Trinidad, informs
us (1874) that in that island a convolvrilaceous -plant, Ipomcea dissecta
Willd., contains a juice with a strong prussic acid odour. According to
Losecke, a common mushroom, Agaricus oreades Bolt., emits hydro-
cyanic acid.2
This acid is consequently widely diffused throughout the vegetable
kingdom. Yet amygdalin has thus far only been isolated from a few
plants belonging to the genus Prunus or its near allies.^ In all other
plants in which hydrocyanic acid has been met with, we know nothing
as to its origin. Ritthausen and Krevisler (1871) have proved the absence
of amygdalin in the seeds of a Vicia, which yield bitter almond oil and
hydi'ocyanic acid. These chemists followed the process which in the
case of bitter almonds easily affords amygdalin.
Commerce — See preceding article.
Uses — Bitter almonds are used almost exclusively for the manu-
facture of Almond Oil, while from the residual cake is distilled Bitter
Almond Oil. An emulsion of bitter almonds is sometimes prescribed
as a lotion.
Adulteration — The adulteration of bitter almonds with sweet is a
frequent source of loss and annoyance to the pressers of almond oil,
whose profit largely depends on the amount of volatile oil they are
able to extract from the residual cake.
FRUCTUS PRUNI.
Prunes; F. Pruneaux a medecine.
Botanical Origin — Prunus domestica L., var. ^. Jidiana DC. — It
is from this tree, which is known as Premier de St. Jtdien,^ that the
true Medicinal Prunes of English pharmacy are derived. The tree is
largely cultivated in the valley of the Loire in France, especially about
Bourgueil, a small town lying between Tours and Angers.
History — The plum-tree (P. domestica L.) from which it is sup-
posed the numerous cultivated varieties have descended, is believed to
occur in a truly wild state in Greece, the south-eastern shores of the
Black Sea (Lazistan), the Caucasus, and the Elburz range in Northern
Persia, from some of which countries it was introduced into Europe
long before the Christian era. In the days of Pliny, numerous species
of pliun were already in cultivation, one of which afforded a fruit
having laxative properties.
Dried prunes, especially those taking their name from Damascus
(Prunct Damascena), are frequently mentioned in the writings of the
Greek physicians, by whom as well as at a later period by the practi-
tioners of the Schola Salernitana, they were much employed.
In the older London pharmacopoeias, many sorts of plum are
1 ArcMv der Pharmacie, 181 (18G7) 222.
- Jahreshcricht of Wiggers andHusemanii
for 1871. 11.
amelin, Cheml^'nj, vii. 389 ; xv. 422.
Loiseleiir-Desiongcliamps et Michel,
Noaveau Duliamel, on Traite cles nrhres et
arbustesquc Von cuUlve en France, v. (1812)
189. pi. :i4. fig. 2, pi. 56. fig. 9.
252
ROSACEiE.
enumerated, but in the reformed editions of 1746, 1788, and 1809, the
French Prune {Frunum Gallicum) is specially ordered, its chief use
being as an ingredient of the well-known Lenitive Electuary; and this
fruit is still held by the grocers to be the legitimate 'prune. The same
variety is regarded in France as the prime of medicine.
Description — The prune in its fresh state is an ovoid drupe of a
deep purple hue, not depressed at the insertion of the stalk, and with a
scarcely visible suture, and no furrow. The pulp is greenish and rather
austere, unless the fruit is very ripe ; it does not adhere to the stone.
The stone is short (yV to -^-^ of an inch long, its" broad), broadly
rounded at the upper end and slightly mucronulate, narrowed some-
what stalk-like at the lower, and truncate ; the ventral suture is
broader and thicker than the dorsal.
The fruit is dried partly by solar and partly by lire heat, — that is
to say, it is exposed alternately to the heat of an oven and to the open
air. Thus prepared, it is about 1^ inches long, black and shrivelled, but
recovers its original size and form by digestion in warm water. The
dried pulp or sai'cocarp is brown and tough, with an acidulous,
saccharine, fruity taste.
Microscopic Structure — The skin of the prune is formed of
small, densely packed cells, loaded with a dark solid substance ; the
pulp consists of larger shrunken cells, containing a brownish amorphous
mass which is probably rich in sugar. This latter tissue is traversed
by a few thin fibro-vascular bundles, and exhibits here and there
crystals of oxalate of calcium. By perchloride of iron, the cell walls,
as well as the contents of the cells, acquire a dingy greenish hue.
Chemical Composition — We are not aware of any analysis
having been made of the particular sort of plum under notice, nor that
any attempt has been made to discover the source of the medicinal
property it is reputed to possess. Some nearly allied varieties have
been submitted to analysis in the laboratory of Fresenius, and shown
to contain saccharine matters to the extent of 17 to 3.5 per cent.,
besides malic acid, and albuminoid and pectic substances.^
Uses — The only pharmaceutical preparation of which the pulp of
prunes is an ingredient, is Confectio Sennce, the Elect iiarium lenitivum
of the old pharmacopoeias. The fruit stewed and sweetened is often
used as a domestic laxative.
Substitute — When French prunes are scarce, a very similar fruit,
known in Germany as Zivetschen or Quetschen, is imported as a sub-
stitute.'^ It is the produce of a tree which most botanists regard as a
form of Prunm doiiiestica L., termed by De Candolle var. Pruneau-
liana. K. Koch,'' however, is decidedly of opinion that it is a distinct
species, and as such he has revived for it Borkhausen's name of Frunus
oeconomica. The tree is widely cultivated in Germany for the sake of
its fruit, which is used in the dried state as an article of food, but is
not grown in England.
The dried fruit diflers slightly from the ordinary prune in being
1 LieVIg's Ann. der Chemie, ci. (1857) -This was especially tlie case in the
228. winter of 1873-74.
Dendroloijie, part i. (1869) 94.
CORTEX PRUiNl SEROTIN^.
253
rather larger and more elongated, and having a tliicker skin ; also in
the stone being flatter, narrower, pointed at either end, with the
ventral suture much more strongly curved than the dorsal. The
fruits seem rather more prone to become covered with a saccharine
efflorescence.
CORTEX PRUNI SEROTIN^.
Cortex Pruni Virginiance ; Wild Black Cherry Baric.
Botanical Origin — Prunus serotina Ehrhart (P. virginiana,
Miller non Linn., Cerasus serotina DC.) — A shrub or tree, in favour-
able situations growing to a height of 60 feet, distributed over an
immense extent of North America. It is found throughout Canada as
far as 62° N. lat., and from Newfoundland and Hudson's Bay in the
east, to the valleys west of the Rocky Mountains.^ It is also common
in the United States.
The ti-ee is often confounded with P. virginiana L., from which,
indeed, it seems to be separated by no fixed character, though American
botanists hold the two plants as distinct. It is also nearly allied to the
well-known P. Padus L. of Europe, the bark of which had formerly a
place in the Materia Medica.
History — Experiments on the medicinal value of Wild Cherry Bark
were made in America about the end of the last century, at which time
the drug was supposed to be useful in intermittent fevers.'^ The bark
was introduced into the United States Pharmacopoeia in 1820. An
elaborate ai'ticle by Bentley' published in 1863 contributed to bring it
into notice in this country, bat it is still much more employed in
America than with us.
Description — The inner bark of the root or branches is said to be
the most suitable for medicinal use. That which we have seen is
evidently from the latter ; it is in flatfish or channelled pieces, -ro-to
of an inch in thickness, an inch to 2 inches broad, and seldom ex-
ceeding 5 inches in length. From many of the pieces, the outer suberous
coat has been shaved off, in which case the whole bark is of a deep
cinnamon brown ; in others the corky layer remains, exhibiting a
polished satiny surface, marked with long transverse scars. The inner
surface is finely striated, or minutely fissured and reticulated. The
bark breaks easily with a short granulai fracture ; it is nearly without
smell, but if reduced to coarse powder and wetted with water it evolves
a pleasant odour of bitter almonds. It has a decided but transient
bitter taste.
The bark freshly cut from the stem is quite white, and has a strong
odour of bitter almonds and hydrocyanic acid.
Microscopic Structure — The chief mass of the tissue is made up of
hard, thick-walled, white cells, the groups of which are separated by a
' Hooker, Flora Boreali- Americana, i.
(1833) 169.
^ Schopf, Materia Medica Americana,
ErlaDgw 1787 ; 77. — Also Barton, Collec-
tionsfor Mat.Med.of U.S., Philad. 1798. 11.
^Pharm. Journ. v. (1864) 67. — Also
Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, part 3;
(1878),
254
KOSACE^.
brown fibrous prosenchyme. The liber is crossed in a radial direction
by numerous broad medullary rays of the usual structure. The paren-
chymatous portion is loaded both with very large single crystals, and
crystalline tufts of calcium oxalate. There is also an abundance of
small starch granules, and bi"Own particles of tannic matters. Thin
slices of the bark moistened with perchloride of iron, assume a blackish
coloration.
Chemical Composition^ — The bitterness and odour of the fresh
bark depend no doubt on the presence of a substance analogous to
amygdalin, which has not yet been examined. Hydrocyanic acid and
essential oil are produced when the bark is distilled with water, and
must be due to the mutual action of that substance alluded to, and some
principle of the nature of emulsin. From the fact that an extract of the
bark remained bitter although the whole of the essential oil and hydro-
cyanic acid had been removed, Proctor inferred the existence of another
substance to which the tonic properties of the bark are perhaps due.
The fresh bark was found by Perot^ to yield ^ per mille of hydro-
cyanic acid in April, 1 per mille in June, and 1'4 in October. The
best time for collecting the bark is therefore the autumn.
Uses — In America, wild cherry bark is held in high estimation for
its mildly tonic and sedative properties. It is administered most appro-
priately in the form of cold infusion or syrup, the latter being a strong
cold infusion, sweetened ; a fluid extract and a dry resinoid extract are
also in use. The bark is said to deteriorate by keeping, and should be
preferred when recently dried.
FOLIA LAURO-CERASI.
Common Laurel or Cherry-laurel Leaves; F. Feullles de Laurier-
cerise ; G. Kirschlorbeerbldtter.
Botanical Origin — Frunus Luuro-cerasus L., a handsome evergreen
shrub, growing to the height of 18 or more feet, is a native of the Cau-
casian provinces of Russia (Mingrelia, Imeritia, Guiiel), of the valleys
of North-western Asia Minor, and Northern Persia. It has been intro-
duced as a plant of ornament into all the more temperate regions of
Europe, and flourishes well in England and other parts, where the
winter is not severe and the summer not excessively hot and dry.
History — Pierre Belon, the French naturalist, who travelled in the
East between 154G and 1550, is stated by Clusius^ to have discovered
the cherry-laurel in the neighbourhood of Trebizond. Thirty years
later, Clusius himself obtained the plant through the Imperial ambassa-
dor at Constantinople, and distributed it from Vienna to the gardens of
Germany. Since it is mentioned by Gerarde^ as a choice garden shrub,
it must have been cultivated in England prior to 1597. Ray,* who like
Gerarde calls the plant Cherry-bay,st&tes that it is not known to possess
medicinal properties.
In 1731, Madden of Dublin drew the attention of the Royal Society
1 Pharm. Journ. xviii. (1852) 109. ' Herhall (1636) 160.3.
- Bariorum Plantarum Hinfor'm, 1601. 4. IIM. Plant, ii. (1603) 1510.
FOLIA LAURO-CERASI.
255
of London' to some cases of poisoning that had occurred by the use of a
distilled water of the leaves. This water he states had been for many
years in frequent use in Ireland among cooks, for flavonring puddings
and creams, and also much in vogue with dram drinkers as an addition
to brandy, without any ill effects from it having been noticed. The
fatal cases thus brought forward occasioned much investigation, but the
true nature of the poison was not understood till pointed out by
Schrader in 1803 (see art. Amygdalae amaraj, p. 248, note 2). Cherry-
laurel water, though long used on the Continent, has never been much
prescribed in Great Britain, and had no place in any British Pharma-
copoeia till 1839.
Description — The leaves are alternate, simple, of leathery texture
and shining upper surface, 5 to 6 inches long by 1| to 2 inches wide,
oblong or slightly obovate, attenuated towards either end. The thick
leafstalk, scarcely half an inch in length, is prolonged as a stout midrib
to the recurved apex. The margin, which is also recurved, is provided
with sharp but very short serratures, and glandular teeth, which become
more distant towards the base. The under side, which is of a paler
colour and dull surface, is marked by 8 or 10 lateral veins, anastomosing
towards the edge. Below the lower of these and close to the midrib,
are from two to four shallow depressions or glands, which in spring-
exude a saccharine matter, and soon assume a brownish colour. By the
glands with which the teeth of the serratures are provided, a rather
resinous substance is secreted. ^
The fresh leaves are inodorous until they are bruised or torn, when
they instantly emit the smell of bitter almond oil and hydrocyanic
acid. When chewed they taste rough, aromatic and bitter.
Microscopic Structure — The upper surface of the leaf is consti-
tuted of thin cuticle and the epidermis made up of large, nearly cubic
cells. The middle layer of the interior tissue exhibits densely packed
small cells, whereas the prevailing part of the whole tissue is formed
of larger, loose cells. Most of them are loaded with chlorophyll; some
enclose crystals of oxalate of calcium.
Chemical Composition — The leaves when cut to pieces and sub-
mitted to chstillation with water, yield Bitter Almond Oil and Hydro-
cyanic Acid, produced by the decomposition of Laiivocerasin. This
is an amorphous yellowish substance isolated by Lehmann (1874) in
Dragendorff's laboratory. He extracted the leaves with boiling alcohol,
and purified the liquid by gently warming it with hydroxide of lead.
From the liquid, crude laurocerasin was precipitated on addition of
ether ; it was again dissolved repeatedly in alcohol and precipitated by
ether. The yield of the leaves is about 1^ per cent. Laurocerasin is
readily soluble in water, the solution deviates the plan of polarization
to the left, yet not to the same amount as amygdalin. The molecule
of laurocerasin, C^°H*''NO'°, would appear to include those of amygdalin,
C=»H'^NO'\ amygdalic acid, (J'WO'' and 7 OHl
The proportion of hydrocyanic acid in the distilled water of the
leaves has been the subject of many researches. Among the later are
those of Broeker (1867), who distilled a given weight of the leaves
^ Phil. Tmns. xxxvii. (for 1731-32) 84. fur wissenschaftliche Botamlc, x. (1875)
^ Reinke, in Pringsheim's Jahrbilcher 129.
256
ROSACEA.
grown in Holland under precisely similar circumstances, in each month
of the year. The results proved that the product obtained during the
winter and early spring was weaker in the acid in the proportion of
17 to 24, 28, or 80, the strongest water being that distilled in July and
August. This chemist found that a stronger product was got when
the leaves were chopped fine, than when they were used whole.
According to Christison,^ the buds and very young leaves yield ten
times as much essential oil as the leaves one year old. We have
ascertained that leaves collected in January when they were thoroughly
frozen yielded a distillate containing about ten times less of hydrocyanic
acid than in summer. The product obtained from the leaves collected
in January, but previously dried for several days at 100° C (212° F.),
still proved to contain both essential oil and hydrocyanic acid.
The unwounded leaves of the cherry-laurel in vigorous vegetation
have been shown by our friend Prof. Schaer, not to evolve naturally a
trace of hydrocyanic acid, though they yield it on the slightest
puncture. We are ignorant of the mode of distribution in the living
tissue of the lauro-cerasin, and of the substances causing its decompo-
sition, and how these two bodies are packed so as to prevent the slightest
mutual reaction. The leaves may be even dried at 100° C. and
powdered without the evolution of any odour of hydrocyanic acid, but
the latter is at once developed by the addition of a little water ; on dis-
tilling its presence is proved by means of all the usual tests in the first
drops of the product.
Besides the substances concerned in the production of the essential
oil, the leaves contain sugar which reduces cupric oxide in the cold, a
small quantity of an iron-greening tannin, and a fatty or waxy
substance.
Schoonbroodt (1868) treated the aqueous extract of the fresh leaves
with alcoholic ether, which yielded ^ per mille of bitter, acicular
crystals ; these quickly reduced cxipric oxide, losing their bitterness.
Bougarel (1877) isolated from the leaves imder notice and several
others, Phyllinic acid, a crystalline powder melting at 170° C.
Uses — The leaves are only employed for making cherry-laurel
water {Aqua Lauro-cerasi), the use of which in England is generally
superseded by that of the more definite hydrocyanic acid.
FLORES KOSO.
Flores Brayerce, Cusso, Kousso, Kosso.
Botanical Origin — Hagenia abyssinica Willd. (Brayera anthel-
oninthica Kunth), a handsome tree growing to a height of GO feet,
found throughout the entire table-land of Abyssinia at an elevation of
3,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea-level.- We have never noticed it
growing in any botanic garden. The tree * is remarkable for its abun-
dant foliage and fine panicles of flowers, and is generally planted
about the Abyssinian villages.
^ Dispensatory, 1842. 592.
2 The Freucli section of the Intei'uational
African Association contributed Kousso
from Madagascar to the Paris Exhibition
of 1878. _ _
' Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Plants, part 5 (1876).
FLORES KOSO.
257
History — The celebrated Bruce' during his journey to discover the
source of the Nile, 1768-1773, found the koso tree in Abyssinia, ob-
served the uses made of it by the natives, and published a figure of it
in the narrative of his travels. It was also described in 1799 by
Willdenow who called it Hagenia in honour of Dr. K. G. Hagen of
Konio'sberw.
o o
The anthelmintic virtues of koso were investigated by Brayer, a
French physician of Constantinople, to which place parcels of the drug
are occasionally brought by way of Egypt, and he pviblished a small
pamphlet on the subject.^ Several scattered notices of koso appeared
in 1839-41, but no supply of it reached Europe until about 1850,
when a Frenchman who had been in Abyssinia obtained a large stock
(1,400 lb., it was said), a portion of which he endeavoured to sell in
London at 35s. pe7' ounce ! The absurd value set upon the drug pro-
duced the usual result : large quantities were imported, and the price
gradually fell to 3s. or 4s. per lb. Koso was admitted a place in the
British Pharmacopoeia of 1864.
Description — The flowers grow in broad panicles, 10 to 12 inches
in length. They are unisexual, but though male and female occur on
the same tree, the latter are chiefly collected. The panicles are either
loosely dried, often including a portion of stalk and sometimes a leaf,
or they are made into cylindrical rolls, kept in form by transverse
ligatures. Very often the panicles arrive quite broken up, and with
the flowers in a very fragmentary state. They have a herby, some-
what tea-like smell, and a bitterish acrid taste.
The panicle consists of a zigzag stalk, which with its many
branches is clothed with shaggy simple hairs, and also dotted over with
minute stalked glands ; it is provided at each ramification with a
large sheathing bract. At the base of each flower are two or three
rounded veiny membranous bracts, between which is the turbinate
hairy calyx, having ten sepals arranged in a double series. In the
male, the outer series consists of much smaller sepals than the
inner ; in the female, the outer in the ultimate development become
enlarged, obovate and spreading, so that the whole flower measures
fully ^ an inch across. In both, the sepals are veiny and leaflike. The
petals are minute and linear, inserted with the stamens in the throat
of the calyx. These latter are 10 to 25 in number, with anthers in
the female flower, eflete. The carpels are two, included in the caly-
cinal tube ; and each surmounted by a hairy style. The fruit is an
obovate one-seeded nut.
Koso as seen in commerce has a light brown hue, with a reddish
tinge in the case of the female flowers, so that panicles of the latter are
sometimes distinguished as Med Koso.
Chemical Composition — Wittstein (1840) found in koso, together
with the substances common to most vegetables (wax, sugar, and gum),
1 Travels, v. (1790) 73. ' for sale in London. Pharm. Journ. x.
^ Notice sur une nouvelle plante de la (1851) 15; reprinted in Pereira's Elem. of
famille des Rosacies, employee contre le Mat. Med. ii. part^2 (1853) 1815. — Also
Toinia, Paris, 1822. The reader should Meyer-Ahrens, Die Blilthen des Kosso-
also consult the excellent notice by Pereira 6aMmcs, Zurich, 1851. 90 pp.
written when the drug was first offered
258
ROSACEiE.
24 per cent, of tannin, and 6'25 of an acrid bitter resin, which was
observed by Harms (1857) to possess acid properties.
The researches of Pavesi (1858), and still more those of BedalP
have made us acquainted witli the active principle of the drug, which
has been named Koussin or Kosin. It may be obtained by mixing the
flowers with lime, exhausting them with alcohol and then with water ;
the solutions mixed, concentrated, and treated with acetic acid, deposit
the kosin. We are indebted to Dr. Bedall for a specimen of it, which we
find to consist chiefly of an amorphous, resinoid substance, from which
we got a few yellow crystals by means of glacial acetic acid.
Mr. Merck favoured us with kosin prepared in his laboratory at
Darmstadt. It is a tasteless substance of a yellow colour, forming
fine crystals of the rhombic system, — readily soluble in benzol, bisulphide
of carbon, chloroform or ether, less freely in glacial acetic acid, and in-
soluble in water. We found a solution of kosin in 20 parts of chloroform
to be destitute of rotatory power. Of alcohol, sp. gr. 0'818, 1000 parts
dissolve at 12° C. only 2"3 parts of this kosin. It is abundantly soluble
in alkalis, caustic or carbonated, yet has nevertheless no acid reaction,
and may be precipitated from these solutions by an acid without having
undergone any alteration. It is then however a white amorphous
mass, which yields the original yellow crystals by re-solution in
boiling alcohol, in which it dissolves readily. The analysis which we
have performed of kossin assigns it the formula C^H^'^O^".
Kosin fuses at 142° C, and remains after cooling an amorphous,
transparent yellow mass ; but if touched with alcohol, it immediately
assumes the form of stellate tufts of crystals. This may be repeated at
pleasure, kosin not being altered by cautious fusion.
Kosin is not decomposed by boiling dilute acids. It dissolves in
strong sulphuric acid, giving a yellow solution which becomes turbid by
the addition of water, white amorphous kosin being thrown down. At
the same time a well-marked odour exactly like that of Locust Beans,
due to isobutyric acid, CH^.CH^.CH.COOH, is evolved. It would thus
appear that in all probability kosin is a compound ether of that acid.
It is very remarkable that the active principle of fern-root, the filicic
acid (see Rhizoma Filicis), by decomposition yields butyric acid. If
the sulphuric solution of kosin is allowed to stand for a week, it
gradually assumes a fine red; and then yields, on addition of much water,
an amorphous red mass which after drying is not soluble in bisulphide of
carbon, and may thus be purified. We have not succeeded in obtaining
this red derivative of kosin in a crystalline state.^
In its anthelmintic action, kosin is nearly allied with filicic acid.^
Distillation with water separates from the flowers of koso a
stearoptene-like oil having the odour of koso, and traces of valerianic
and acetic acid. No such body as the Hagenic Acid of Viale and
Latini (1852) could be detected by Bedall.
Commerce — Koso is brought to England by way of Aden or Bombay ;
some appears also to reach Leghorn, probably carried thither direct from
Egypt.
^ Wittstein's Viertdjahressclirift fur
" Fliickiger and Biiri, Yearbook of Ph.
prakt. Pharm. viii. (1859) 481; xi. (1862)
207.
1875. 19.
" Buchheim, Archiv der Pharmacie, 208
(1876) 417.
PETALA ROS^ GALLICS.
259
Uses — The drug is employed solely as a vermifuge, and is effectual
for the expulsion both of Tcvnia solium and of Bofhriocephalus latus.
The Abyssinian practice is to administer the flowers in substance in a
very ample dose, which is sometimes attended with alarming and even
fatal results.
The notion that the action of the drug is partially mechanical and due
to the hairs of the plant, prevails in England, and has led to the use of
an unstrained infusion of the coarsely powdered flowers. This remedy,
from the quantity of branny powder (2 to 4 drachms) that has to be
swallowed, is far from agreeable; and as it occasions strong purgation and
sometimes vomiting, it is not often prescribed.^
The fruit of the koso tree, a small indehiscent achene, is stated by M.
Th. von Heuglin'^ to act even more powerful than the flowers ; he calls it
(or the seed ?) Kosala. It would appear that the fruits have been used
as an anthelmintic two centuries ago in Abyssinia.* Di'agendorff
(1878) found them to be rich in fatty matters, but devoid of an alkaloid.
PETALA ROSiE GALLICiE.
Flores Rosce rubrce; Red Rose Petals, Hose Leaves, True Provins Roses ;
F. Petales de Roses rouges, Roses de Provins ; G. Essigrosenbldtter.
Botanical Origin — Rosa gallica L., a low-growing bush, with a
creeping rhizome throwing up numerous stems. The wild form with
single flowers occurs here and there in the warmer parts of Europe,^
including Central and Southern Russia, and Greece; also in Asia Minor,
Armenia, Kurdistan, and the Caucasus. But the plant passes into so
many varieties, and has from a remote period been so widely cultivated,
that its distribution cannot be ascertained with any exactness. As a
garden plant it exists under a multitude of forms.
History — The use in medicine of the rose dates from a very remote
period. Theophrastus^ speaks of roses being of many kinds, including
some with double flowers which were the most fragrant ; and he also
alludes to their use in the healing ai't. Succeeding writers of every age
down to a recent period have discussed the virtues of the rose,*^ which
however is scarcely now admitted to possess any special medicinal
property.
One of the varieties of R. gallica is the Provins Rose, so called from
having been long cultivated at Provins. a small town about 60 miles
south-east of Paris, where it is said to have been introduced from the
East by Thibaut VI., Count of Champagne, on his return from the
Crusades, A.D. 1241. But it appears that he went then to Navarre and
in later times never resided in the Champagne. Be this as it may,
Provins became much celebrated not only for its dried rose-petals, but
1 Johnston in his Travels in Southern
Abyssinia (1844), speaking of koso, says its
effects are '■'dreadfully severe." — Even in
Abyssinia, he adds, it is barely tolerated,
and if any other remedy equally efficient for
dislodging tapeworm were to be introduced,
koso would be soon abandoned.
^ Beise nach Abessiiiieii, etc. Jena, 1868.
322.
5 Jobi Ludolfi Historia cethiopica, Fran-
cofurti, 1681. lib. i. cap. ix.
^ It has been found in gwasi-wild state
at Cliarlwoodin Surrey. — Seemann'sJourii.
ofBot. ix. (1871) 273.
6 Bist. Plant, lib. vi. c. 6.
^ Consult in particular the learned essay
of D'Orbessan contained in his Mdanges
historiques, ii. (1768) 297-337.
2G0
ROSACEA.
also for the conserve, syrup and honey of roses made from them, — com-
positions which were regarded in the light of valuable medicines. ^
It is recorded that when, in a.d. 1310, Philippe de Marigny, arch-
bishop of Sens, made a solemn entry into Provins, he was presented by
the notables of the town with wine, spices, and Conserve of Roses ; and
presents of dried roses and of the conserve were not considered beneath
the notice of Catherine de Medicis, and of Henry IV.^
We find that Charles Estienne, in 1 536, mentions both the Rosce
purpurea} odorcttissimo), which he says are called Frovinciales, and
those known to the druggists as incarnatce, — the latter we presume a
2oale rose.^ Rosce ruhece are named as an ingredient of various com-
pound medicines by Valerius Cordus.*
Production — The flowers are gathered while in bud and just
before expansion, and the petals are cut off" near the base, leaving the
paler claws attached to the calyx. They are then carefully and rapidly
dried by the heat of a stove, and having been gently sifted to remove
loose stamens, are ready for sale. In some districts the petals are dried
entire, but the drug thus produced is not so nice.
In England, the Red Rose is cultivated at Mitcham, though now
only to the extent of about 10 acres. It is also grown for druggists'
use in Oxfordshire and Derbyshire. At Mitcham, it is now called
Damask Rose, which is by no means a correct name. The English
dried roses command a high price.
There is a much more extensive cultivation of this rose on the
continent at Wassenaar and Noordwijk in Holland ; in the vicinity of
Hamburg and Nuremberg in Germany, and in the villages round Paris
and Lyons. Roses are still, we believe, grown for medicinal use at
Provins, but are no longer held in great esteem.
There appears to be a considerable production of dried roses in
Persia, judging from the fact that in the year 1871-72, 1163 cwt. were
exported from the Persian Gulf to Bombay .°
Description— The petals adhere together loosely in the form of
little cones, or are more or less crumpled and separate. When well
preserved, they are crisp and dry, with a velvety surface of an intense
purplish crimson, a delicious rosy odour, and a mildly astringent taste.
The white basal portion of the petals should be nearly absent. For
making the confection, the petals are required in a fresh state.
Chemical Composition — Red rose petals impart to ether, without
losing their colour, a soft yellow substance, which is a mixture of a solid
fat and Quercitrin. Filhol has shown (1864) that it is the latter body,
and not tannic acid, of which the petals contain but a trace, that pro-
duces the dark greenish precipitate with ferric salts. The same chemist
found in the petals 20 per cent. (?) of glucose which, together with
colouring matter and gallic acid, is extracted by alcohol after exhaustion
1 Pomet, Hist, des Drogues, 1694, jjart i.
174-177, speaks of the roses of Provins
being ' ' hautes en couleur, c'est a dire d'un
rouge noir, veloute . . . trfes astringentes. "
- Assier, L^gendes, curiositis et traditions
de la Champagne et de la Brie, Paris, 1860.
191.
3 Stephanus (Carolus), De re hortens
Ubellus, Paris, 1536. 29 (in Brit. Mus.).
'' Dispensatorium, 1548. 39. 52.
^ Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of the Presidency of Bombay for 1871-72,
pt. ii. 43.
PETALA UOSM CENTIFOLI^E.
261
by ether. According to Rochleder (1867), the gallic acid in red roses is
accompanied by qiiercitannic acid.
The colouring matter which is so striking a constituent of the petals,
is according to Senier an acid, which appears to form crystallizable
salts with potassium and sodium.^ An infusion of the petals is pale
red, but becomes immediately of a deep and brilliant crimson if we add
bo it an acid, such as sulphuric, hydrochloric, acetic, oxalic, or tartaric.
Aji alkali changes the pale red, or the deep crimson in the case of the
icidulated infusion, to bright green.
Uses — An infusion of red rose petals, acidulated with sulphuric
icid and slightly sweetened, is a very common and agreeable vehicle
['or some other medicines. The confection made by beating up the
petals with sugar, is also in use.
PETALA ROSM CENTIFOLI^.
Flores Rosce pallidce v. incarnatce ; Provence Rose, Cabbage Rose ;
F. Petales de Roses pales ; G. Centifolienrosen.
Botanical Origin — Rosa centifolia L. — This rose grows in a wild
state and with single flowers in the eastern part of the Cavicasus.^ Cul-
tivated and with flowers more or less double, it is found under an infinity
jf varieties in all the temperate regions of the globe. The particular
i^ariety which is grown in England for medicinal use, is known in
English gardens as the Cabbage Rose, but other varieties are cultivated
:or similar purposes on the Continent.
R. centifolia L. is very closely allied to R. gallica L. ; though
Boissier maintains the two species, there are other botanists who regard
ihem as but one. The rose cultivated at Puteaux near Paris for di-ug-
^ists' use, and hence called Rose de Puteaux, is the Rosa bifera of
Redoute, placed by De Candolle though doubtfully under R.
iamascena.
History — We are unable to trace the history of the particular
variety of rose under notice. That it is not of recent origin, seems
evident from its occurrence chiefly in old gardens. The Rosa pallida
Df the older English writers on di'ugs ^ was called Damask Rose, but
that name is now applied at Mitcham to Rosa gallica L., which has
v'ery deep-coloured flowers.
Production — The Cabbage Rose is cultivated in England to a very
small extent, rose water, which is made from its flowers, being procur-
able of better quality and at a lower cost in other countries, especially
in the south of France. At Mitcham, whence the London druggists
have long been supplied, there are now (1873) only about 8 acres
planted with this rose, but a supply is also derived from the market
gardens of Putney, Hammersmith and Fulham.
Description — The Cabbage Pose is supplied to the druggists in the
fresh state, full blown, and picked off close below the calyx. A complete
Yearbook of Pharm. 1877. 63 ; also
Filhol in Journ. de Pharm. xxxviii. (1860)
21 ; Gmelin, Chemistry, xvi. (1864) 522.
Boissier, Flora Orientalis, ii. (1872) 676.
^ As Dale, Pharmacolorjia, 1693. 416.
262
ROSACEJi:.
description is scarcely required : we need only say that it is a large and
very double rose, of a beautiful pink colour and of delicious odour. The
calyx is covered with short setce tipped with a fragrant, brown, viscid
secretion. The petals are thin and delicate (not thick and leathery as
in the Tea Roses), and turn brown on drying.
In making rose water, it is the custom in some laboratories to strip
the petals from the calyx and to reject the latter; in others, the roses are
distilled entire, and so far as we have observed, with equally good
result.
Chemical Composition — In a chemical point of view, the petals of
a. centifolia agree with those of R. gallica, even as to the colouring
matter. Enz in 18G7 obtained from the former, malic and tartaric acid,
tannin, fat, resin, and sugar.
In the distillation of large quantities of the flowers, a little essential
oil is obtained. It is a butyraceous substance, of weak rose-like, but
not very agreeable odour. It contains a large proportion of inodorous
stearoptene. For further particulars see remarks under the head Attar
of Rose.
Uses — Cabbage roses are now scarcely employed in pharmacy for
any other purpose than making rose water. A syrup used to be pre-
pared from them, which was esteemed a mild laxative.
OLEUM ROS^.
Attar or Otto^ of Rose, Rose Oil; F. Essence de Roses; G.Rosendl.
Botanical Origin — Rosa daviascena Miller, var. — This is the rose
cultivated in Turkey for the production of attar of rose ; it is a tall
shrub with semi-double, light-red (rarely white) flowers, of moderate
size, produced several on a branch, though not in clusters. Living-
specimens sent by Baur ^ which flowered at Tubingen, were examined
by H. von Mohl and named as above.*
R. damascena is unknown in a wild state. Koch* asserts that it
was brought in remote times to Southern Italy, Avhence it spread north-
ward. In the opinion of Baker * Rosa damascena is to be referred to
Rosa gallica (see p. 259 above) ; it must be granted that the RoSe men-
tioned in foot-note 2, as grown with one of us, approaches very much to
Rosa gallica.
History — Much as roses were prized by the ancients, no preparation
such as rose water or attar of rose was obtained from them. The liquid
that bore the name of Rose Oil {poSivov 'iXaiov) is stated by Dioscorides'"'
to be a fatty oil in which roses have been steeped. In Europe a similar
preparation was in use down to the last century. Oleum rosarum,
rosatum or rosaceum, signifying an infusion of roses in olive oil in the
London Pharmacopoeia of 1721.
^ Atlar or Otto is from the ■word itr sig-
nifying perfuvie or odour; the oil is called
in Turkish Iti -yu<jhi i.e. Perfunit-oU, and
also Gliykl-ydgld i.e. Rosc-oil.
- A living plant followed by excellent
herbarium specimens has been kindly given
to me by Dr. Baur of Blaubeuren, the
father of Dr. Baur of Constantinople — D. H.
^ Wiggers u. Husemann, Jahresbericht
for 18G7. 350.
Dendrologk, i. (1869) 250.
Journ. of Botany, Jan. 1875. 8.
6 Lib. i. c. 53.
OLEUM ROSiE.
263
The first allusion to the distillation o£ roses we have met with, is in
the writings of Joannes Actuarius/ who was physician to the Greek
emperors at Constantinople towards the close of the 13th century.
Rose water was distilled at an early date in Persia ; and Nisibin, a town
north-west of Mosul, was famous for it in the 14th century. ^
Kiimpfer speaks'' with admiration of the roses he saw at Shiraz
(1683-4), and says that the water distilled from them is exported to
other parts of Persia, as well as to all India ; and he adds as a singular
fact, that there separates from it a certain fat-like butter, called yEttr
gyl, of the most exquisite odovir, and more valuable even than gold.
The commerce to India, though much declining, still exists ; and in the
year 1872-73, 20,100 gallons of rose water, valued at 35,178 rupees
(£3,517), were imported into Bombay from the Persian Gulf.* Rose oil
itself is no longer exported from Persia, as it still \ised to be from
Shiraz in the time of Niebuhr (1778).
Rose water was much used in Europe during the middle ages, both
in cookery and at the table. In some parts of France, vassals were
compelled to furnish to their lords so many bushels of roses, which were
consumed in the distillation of rose water.^
The fact that a butyraceous oil of delicious fragrance is separable
from rose water, was noticed by Geronimo Rossi ^ of Ravenna in 1582 (or
in 1574 ?) and by Giovanni Battista Porta'' of Naples in 1589 ; the latter
in his work on distillation says — " Omnium difficillime extractionis est
rosarum oleum atque in minima quantitate sed suavissimi odoris."* The
oil was also known to the apothecaries of Germany in the beginning of
the 17th century, and is quoted in official drug-tariffs of that time."
Angelus Sala, about 1620, in describing the distillation of the oil speaks
of it as being of " . . . candicante pinguedine instar Spermatis Ceti."
In Pomet's time (1694) it was sold in Paris, though, on account of its
high price, only in very small quantity. The mention of it by Romberg
in 1700, and in a memoir by Aublet" (1775) respecting the distillation
of roses in the Isle of France, shows that the French perfumers of the
last century were not unacquainted with true rose oil, but that it was a
rare and very costly article.
The history of the discovery of the essence in India, is the subject of
an interesting and learned pamphlet by Langles,^^ published in 1804.
He tells us on the authority of oriental writers, how on the occasion of
the marriage of the Mogul emperor Jehan Ghir with Nur-jehan, A.D.
1612, a canal in the garden of the palace was filled with rose water, and
that the princess observing a certain sc im on the surface, caused it to be
collected and found it of admirable fragrance, on which account it re-
ceived the name of Atar -jehanghiri, i.e. perfume of J ehan Ghir. In later
^ " . . . . stillatitii rosarum liquoris
libra una." Z>c Methodo Aledendi, lib. v. c. 4.
^ Voyage d'Ibn Batoutali, trad, par Defr6-
mery, ii. (1854) 140.
Amwnitatcs, 1712. 373.
* Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of the Fresidcncy of Bombay for 1872-73,
part ii. 52.
^ Le Grand d' Aussy, Hist, de la vie privie
des Frangois, ii. (1815) 250.
* Hieronymi Rubei Rav. De Destillatione,
Ravennse, 1582. 102.
^ Magice Naiuralis lihri xx, Neap. 1589.
188.
8 De Distillatione, Rompe (1608) 75.
" Flilckiger, Documente zur Geschichte
der Pharm. Halle, 1876. 37. 38. 40.
Observations siir les hniles des plantes — ■
Mem. de I'Acad. des Sciences, 1700. 206.
" B ist. des Plantes de la Guiane frangoise, ii.
M^moires, p. 125.
1- Eecherches sur la cUcouverie de I' Essence
de Rose, Paris, 1804.
204
ROSACEvE.
times, Poller^ has shown that rose oil is prepared in India by simple
distillation of the flowers with water. But this Indian oil has never
been imported into Europe as an article of trade.
As already stated, the supplies at present come from European
Turkey ; but at what period the cultivation of the rose and manufacture
of its oil were then introduced, is a question on which we are quite in
the dark. There is no mention of attar in the account given by Savary ^
in 1750 of the trade of Constantinople and Smyrna, but in the first
years of the present century some rose oil was obtained in the Island of
Chios as well as in Persia.^
In English commerce, attar of rose was scarcely known until the
commencement of the present century. It was first included in the
British tarifl[' in 1809, when the duty levied on it was 10s. per ounce.
In 1813 the duty was raised to lis. 10|cZ. ; in 1819 it was 6s., and in
1828, 2s. per ounce. In 1832 it was lowered to Is. 4cZ. per lb., in 1842
to Is. and in 1860 it was altogether removed.*
On searching a file of the London Price Current, the first mention
of "Otto of Rose" is in 1813, from which year it is regularly quoted.
The price (in bond) from 1813 to 1815, varied from £3 to £5 5s. per
ounce. The earliest notice of an importation is under date 1-8 July,
1813, when duty was paid on 232 ounces, shipped from Smyrna.
Production — The chief locality for attar of rose, and that by which
European commerce is almost exclusively supplied, is a small tract of
country on the southern side of the Balkan mountains, the " Tekne " of
Kazanlik or Kisanlik, an undulated plain famous for its beauty, as
picturesquely sketched by Kanitz ^ and many other travellers. The
principal seat of the trade is the town of Kizanlik, in the valley of the
Tunja. The other important districts are those of Philippopli, Eski
Zaghra, Yeni Zaghra, Tchirpan, Giopca, Karadsuh-Dagh, Kojun-Tepe,
Pazandsik. North of the Balkans, there is only Travina to be men-
tioned as likewise producing attar. All these places with Kizanlik
were estimated in 1859 to include 140 villages, having 2,500 stills.
The rose is cultivated by peasants in gardens and open fields, in
which it is planted in rows as hedges, 3 to 4 feet high. The best
localities are those occupying southern or south-eastern slopes. Plan-
tations in high mountainous situations generally yield less, and the
oil is of a quality that easily congeals. The flowers attain perfection in
April and May, and are gathered before sunrise ; those not wanted for
immediate use are spread out in cellars, but are always used for
distilling the same day. The apparatus is a copper still of the simplest
description, connected with a straight tin tube, cooled by being passed
through a_ tub fed by a stream of water. The largest establishment,
"Fabrika," at Kizanlik has 14 such stills. The charge for a still is
25 to 50 lb. of roses, from which the calyces are not removed. The
first runnings are returned to the still ; the second portion, which is
received in glass flasks, is kept at a temperature not lower than 15° C.
1 Asiatich Researches, i. (1788) 332.
^ Diet, de Commerce, iv. 548.
^ Oliver, Voyage dans rHinpire Othoman,
etc. ii. (Paris, An 9) 139, v. (1807) 367.
** Information obligingly commnnicated
by Mr. Seldon of the Statistical Office of
tlie Custom House.
^ Donau-Buhjarieii, ii. (1877) 103-123.—
A figure of a still is given, p. 123. A good
map of the Tekne of Kizanlik and environs
will be found in Zeitsclirift der Gessell-
schaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin, xi. (1876)
Taf. 2.
OLEUM ROS^.
265
for a day or tAvo, by which time most of the oil, bright and iiuid, will
have risen to the surface. From this, it is skimmed off by means of a
small tin funnel having a fine orifice, and provided with a long handle.
There are usually several stills together.
The produce is extremely variable. According to Baur,^ whose in-
teresting account of attar of rose is that of an eye witness, it may be
said to average 0 04< per cent. Another authority estimates the average
yield as 0 037 per cent.
The harvest during the five years 18G7-71 was reckoned to average
somewhat below 400,000 meticals^^ or 4226 lb. avoirdupois ; that of
1873, which was good, was estimated at 500,000 meticals, value about
£70,000.3
Roses are cultivated to a considerable extent about Grasse, Cannes
and Nice in the south of France ; and besides much rose water, which
is largely exported to England, a little oil is produced. The latter,
which commands a high price, fuses less easily than the Turkish.
There is a large cultivation of the rose for the purpose of making
rose water and attar, at Ghazipur on the Ganges, Lahore, Amritsar and
other places in Lidia, but the produce is wholly consumed in the
country. The species thus cultivated is stated by Brandis "* to be R.
damascena. Medinet Fayum, south-west of Cairo, supplies the great
demand of Egypt for rose vinegar and rose water.
Tunis has also some celebrity for similar products, which however
do not reach Europe. A recent traveller ^ states that the rose grown
there, and from which attar is obtained, is Rosa canina L., which is
extremely fragrant ; 30 lb. of the flowers afford about li- drachms,
worth 15s. When at Genoa, in 1874, one of us (F.) had the opportunity
of ascertaining that excellent oil of rose is occasionally imported there
from Tunis.
The butyraceous oil which may be collected in distilling roses in
England for rose water is of no value as a perfume.
Description — Oil of rose is a light-yellow liquid, of sp. gr. 0'87 to
0"89. By a reduction of temperature, it concretes owing to the separa-
tion of light, brilliant, platy crystals of a stearoptene, the propor-
tion of which differs with the country in which the roses have been
grown, the state of the weather during which the flowers were gathered,
and other circumstances less well ascertained. The oil produced in the
Balkans solidifies, according to Baur, at from 11 to 16° C. In some
experiments made by one of us ^ in 1859, the fusing point of true
Turkish attar was found to vary from 16 to 18° ; that of a sample from
Lidia was 20° C. ; of oil distilled in the south of France, 21 to 23°, of
an oil produced in Paris, 29° ; of oil obtained in distilling roses for rose
water in London, 30 to 32° C.
From these data, it appears that a cool northern climate is not
conducive to the production of a highly odorous oil ; and even in
1 Pharm. Journ. ix. (1868) 286.
- Consular Reports presented to Parlia-
ment, May, 1872. — The metical, mislcal or
viidhal is equal to about 3 dwt. troy=4794:
grammes.
^ Consular Reports presented to Parlia-
ment, Aug. 1873. 1090.
•* Forest Flora of North-western and
Central India, 1874. 200.— D. Forbes Wat-
son, Catal. of the Indian Department,
Vienna exhibition, 1873. 98.
^ Von Maltzan, Reise in den Regent'
scliafien Tunis und Tripolis, Leipzig, 1870.
I" Hanbury, Pharm. Journ. xviii. (1859).
504-509. Science Papers, 172.
2G6
ROSACEiE.
Bulgaria experience shows that the oil of the mountain districts holds
a larger proportion of stearoptene than that of the lowlands.
Turkish oil of rose is stated by Baur to deviate a ray of polarized
light 4° to the right, when examined in a column of 100 mm. The oil
from English roses which we examined exhibited no rotation.
Chemical Composition — Rose oil is a mixture of a liquid con-
stituent containing oxygen, to which it OAves its perfume, and the solid
hydrocarbon or stearoptene already mentioned, which is entirely desti-
tute of odour. The proportion which these bodies bear to each other
is extremely variable. From the Turkish oil, it may be obtained to the
extent of 18 per cent., and from French and English to 35, 42, 60 or
even 68 per cent.
Though the stearoptene can be entirely freed from the oxygenated
oil, no method is known for the complete isolation of the latter. As
obtained by Gladstone,^ it had a sp. gr. of 0"881 and a boiling point of
216° C.
With regard to the stearoptene of rose oil, the analyses of Theodore
de Saussure (1820) and Blanchet (1833) long since showed its com-
position to accord with the formula C"H^". The experiments of one of
us - confirm this striking fact, which assigns to the stearoptene in
question a very exceptional place among the hydrocarbons of volatile
oils, all of which are less rich in hydrogen.
Rose stearoptene separates when attar of roses is mixed with alcohol.
We have isolated it also from oil obtained from Mitcham roses, by
diluting the oil with a little chloroform and precipitating with glacial
acetic acid or spirit of wine, the process being several times repeated. The
stearoptene was lastly maintained for some days at 100° C. ; thus
obtained, it is inodorous, but when heated evolves an offensive smell
like that of heated wax or fat. At 32-5° it melts; at 150° vapour is
evolved ; at 272° C. it begins to boil, soon after which it turns brown
and then blackish. Stains of the stearoptene on paper do not disappear
by the heat of the waterbath and the relapse of some days.
If cautiously melted by the warmth of the sun, the stearoptene forms
on cooling microscopic crystals of very peculiar shape. Most of them
have the form of truncated hexahedral pyramids, not however belonging
to the rhombohedric system, as the angles are evidently not equal ;
many of them are oddly curved, thus §. Examined under the polarizing
microscope, these crystals from their refractive power make a brilliant
object.
Rose stearoptene is a very stable body, yet by boiling it for some
days with fuming nitric acid, it is slowly dissolved, and converted into
various acids of the homologous series of fatty acids, and into oxalic
acid. Among the former, we detected butyric and valerianic. The
chief product is however succinic acid, which we obtained in pure
crystals, showing all the well-known reactions.
The same products are obtained even much easier by treating
paraffin with nitric acid ; it yields however less of succinic acid. The
general behaviour and appearance of paraffin is in fact nearly the same
as that of rose stearoptene. But what is called paraffin, is a series of
extremely similar hydrocarbons, answering to the general formula
1 Journ. o/Chem. Soc. x. (1872) 12.
2 Flilckiger, Pharm. Journ. x. (1869) 147.
OLEUM ROS^.
267
Qujj2n+2 l^eing equal to more than IG), the separation of which has
not yet been thoroughly effected. The fusion point of the different
kinds of paraffin generally ranges from 42 to GO" C, yet one sort from
tlie bituminous shale of Autun, prepared and examined by Laurent/
melts at 33° C, and in this respect agrees with our stearoptene. It is
therefore possible that the latter actually belongs to the paraffin series.
We have not ascertained the correctness of Baur's strange experi-
ments (1872, JahresbericJd der Fharm. p. 460), by which he believes
to have converted the liquid part of rose oil into the stearoptene by
means of a current of hydrogen.
Commerce — Formerly attar of rose came into commerce by way of
Austria ; it is now shipped from Constantinople. From the interior, it
is transported in flattened round tin bottles called kunkumas, holding
from 1 to 10 lb., which are sewed up in white woollen cloth. These
sometimes reach this country, bvit more commonly the attar is trans-
ferred at Constantinople to small white glass bottles, ornamented with
gilding, imported from Germany.
Uses — Attar of rose is of no medicinal importance, but serves
occasionally as a scent for ointments. Rose water is sometimes made
with it, but is not so good as that distilled from the flowers. Attar is
much used in perfumery, but still more in the scenting of snufF.
Adulteration — No drug is more subject than attar of rose to
adulteration, which is principally eftected by the addition of the volatile
oil of an Indian grass, Andropogon ScJioenanthus L. This oil, which is
called in Turkish Idris yagld, and also Entersliali, and is more or less
known to Europeans as Geranium Oil, is imported into Turkey for this
express purpose, and even submitted to a sort of purification before
being used.'- It was formerly added to the attar only in Constantinople,
but now the mixing takes place at the seat of the manufacture. It is
said that in many places the roses are absolutely sprinkled with it
before being placed in the still. As grass oil does not solidify by
cold, its admixture with rose oil renders the latter less disposed to
crystallize. Hence arises a preference among the dealers in Turkey for
attar of the movmtain districts, which, having a good proportion of
stearoptene, will bear the larger dilution with grass oil without its
tendency to crystallize becoming suspiciously small. Thus, in the
circular of a commercial house in Constantinople, dated from Kizanlik,
occur the phrases — "Extra strong oil" — " Good strong congealing oil,"
— " Strong good freezing oil; " — while the 3rd quality of attar is spoken
of as a " not congealing oil." The same circular states the belief of the
writers, that in the season in which they wrote, " not a single metical of
unadulterated oil" would be sent away.
The chief criteria, according to Baur, for the purity of rose oil are :
— 1. Temperature at tvhich crystallization takes place: a good oil
should congeal well in five minutes at a temperature of 12"5° C. 2.
Manner of crystallizing. — The crystals should be light, feathery, shin-
ing plates, tilling the whole liquid. Spermaceti, which has been
sometimes used to replace the stearoptene, is liable to settle down in a
solid cake, and is easily recognizable. Furthermore, it melts at 50" C.
^Ann. de CJihn. et de Pltys. liv. (1833) 394. - For particulars, see Baur (p. 262, noteS).
268
ROSACE.E.
and so do most varieties of parafiin. The microscopic crystals of the
latter are somewhat similar to those of rose stearoptene, yet they may
be distinguished by an attentive comparative examination.
FRUCTUS ROS^ CANINES:.
Cynoshata ; Fruit of the Dog-rose, Hips ; F. Fruits de Cynorrhodon ;
G. Hagebutten.
Botanical Origin — Rosa canina L., a bush often 10 to 12 feet high,
found in hedges and thickets throughout Europe except Lapland and
Finland, and reaching the Canary Islands, Northern Africa, Persia and
Siberia : universally dispersed throughout the British Islands.^
History — The fruits of the wild rose, including other species besides
R. canina L., have a scanty, orange, acid, edible pulp, on account of
which they were collected in ancient times when garden fruits were
few and scarce. Galen ^ mentions them as gathered by country people
in his day, as they still are in Europe. Gerarde in the 16th century
remarks that the fruit when ripe — " maketh most pleasant meats and
banqueting dishes, as tarts and such like." Though the pulp of hips
preserved with sugar which is here alluded to, is no longer brought to
table, at least in this country,^ it retains a place in pharmacy as a
useful ingredient of pill-masses and electuaries.
Description — The fruit of a rose consists of the bottle-shaped
calyx, become dilated and succulent by growth, and sometimes crowned
with .5 leafy segments, enclosing numerous dry carpels or achenes, con-
taining each one exalbuminous seed. The fruit of R. canina called a hi]),
is ovoid, about | of an inch long, with a smooth, red, shining surface.
It is of a dense, fleshy texture, becoming- on maturity, especially after
frost, soft and pulpy, the pulp within the shining skin being of an
orange colour, and of an agreeable sweetish subacid taste. The large
interior cavity contains numerous hard achenes, which, as well as the
walls of the former, are covered with strong short hairs.
For medicinal use, the only part required is the soft orange pulp,
which is separated by rubbing it through a hair sieve.
Microscopic Structure — The epidermis of the fruit is made up of
tabular cells containing red granules, which are much more abun-
dant in the pulp. The latter, as usual in many ripe fruits, consists of
isolated cells no longer forming a coherent tissue. Besides these cells,
there occur small hbro- vascular bundles. Some of the cells enclose
tufted crystals or oxalate of calcium ; most of them however are loaded
with red granules, either globular or somewhat elongated. They
assume a bluish hue on addition of perchloride of iron, and are turned
blackish by iodine. The later colouration reminds one of that assumed
by starch granules under similar circumstances ; yet on addition of a
very dilute solution of iodine, the granules always exhibit a blacJcish,
1 Baker, Journ. of Linn. Soc. Bot. xi.
(1869) 226,
De AUraentorumfacultatibus, ii. c. 14.
In the Amur country a much larger and
better fruit is afforded by i?. acicularis
Lindl.andT?. clnnamomea'L. — Maximowicz,
Primit'm Flor<B Amurcnds, 1859. 100. 453.
' In Switzerland and Alsace a very
agreeable confiture of liips is still in use.
SEMEN CYDONI^.
2C9
not a blue tint, so that they are not to he considered as starch granules.
Tlie hairs of the pulp are formed of a single, thick-walled cell, straight
or sometimes a little crooked.
Chemical Composition — The pulp examined by Biltz (1824)
was found to afford nearly 3 per cent, of citric acid, 7'7 of malic acid,
besides citrates, malates and mineral salts, 25 per cent, of gum, and 30
of uncrystallizable sugar.
Uses — Hips are employed solely on account of their pulp, which
mixed with twice its weight of sugar, constitutes the Confectio Mosce
canince of pharmacy.
SEMEN CYDONIiE.
Quince Seeds, Quince Pips; F. Semences ou Pepins de Goings;
G. Quittensamen.
Botanical Origin — Pir\is Cydonia L. (Cydonia vulgaris Pers.),
the quince tree, is supposed to be a true native of Western Asia, from
the Caucasian provinces of Russia to the Hindu Kush range in
Northern India. But it is now apparently wild also in many of the
countries which surrovmd the Mediterranean basin.
In a cultivated state, it flourishes throughout temperate Europe,
but is far more productive in southern than in northern regions.
Quinces ripen in the south of England, but not in Scotland, nor in St.
Petersburg, or in Christiana.
History — The quince was held in high esteem by the ancients, who
considered it an emblem of happiness and fertility; and, as such, it was
dedicated to Venus, whose temples it was used to decorate. Some
antiquarians maintain that quinces were the Golden Ajyples of the
Hesperides. The name Cydonia alludes to the town of Kydon, now
Canea, in Creta ; in the Talmud quinces are called Cretan apples.
Porcius Cato in his graphic description of the management of a
Roman farmhouse, alludes to the storing of quinces both cultivated
and wild ; and there is much other evidence to prove that from an
early period the quince was abundantly grown throughout Italy.
Charlemagne, A.D. 812, enjoined its cultivation in central Europe.'' At
what period it was introduced into Britain is not evident, but we
have observed that Baked Quinces are mentioned among the viands
served at the famous installation feat>t of Nevill, archbishop of York
in 14C6.2
The use of mucilage of quince seeds has come to us through the
Arabians ; it is still met with in Turkestan.
Description — The quince is a handsome fruit of a golden yellow,
in shape and size resembling a pear. It has a very agreeable and
powerful smell, but an austere, astringent taste, so that it is not
eatable in the raw state. In structure, it differs from an apple or
a pear in having many seeds in each cell, instead of only two.
The fruit is, like an apple, 5-celled, with each cell containing a
^ Pertz, Monumenta Germanioe historica, ^ Leland, De rebus Britannicis C'ollect-
Legum, i. (1835) 187. anea, vi. (1774) 5.
270
KOSACEiE.
double row of closely-packed seeds, 8 to 14 in number, cohering by
a soft mucilaginous membrane with which each is surrounded. By
drying, they become hard, but remain agglutinated as in the cell.
The seeds have an ovoid or obconic form, rather flattened and
3-sided by mutual pressure. From the hilum at the lower pointed
end, the raphe passes as a straight ridge to the opposite extremity,
which is slightly beaked and marked with a scar indicating the
chalaza. The edge opposite the raphe is more or less arched accord-
ing to the position of the individual seed in the cell. The testa
encloses two thick, veined cotyledons, having a straight radicle
directed towards the hilum.
Quince seeds have a mahogany-brown colour, and when unbroken
a simply mucilaginous taste. But the kernels have the odour and taste
of bitter almonds, and evolve hydrocyanic acid when comminuted and
mixed with water.
Microscopic Structure — The epidermis of the seed consists of
one row of cylindrical cells, the walls of which swell up in the pre-
sence of water and are dissolved, so as to yield an abundance of
mucilage. This process can easily be observed, if thin sections of the
seed are examined under glycerine, which acts on them but slowly.
Chemical Composition — The mucilage of the epidermis is pre-
sent in such quantity, that the seed easily coagulates forty times its
weight of water. By complete exhaustion, the seeds afford about
20 per cent, of dry mucilage, containing considerable quantities of
calcium salts and albuminous matter, of which it is not easily
deprived. When treated with nitric acid, it yields oxalic acid.
After a short treatment with strong sulphuric acid it is coloured
blue by iodine. Tollens and Kirchner (1874) assign to it the formula
Qi8jj28Qi4^ regarding it as a compound of gum, C''H^"0^°, and cellulose,
QGjjioQs^ less one molecule of water.
Quince mucilage has but little adhesive power, and is not thickened
by borax. That portion of it which is really in a state of solution and
which may be separated by filtration, is precipitable by metallic salts or
by alcohol. The latter precipitate after it has been dried is no longer
dissolved by water either cold or warm. Quince mucilage is, on the
whole, to be regarded as a soluble modification of cellulose.
The seeds on distillation with water aftbrd a little hydrocyanic acid,
and, probably, bitter almond oil.
Commerce — Quince seeds reach England from Hamburg ; and are
frequently quoted in Hamburg price-currents as Russian ; they are also
brought from the south of France and from the Cape of Good Hope.
They are largely imported into India from the Persian Gulf, and by
land from Afghanistan.
Uses — A decoction of quince seeds is occasionally used as a de-
mulcent external application in skin complaints. It is also soTnetimes
added to eye-lotions. Quince seeds are in general use among the natives
of India as a demulcent tonic and restorative. They have been found
useful by Europeans in dysentery.
STYRAX LIQUIDUS.
271
HAMAMELIDE^.
STYRAX LIQUIDUS.i
Balsamum Styracis ; Liquid Storax ; F. Styrax liquids ;
G. Flussiger Storax.
Botanical Origin — Liquidamhar orientalis Miller (L. imberhe
Alton, a handsome, umbrageous tree resembling a plane, growing to
the height of 30 to 40 feet or more,- and forming forests in the extreme
south-western part of Asia Minor. In this region the tree occurs in the
district of Sighala near Melasso, about Budrum (the ancient Halicar-
nassus) and Moughla, also near Giova and Ulla in the Gulf of Giova,
and lastly near Marmorizza and Isgengak opposite Rhodes. It also
grows in the valley of the El-Asi (the ancient Orontes), as proved by a
specimen in the Vienna herbarium, collected by Godel, Austrian Con.sul
at Alexandretta. In this locality it was seen by Kotschy in 1835, but
mistaken for a plane. The same traveller informed one of us that he
believed it to occur at Narkislik, a village near Alexandretta.
The tree is not known to grow in Cyprus, Candia, Rhodes, Kos, or
indeed in any of the islands of the Mediterranean.^
History — Two substances of different origin have been known from
a remote period under the name of Styrax or Storax, namely the resin
of Styrax officmalis L. (see further on), and that of Liquidamhar
orientalis Miller, the latter commonly distingiTished as Liquid Storax.
According to Krinos of Athens, who has carefully investigated the
history of the drug,'' the earliest allusions to Li(|uid Storax occur in the
writings of Aetius and of Paulus ^gineta,'' who name both Storax and
Liquid Storax (irupa ^vy/oo?). Of these Greek physicians, who lived
respectively in the 6th and 7th centuries, the second also mentions the
resin of Zvyla, which is regarded by Krinos as synonymous with the
latter substance.'^
We find in fact the term Sigia frequently mentioned by Rhazes (10th
1 The feminine gender of Styrax has
been in use for a long time. In Greek it
denotes the tree, as also does sometimes
the masculine gender, the neutral being
reserved to the resin. In Latin the resin
is masculini generis (Dr. Rice).
- For a good figure of L. orientalis, see
Hooker's Icones Planlanm (3rd series,
1867) pi. 1019, or Hanbury, Science Papers,
lS7(j. 14:0; also Bentleyand Trimen, Medi-
cinal Plants, part 27 (1877).
^ The tine old trees existing at the con-
vent of Antiphoniti on the north coast of
Cyprus, and at that of Neophiti near
Papho, specimens of which were distri-
buted by Kotschy as Liquidamhar imberbis
Ait., agree in all points with the American
L. stryacijlua L. , and not with the Asiatic
plant. Kotschy has told me that they have
certainly been planted, and that no other ex-
amples exist in the island. — D. II. The
same opinion is adopted by Boissier, Flora
Orientalis, ii. (1872) 8319.
■* IlEjCil 2Tupa/co5, oia-rf)i(3i"( (papfxaKO-
yparpixn, iv 'AOijvaL^, 1862. — This pamphlet
is also the subject of a paper of Prof.
Planchon, Jouni. de Pharm. 24 (1876) 172.
243.
^ MedlccB Artis Principes post Hippo-
cratem et Galenum, Par. 1567. — Aetii tetr.
4. serm. 4. c. 122 ; P. ^gineta, De re med.
vii. 20.
s The foliage of the Liquidamabar much
resembles that of the common maple (Acer
campestre L.) ; hence the two trees as well
as the plane (Platanus orientalis L. ) are
confounded under one name, — Zuyds or
Zvyia. So Styrax officinalis L., from the
resemblance of its leaves to those of Pirus
Cydonla L. , is known in Greece as 'Aypia
KvSwvva, i.e. wild quince.
272
HAMAMELIDE^.
century) as signifying Liquid Storax. This and other Arabian physicians
were also familiar with the same substance under the name of Miha
{may a), and also knew how and whence it was obtained.^
A curious account of the collecting of Liquid Storax from the tree
Zygia, and from another tree called Stourika, is given in the travels
through Asia Minor to Palestine of the Russian abbot of Tver in A.D.
1113-1115.2
The wide exportation and ancient use of Liquid Storax are very
remarkable : even in the first century, as appears by the author of the
Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, Storax, by which term there can be but
little doubt Liquid Storax was intended, was exported by the Red Sea
to India. Whether the Storax and Storax Isaur ica offered to the Church
of Rome under St. Silvester, A.D. 314-335, by the emperor Constantine,^
was Liquid Storax or the more precious resin of Styrax officinalis L.,
is a point we cannot determine, That the Chinese used the drug
was a fact known to Garcia de Orta (1535-63): Bretschneider* has
shown from Chinese sources that, together with olibanum and myrrh, it
was imported by the Arabs into China during the Ming dynasty, A.D.
1368-1628. This trade is still carried on : the drug is conveyed byway
of the Red Sea to Bombay, and thence shipped to China. Official
returns show that the quantity thus exported from Bombay in the year
1856-57 was 13,328 lb. In the time of Kampfer (1690-92), Liquid
Storax was one of the most profitable articles of shipment to Japan.^
Liquid Storax is known in the East, at least in the price-currents and
trade statistics of Europeans, by the strange-sounding name of Rose
Malloes (Rosa M alias, Rosum Allocs, Rosmal), a designation for it in
use in the time of Garcia de Orta. Clusius*' considered it to be Arabic,
which, however, the scholars whom we have consulted do not allow.
Others identify it with Rasamala, the Malay name for Altingia
excelsa. (See further on.)
The botanical origin of Liquid Storax was long a perplexing question
to pharmacologists. It was correctly determined by Krinos, but his
information on the subject published in a Greek newspaper in 1841, and
repeated by Koste in 1855,'^ attracted no attention in Western Europe.
The question was also investigated by one of the authors of the present
work, whose observations, together with a figure of Liquidambar
orientalis Miller, were published in 1857.*
Method of Extraction — The extraction of Liquid Storax is carried
on in the forests of the south-west of Asia Minor, chiefly by a tribe of
wandering Turcomans called YuruJcs. The process has been described
on the authority of Maltass and McCraith of Smyrna, and of Campbell,
British Consul at Rhodes.^ The outer bark is said to be first removed
from the trunk of the tree and rejected ; the inner is then scraped
off with a peculiar iron knife or scraper, and thrown into pits until a
^ Jin Baytar, Sontheimer's transl. ii. 539.
^ Norofif, Pderinage en Terre Sainte de
Vlgoximine russe Daniel, St. Petersb. 164.
4°. — The passagehas been kindly abstracted
for us by Prof. Heyd of Stuttgart.
Vignolius, Liber Pontijicafis, Romse, i.
(1724) 94. — The ancient Isauria was in
Cilicia, the country of Styrax officinalis L.
On the knowledge possessed by the Chinese
of the Arabs, etc., Lond. 1871. 19.
^ Hist, of Japan, ed. Scheuchzer, i. 353.
^ Exoticorum Libri, 245.
^ '^•y)(tipi&iov ^apixaKoXoyia^, vTro N.
Kuxttt), 1855. 356.
8 Hanbury, Pharm. Journ. xvi. (1857)
417. 461, and iv. (1863) 436; Science Papers,
127-150.
" Hanbury, I.e.
STYRAX LIQUIDUS.
273
sufficient quantity has been collected. It is then boiled with water in
a large copper, by which process the resin is separated, so that it can be
skimmed off. This seems to be performed with sea water ; some
chloride of sodium can therefore be extracted from the drug. The
boiled bark is put into hair bags and squeezed under a rude lever, hot
water being added to assist in the separation of the resin, or as it is
termed yoijli, i.e. oil. Maltass states that the bark is pressed in the
fii'st instance j^e r se, and afterwards treated with hot water. In either case
the products obtained are the opa(pie, grey, semi-fluid resin known as
Liquid Storax, and the fragrant cakes of foliaceous, brown bark,
once common ^ but now rare in European pharmacy, called Cortex
TJiijmiamatis.
We are indebted to M. Felix Sahut of Montpellier for a specimen of
the bark of Liqwidmnbar oricntalis, cut from the trunk of a fine tree on
his property at the neighbouring village of Lattes. The bark which is
covered with a very thick corky layer and soaked in its own fragrant
resin, shows no tendency to exfoliate. The investigations of linger ^ in
Cj'prus are consequently to us inexplicable ; he asserts that the bark
scales off, like that of the plane, by continued exfoliation, which is not
the case with that of M. Sahut's tree.
Description — Liquid Storax is a soft viscid resin, usually of the
consistence of honey, heavier than water, opaque and greyish brown.
It always contains water, which by long standing rises to the surface.
In one sample that had been kept more than 20 years, the resin at the
bottom of the bottle formed a transparent layer of a pale golden brown.
When liquid storax is heated, it becomes by the loss of water dark
brown and transparent, the solid impurities settling to the bottom.
Spread out in a very thin layer, it partially dries, but does not wholly
lose its stickiness. When free from water (which reddens litmus) it
dissolves in alcohol, spirit of wine, chloroform, ether, glacial acetic acid,
bisulphide of carbon, and most of the essential oils, but not in the most
volatile part of petroleum (" petroleum ether "). It has a pleasant
balsamic smell, especially after it has been long kept ; when recent, it
is contaminated with an odour of bitumen or naphtalian that is far
from agreeable. Its taste is sharply pungent, burning and aromatic.
When the opaque resin is subjected to microscopic examination,
small brownish granules are observed in a viscid, colourless, transparent
liquid, besides which large drops of a mobile watery liquid may be dis-
tinguished. In polarized light, numerous minute crystalline fragments
with a few larger tabular crystals are olvious. But when thin layers
of the resin are left on the object glass in a warm place, feathery or
spicular crystals (styracin) shoot out on the edge of the clear liquid,
while in the large, sharply-defined drops above mentioned, rectangular
tables and short prisms (cinnamic acid) make their appearance. On
applying more warmth after the water is evaporated, all the substances
unite into a transparent, dark-brown, thick liquid, which exhibits no
crystalline structure on cooling, or only after a very long time. Among
the fragments of the bark occurring in the crude resin, liber fibres are
frequently observable.
' It is no doubt the " Cortex OUhnni " - Unger \\. Kotschy, Die Insel Cijpern.
met with in the tariff of 1571, in Fliickiger, Wien, 1865. 410.
Documente zur Geschichte der Pharmarie, 26.
S
274
HAMAMELIDE^.
Chemical Composition — The most abimdant constituent of Styrax
is probably the Sforrsiv, C-'^H'-XOH)', discovered in 1877 by W. von
Miller, or rather ciimaniic ethers oi" it and of an isomeric substance.
Storesin is an amorphous substance melting at 108° C, readily soluble
in petroleum ether. Several other compound ethers have also been
observed in the drug, as for instance cinoiamic ether of plienylpropyl,
cinnamic ether of ethyl, cinnamic ether of benzyl, and especially cinna-
mate of cinnamyl, C"H"0".C"H'', the so-called Stymcin. This substance,
discovered by Bonastre in 1827, can be removed by ether, benzol or
alcohol, after the separation from the resin of the cinnamic acid ; it is
insoluble in v/ater, and volatile only in super-heated steam. It crystal-
lizes in tufts of long rectangular prisms, which melt at 38° C, but it
frequently does not solidify in a crystalline form, or only after a long-
time, or remains as an oily liquid. In its pure state it is inodorous
and tasteless. By concenti'ated solution of potash, it is resolved into a
cinnamate, and cinnamic alcohol {Sty rove) C''H'"0, which latter is not
present in Liquid Storax. The cinnamic acid may be extracted to
a small extent by boiling water, more completely by means of
a boiling solution of carbonate of sodium, as it is present in
the drug partly in the free state. Its compound ethers may be
decomposed by caustic lye. The yield of cinnamic acid accordingly
varies from G to 12 per cent. — or even, according to Lowe, as much as
23 per cent, of crystallized cinnamic acid can be obtained. The acid
dissolves abundantly in ether, alcohol, or hot water, slightly in cold
water ; it is inodorous, but has an acrid taste. It fuses at 133° C, and
boils at 290° C. ; at a dull red heat it is resolved into carbonic acid and
styrol, which latter is therefore related to it in the same manner as
benzol (benzene) to benzoic acid. Liquid styrax is in fact the best
source of cinnamic acid.
Another constituent of styrax is a fragrant substance, perhaps
ethylvanilUn, occurring in but small quantity.
Laubenheimer (1872) has shown that probably Benzylic AlcoJioI,
C"H'0, l)oiling at 20C° C, likewise occurs in Liquid Storax ; it has not
been foiuid by Miller. The latter chemist also showed that water
removes from the druo- a little benzow acid ; he observed moreover a
substance similar to caoutchouc among the constituents of liquid styrax.
There is further to be mentioned as having been met with in Liquid
Storax a hydrocarbon, C*H^, first prepared by Simon in 1839, which
exists in the resin as a liquid, and also in a polymeric form as a solid.
The former called Styrol, Chinamen e, or Cinna'niol, has a sp. gr. of
0'924, and a boiling point of 146° C. It is a colourless, mobile liquid
which may be obtained by distilling with water liquid storax, the
odour and burning taste of which it possesses. When heated for a con-
siderable time to 100°, or for a shorter period to 200° C, it is con-
verted without change of composition into the colourless, transparent
solid Metastyrol, which, unlike styrol, is not soluble in alcohol or ether.
It has a sp. gr. of 1'0.54, and may be cut with a knife. By prolonged
heating, it can be converted into its original liquid form.
Styrol is to be regarded as phenylated ethylene ; it can be artificially
obtained by shaking powdered cinnamic acid with saturated hy-
drobromic acid, when crystalline hydrobromated cinnamic acid,
Cff .CH2.CHBr.C00H, is formed. One part of the latter, 10 parts of
STYRAX LIQUIDUS.
275
water, and a little more carbonate of sodium than the quantity required
for saturation are mixed. The bromhydrocinnamate of sodium partly
splits up immediately, even at 0°, according to the following equation
C«H5.CH-'.CHBr.C00Na = CO^ + NaBr + OTICH.CHI
Bromhydrocinnamate of sodium. Styrol.
24f parts of bromhydrocinnamic acid, recrystallized from boiling-
bisulphide of carbon, yield about 7 parts of styrol ; no other method
aftbrds as much as this.
Styi'ol has been discovered in Styrax, but is not regularly, and at
all events to a minute amount only, found in the ckug of the present
day. We have no explanation for the strange fact that it was appar-
ently more abundantly met with in former times.
Lastly there has been found in Liquid Storax, by J. H. van t'Hoft'
(187G), about 0-4 per cent, of an e.^sential oil, probably C^'H^'O ; Miller
also pointed out a compound ether of probably the same (alcoholic)
substance as occurring in styrax.
By the action of oxidizing agents, as nitric or chromic acids, or per-
oxide of lead, the cinnamyl compounds are easily reduced, carbonic acid
and water being evolved ; and at the same time benzoic acid, bitter
almond oil, and hydrocyanic acid are produced. These compounds are
in fact abundantly evolved when 6 parts of Liquid Storax are gently
warmed with 1 p. of caustic soda, and then mixed with 3 p. of perman-
ganate of jDotassium dissolved in 20 p. of water.
We have examined several samples of Liquid Storax of average
quality, and found by exposure of small quantities to the heat of the
steam bath, that it lost from 10 to 20 per cent, of water. The remainder
treated with alcohol yielded a residue amounting to 13 to 18 per cent.,
consisting chiefly of fragments of bark and inorganic impurities. The
percentage of the ckug soluble in alcohol, to which is due its therapeutic
value, thus amounts to 5G to 72. This pai't, as may be inferred from
the foregoing statements, consists chiefly of storesin, the various com-
pound ethers above mentioned, of cinnamic acid and of styracin, no
doubt in greatly varying proportions.
Commerce — The annual production of Liquid Storax was estimated
by Campbell in 1855 as about 490 cwt. for the districts of Giova and
Ulla, and 300 cwt. for those of Marmorizza and Isgengak. The drug is
exported in barrels to Constantinople, Smyrna, Syra and Alexandria.
Some is also packed with a certain proportion of water in goat-skins,
and sent either by boats or overland to Smyrna, where it is transferred
to barrels and shipped mostly to Trieste.
The chief consumption of Liquid Storax would appear to be in
India and China. In the fiscal year 18G6-67, Bombay imported 319
cwt. from the Red Sea. Liquid Storax is seldom seen in the London
drug-sales.
Uses— Liquid Storax, which the British Pharmacopoeia directs to
be purified by solution in spirit of wine, is an ingredient in a few old-
fashioned preparations but is hardly ever prescribed on its own account.
It is stated to be expectorant and stimulant, and viseful in chronic
bronchial affections. It has been recommended by Pastau, Berlin
(1865), as an external application for the cure of scabies, for which
purpose it is mixed with linseed oil and now largely used.
276 HAMAMELIDEiE.
Adulteration — The drug is occasionally mixed with sand, ashes, and
other substances ; these would be detected by solution in spirit of wine,
as well as by the microscope.
Allied Substances.
Styrax Calamita (Storax en pain Guibourt) — The substance that
now bears this name is by no means the Styrax Calamita of ancient
times, but is an artificial compound made by mixing the residual
Liquidambar bark called Cortex Thymiamatis (p. 273), coarsely pow-
dered, with Liquid Storax in the proportions of 3 to 2. It is at first a
clammy mass, acquiring after a few weeks an appearance of mouldiness,
due to minute silky crystals of styracin. It is usually imported in
wooden drums, and has a very sweet smell. When the bark is scarce,
common sawdust is substituted for it, while qualities still inferior are
made up with the help of olibanum, honey, and earthy substances.
This drug is manufactured at Trieste, Venice and Marseilles.
Several other odoriferous compounds, of which Liquid Storax appears
to be the chief ingredient, are made in the East and may still be found
in old drug warehouses.^
Resin of Styrax officinalis L.; Time Storax — This was a solid
resin somewhat resembling benzoin, of fragrant, balsamic odour, held in
great estimation from the time of Dioscorides and Pliny down to the
close of the last century. It was perhaps the " storace odorifero"
exported in the 12th century from Pantellaria^ and Sicily. The drug-
was obtained from the stem of Styrax ojficinalis L. (Styi'acece), a native
of Greece, Asia Minor and Syria, now found also in Italy and Southern
France. This plant when permitted to grow freely for several years,
forms a small tree, in which state alone it appears to be capable of
affording a fragrant resin. But in most localities it has been re-
duced by ruthless lopping to a mere bush, the young stems of
which yield not a trace of exudation. True storax has thus utterly
disappeared.
Professor Krinos of Athens has informed us (1871) that about
Adalia on the southern coast of Asia Minor, a sort of solid storax
obtained from S. officinalis is still used as incense in the churches and
mosques. The specimen of it which he has been good enough to send
us, is not however resin, but sawdust ; it is of a pale cinnamon-brown,
and pleasant balsamic odour. By keeping, it emits an abundance of
minute acicular crystals (stjTacin?). The substance is interesting in
connection with the statement of Dioscorides, that the resin of Styrax
is adulterated with the sawdust of the tree itself, and the fact that the
region where this sawdust is still in use is one of the localities for the
drug (Pisidia) which he mentions.
Resin of Liquidambar styracijlua L. — a large and beautiful tree,
native of North America from Connecticut and Illinois southward to
Mexico and Guatemala. In the United States, where it is called Sweet
Gum, the tree yields from natural fissures or by incision, small quanti-
ties of a balsamic resin, which is occasionally used for chewing. We
1 The Storax noir of Guibourt is one of same book " cotone storace e coraUo" occur
these. as articles of export from Sicily.
2 Quoted before, p. 163, note 3; in the
OLEUM CAJUPUTI.
277
have before lis an excellent sample of it collected for Messrs. Wallace
Brothers of Statesville, N. Carolina/
In Central America this exudation is far more freely produced ;
an authentic specimen from Guatemala in our possession is a pale
yellow, opaque resin of honey-like consistence, becoming transparent,
amber-coloui-ed and brittle by exposure to the air. It has a rather
terebinthinous, balsamic odour. In the mouth it softens like benzoin
or mastich, and has but little taste. Another specimen also from
Cuatemala, a thick, fluid oleo-resin, of a golden brown hue, was contri-
buted to the Paris Exhibition in 1878.
The resin of L. styntciflua L. has been ascertained by Procter^ to
contain cinnamic, but not benzoic acid. Harrison'' found it to contain
stp-acin and essential oil (styrol ?).
Resin of L'lqniclanibar formoscma Hance — This tree, which we
suppose may be the Stymx Uqioida folio mivore, which Ray names'* as
occurring in a collection of plants from Amoy, is a native of Formosa
and Southern China, where it affords a dry terebinthinous resin, of
agreeable fragrance when heated. Of this resin, which is used by the
Chinese, a specimen collected in Formosa by Mr. Swinhoe has been
presented to us by Dr. Hooker. A tree figured under the name of
Fung-heang in the Pwri-tsao^ is, we presume, this species.
Resin of AJfi)if/in excelsa Noronha (Liquidamhar Altivgiana Bl.)
Rdsamala of the Javanese and Malays — The Rasamala is a magnifi-
cent tree of the Indian Archipelago, Burma ^and Assam. In Java it
yields by incisions in the trunk an odorous resin, yet only very slowly
and in very small quantity ; this resin is not, or at least not regularly,
collected. In Burma, on the other hand, the tree affords a fragrant
balsam, of which according to Waring^ there are two varieties, the one
pellucid and of a light yellowish colour, obtained by simple incision ;
the other thick, dark, opaque, and of terebinthinous odour, procured by
boring the stem and applying fire around the trunk.
MYRTACEJE.
OLEUM CAJUPUTI.
Oil of Cajiqmt, Kayu-imti Oil ; F. Essence de Cajuput ; G.
Cajejnitol.
Botanical Origin — Melaleuca Leiicadendron L., a tree often
attaining a considerable size, with a thick spongy bark peeling off
in layers, and slender, often pendulous branches. It is widely spread,
and abimdant in the Indian Archipelago and Malayan peninsula,
1 Obligingly presented to me by our
friend, Dr. Squibb, Brooklyn (1879). —
F.A.F.
Proceedings of the Am. Pharm. Asso,
1865. 160.
3.4m. Jottrn. of Pharm. 1874. 161.— In
the same periodical (1876, 335) 300 lbs. are
stated to have been collected at Dyers-
burg, Tenn.
■^JJint. Plant, iii. (1704), appendix p. 233.
^ Chaj). 34. sec. 5. § 1. Aromatic Trees.
For a modem fig., see Hooker's Icones
Plant. 3rd series, i. tab. 1020.
Pharm. of India, 1868. 88.
^78
MYRTACE^.
and is also found in Northern Australia, Queensland, and New
South Wales.
The tree, according to Bentham,' varies exceedingly in the size,
shape, and texture of the leaves, in the young shoots being silky,
and the spikes silky-villous or woolly, or the whole quite glabrous,
in the short and dense, or long and interrupted spikes, in the size
of the flower, and in the greenish-yellow, whitish, pink, or purple
stamens, so that it is difficult to believe all can be forms of a
single species. Yet upon examination, none of these variations are
sufficiently constant or so combined, as to allow of the definition of
distinct races.
The variety growing in Bouro, where the oil of cajuput has
been distilled ever since the time of Rumphius, and known as M.
minor Smith, is described by Lesson, who visited the island in 1823,
as a tree resembling an aged olive, with flowers in little globose
white heads, and a trunk the stout bark of which is composed of
numerous satiny layers.
History — Rumphius, who passed nearly fifty years in the Dutch
possessions in the East Indies and died at Amboyna in 1702, is the
first to give an account of the oil under notice, and of the tree
from which it is obtained.^' From what he says, it appears that the
aromatic properties of the tree are well known to the Malays and
Javanese, who were in the habit of steeping its leaves in oil which they
then impregnated with the smoke of benzoin and other aromatics, so
obtaining an odorous liquid for anointing their heads. They likewise
used cushions stuft'ed with the leaves, and also laid the latter in chests
to keep away insects.
The fragrance of the foliage having thus attracted the attention of
the Dutch, probably suggested submitting the leaves to distillation.
Rumphius narrates how the oil was obtained in very small quantities,
and was regarded as a powerful sudorific.
In Europe it appears to have been first noticed by J. M. Lochner,^
of Niirnberg, physician to the German Emperor. About the same time
(1717), a ship's surgeon, returning from the east, sold a provision of the oil
to the distinguished aj)othecary Johann Heinrich Link at Leipzig, who
published a notice on it and sold it.^ It began then to be quoted in
the tariffs of other German apothecaries,^ although it was still reputed
a very rare article in 172G.'' Somewhat larger quantities appear to
have been soon imported by Amsterdam druggists.'' In Germany the
oil took the name of Oleum Wittnebianum, from the recommendations
bestowed on it by M. von Wittneben, of Wolfenbilttel, who was nuich
engaged in natural sciences and lono- resident in Batavia.^ In France
and England, it was however scarcely known till the commencement oi
the present century, though it had a place in the Edinburgh Pharma-
copoeia of 1788. In the London Frice Current, we do not find it
1 Flora AustralkiisU, iii. (1866) 142.
'- Herb. Amhoincnse, ii. (1741) cajj. 26.
■* Acad. Nat. Curios. Eplieinerid. (Je.rii.
V. vi. (Nuniberget, 1717) 157.
^ SammlaiKj von. iSlatur und Medic'tii. . .
(I'c-ichicIUen, Leipzig, 1719. •^57.
Phnrm. Jovrn. vi. (1876) 1023.
Vater, (Jataloij. varior. e.volicor. rarU-
ximor. . . . . Wittenbergce, 1726.
' Scheudus van der Beck, Dc Indiw
rarioribm, Act. Nat. Cur. i., appendix
(1725) 123.
" Goetz, Oh:i (Jaiepnt Iiistoria — Cuminer-
ciaiii LUli-rariam, 1731. 3; Martini, De
Oleo Wiffnebia7)o d'xxi'rfntio, 1751.
OLEUM CAJUPUTI.
279
quoted earlier than 1813, when the price given is 3s. to 3s. 6d. per
ounce, with a duty of 2s. 4J(?. per ounce.
Manufacture — In the island of Bouro, in the Molucca Sea, the
leaves of the Kayii-puti or Aij-puti, i.e. White-wood trees, are sub-
mitteil to distillation with water, the operation being conducted in the
most primitive maimer, as already witnessed, about the year 1792, by
Labillardiere in his celebrated voyage with Laperouse. Bickmore,^ an
American traveller who passed three months in the island in 1865,
states that it produces about 8,000 bottles of the oil annually, and
that this is almost its only exjDort. The Trade Returns of the
Straight Settlements published at Singapore, show that the largest
quantity is shipped from Celebes, the great island lying west of Bouro.
Description — Oil of Cajuput is a transparent mobile fluid, of a
light bluish-green hue, a fragrant camphoraceous odour, and bitterish
aromatic taste. It has a sp. gr. of 0"926, and remains liquid even at
(8°-G F.) — 13° C. It deviates the ray of polarized light to the left. On
diluting it with bisulphide of carbon it becomes turbid.
Chemical Composition — The researches of Schmidl (1860) and
of Gladstone (1872) have shown that cajuput oil consists chiefly of
Hi/drate of Cujuputene or CajiipLitol, C^H^^.H^O, which may be
obtained from the crude oil by fi-actional distillation at 174° C. If
it is repeatedly distilled from anhydrous phosphoric acid, Gajuputene,
C"'H"*, passes over at 160-165° C; it has an agreeable oclour of
liyacinths. After the cajuputene, Isocajuputene distils at 177°, and
Panicajtvpatene at 310-316°, both agreeing in composition with
cajuputene.
Like most essential oils having the formula C"'H"', crude cajuput
oil is capable of forming the crystallized compound C^°H^'', 30H^. This
we have abundantly obtained by mixing 4 parts of the oil with 1 of
alcohol 0"S30 sp. gr., and one part of nitric acid r20 sp. gr. ; the mix-
ture should be allowed to stand in shallow dishes. By adding 1 vol.
of absolute alcohol to 3 vol. of cajuput oil, and saturating it with
anhydrous hydrochloric gas, crystals of the compound C'"H'"(HC1)'^
may be obtained. By vapour of bromine the oil acquires a beautiful
green colour.
If 1 part of iodine be gradually dissolved in cajuput oil, the
temperature being maintained at 50° C, fine green crystals of
{C^"H'''HI)-OH- are formed. They may be recrystallized from very
little glacial acetic acid, but will not keep for more than a few weeks.
The green tint of the oil is due to copper, a minute proportion of
which metal is usually present in all that is imported. It may be
made evident by agitating the oil with water acidulated by a little hydro-
chloric acid. The compounds of copper with inorganic acids being com-
paratively of a fainter colour than the cupric salts of organic acids,
the aqueous solution of chloride of copper now formed displays no
longer the fine green tint. To the solution, after it has been put into
a platinum capsule, a little zinc should be added, when the copper will
be immediately deposited on the platinum. The liquid may be then
poured oft' and the copper dissolved and tested. When the oil is
rectified, it is obtained colourless, but it readily becomes green if in
' Travels in the East TiuVmn Archipelago, Lond. 1868. 2S2.
280
MYRTACE^.
contact for a short time with metallic copper. The presence of the
metal in the oil may also be shown at once by a scrap of paper which
has been impregnated with fresh tincture of guaiacum wood and dried.
If it is then moistened with water containing 1 per cent, of sulphocya-
nate of potassium, the paper turns intensely blue by the contact with
the oil provided the latter contains copper.
Guibourt ^ has however proved by experiment that the volatile oil
obtained by the distillation of the leaves of several species of Melaleuca,
Metrosideros and Eucalyptus, has naturally a fine green hue. It is not
improbable that this hue is transient, and that the contamination with
copper is intentional in order to obtain a permanent green.
Commerce — The oil is imported from Singapore and Batavia,
packed in glass beer or wine bottles. From official statements^ it
appears that the imports into Singapore during 1871 were as under: —
From Java 445 gallons
,, Manilla 200 ,,
,, Celebes 3,895
,, other places 350 ,,
Total 4,890 ,,
Of this large quantity, the greater portion was re-shipped to Bombay,
Calcutta, and Cochin China.
Uses — Cajuput oil is occasionally administered internally as a
stimulant, antispasmodic and diaphoretic : externally as a rubefacient
it is in frequent use.
Substitutes — The oil of Eucalyjdus oleosa F. Muell. has, we find,
the odour of cajuput; and according to Gladstone it agrees, as well as
the oils of Melaleuca ericifolia Sm. and M. Unariifolia Sm., almost
entirely with cajuput oil, except in optical properties. The same is
probably the case with the oil of Eucalyptus globulus Labill, which
Cloez (1870) states to be dextrogyre. These oils are shipped to some
extent from Australia to Europe, probably as adulterants of other
essential oils.
CARYOPHYLLI.
Cloves ; F. Girojies, Clous de Girojies ; G. Gewurznelken.
Botanical Origin — Eugenia caryophyllatal^hxm\>Qrg{Caryop}iyllus
aromaticus L.), a beautiful evergreen tree, 30 to 40 feet high, resembling
a gigantic myrtle, bearing numerous flowers grouped in small terminal
tricotomous cymes. The flower has an inferior ovary about ^ an inch
long, cylindrical, of a crimson colour, dividing at the top into 4 sepals;
and 4 round concave petals larger than the calyx, imbricated in the bud
like a globe, but at length spreading and soon dropping off".
The clove-tree is said to be strictly indigenous only in the five small
islands constituting the proper Moluccas, namely Tarnati, Tidor, Mortir,
Makiyan and Bachian.^ These form a chain on the west side of the
1 Bist. des Drog. iii. (18G9) 278. or Clove Islands, the name has been ex-
2 Bbce Boole of the Colony of the Straits tended to all islands east of Celebes and
Setllements for 1871, Singapore, 1872. west of New Guinea.
^ Though these are the original Moluccas
CARYOPHYLLI.
281
large island of Jilolo, where, strange to say, the tree appears not to exist
in a wild state (Crawfurd). According to Rumphins, it was introduced
into Auiboyna before the arrival of the Portuguese, and is still cultivated
there and in the neighbouring islands of Haruku, Saparua and
Nusalaut, also in Sumatra and Penano-. It is likewise now found in
Malacca, the Mascarene Islands, the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba on
the eastern coast of Africa, and the West Indies.
The tree which is grown for the spice appears to be a cultivated
variety, of lower stature and more aromatic than the wild form.
History' — The Greek name KapuocjiuXXoi' is supposed to refer to the
ball-like petals of the bud, which, as above described, might be compared
to a small nvit {Kupvov). But the name is very variably written, as
yapouiucjiou'K, Kap(j)ou(pov\, yapofjioXar whence it becomes probable that
it is not really Greek, but an Asiatic word hellenized.
Cloves have been long known to the Chinese. Mr. Mayers, late
Chinese Secretary to the British Legation at Pekin, has communicated
to us the interesting fact that they are mentioned by several Chinese
writers as in use imder the Han dynasty, B.C. 2G6 to A.D. 220, during
which period it was customary for the officers of the court to hold the
spice in the mouth before addressing the sovereign, in order that their
breath mio-ht have an agreeable odour.^
The Sanskrit name is " Lavanga" whence the vernacular Hindustani
" Laiivg."
The first European author to mention Garyopliyllon is Pliny, who
describes it, after pepper, as a grain resembling that spice but longer and
more brittle, produced in Intlia, and imported for the sake of its odour.
It is doubtful whether this description really refers to cloves.
By the 4th century, cloves must have become well known in Europe,
if credence can be placed in a remarkable record preserved by Vignoli,''
which states that the emperor Constantine presented to St. Silvester,
bi.shop of Rome, A.D. 314-335, numerous vessels of gold and silver,
incense and spices, among which last were 150 pounds of Gloves — a vast
quantity for the period.
Kosmas Indicopleustes,' in his TopogvapliiaCJir{stiana\yr\iiQn about
A.D. 547, states in the account of Taprobane (Ceylon) that silk, aloes
[-wood], cloves (KapvoipvWov) and sandal wood, besides other produc-
tions, are imported thither from China, and other emporia, and trans-
mitted to distant regions. Alexander Trallianus,*' who was a friend of
Kosmos and a pupil of his father, prescribed in several receipts 5 or 8
cloves, Kupvo<j)v\\ov KOKKovg, from which fact it may be inferred that at
his time (at Rome ?) cloves were a very rare article. A century later,
Paulus ^gineta" distinctly described cloves as Caryophyllon — ex
India, velidi flores cvjusdam arboris . . odorati, acres. . . and much
used for a condiment and in medicine.
' For the history of the oil see our article
Cortex Cinnamon, chemical composition.
- Langkavel, Botanikder spulercnGriechcv ,
Berlin, 18G6. 19.
^ At this period, the clove was called Ki
shell, hianij, i.e. foioTs tongue spice. The
modern name Ting hianrj, i.e. nail-scent or
-spice, was in use in the 5th or 6th century
of our era.
■* Liher Pontificalis, sen de Gesfis Romct'
nornni Ponlificum, Komfe, i. (1724) 94.
5 Migne, Pairologice Cursus, series Grseca,
Ixxxviii. {I860) 446.
^ Puschmau's edition (quoted in the
appendix) i. 435. 580. Alexander dedi-
cated his work to his teacher, the father of
Cosmas.
De re medico, lib. vii. c. 3.
282
MYRTACEJi.
In the beginning of the 8th century, the same spice is noticed
by Benedictus Crispus/ archbishop of Milan, who calls it Gariophylua
ater ; and in a.d. 716, it is eniunerated with other commodities in
the diploma granted by Chilperie II. to the monastery of Corbie in
Normandy.-
We find cloves among the wares on which duty was levied at Aeon
(the modern Acre) in Palestine at the end of the 12th century, at which
period that city was a great emporium of Mediterranean trade.^ They
are likewise enumerated in the tariff of Marseilles of A.D. 1228,^ in that
of Barcelona of 1252' and of Paris, 1296."
These facts show that the spice was a regular object of commerce at
this period. But it was very costly : the Household Book of the
Countess of Leicester, a.d. 1265,'^ gives its price as 10s. to 12s. per lb.,
exactly the same as that of saffron. Several other examples of the
high cost of the spice might be adduced.
Of the place of growth of cloves, the first distinct notice seems to be
that of the Arabian geographer Ibn Khurdadbah,* A.D. 869-88.5, who
names the spice, with cocoa-nuts, sugar, and sandal-wood as produced
in Java. Doubtless he was misinformed, for the clove-tree had not
come so far west at that period. Marco Polo " made the same mistake
four centuries later : finding the spice in Java, he supposed it the
growth of the island.
Nicolo Conti," a Venetian merchant who lived from a.d. 1424 to
1448 in the Indian Archipelago, learned that cloves are brought to
Java from the island of Banda, fifteen days' sail further east. With
the arrival of the Portuguese at the commencement of the 16th century,
more accurate accounts of the Spice Islands began to reach Europe ;
and Pigafetta," the companion of Magellan, gave a very good description
of the clove-tree as he observed it in 1521.
The Portuguese had the princijjal share in the clove trade for nearly
a century. In 1605 they were expelled by the Dutch, who took exclu-
sive possession of the Moluccas and adopted extraordinary measures for
keeping the traffic in their own hands. Yet notwithstanding this, large
supplies of cloves reached England direct. In 1609 a ship of the East
India Company called the Cumseiit arrived with 112,000 lb., the duty
on which amounted to £1400 and the impost to as much more. The
spice ungarbled was sold at 5s. Qd. and 5s. dd. per lb. — of course, in
bond.^^
To effect their purpose, the Dutch endeavoured to extirpate the
clove-tree from its native islands, and even instituted periodical
1 Poematium Medicum — Migne, Pairu-
loijke Cursus, Ixxxix. (1850) 374.
^ Pardessus, Diplomata, CJiarke, etc., ii.
(1849) 309.
^ Jlecucil des Hidorieris des Croisades,
Lo}% (1843) 173.
■* Mery et Guindon, HM. des Actea . . .
de la mnnkipaliti de Marneilk, 1841. 373.
' C'apmany, Memorias sobre la niarliw,
etc. de Barcelona, iii. 170.
" Douet d'Arcq, Revue archeologique, ix.
(1852) -213.
" Mritinirii and Homehold Expenfira in
A'/i.7;««f/ (Roxburgh Club), 1841. lii.
" Ze Livre des rouies et des province.'^,
traduit par C. Barbier de Meynard, Journ.
Asiat. sir. 6. tome v. (1865) 227.
» Yule, uMarco Polo, ii. (1871) 217.— It
should however be borne in mind that the
name Java was applied in a general sense
by the Arab geographers to the islands of
the Archipelago.
Kunstmann, Die Kenntniss Indiens im
X V'"" Jahrhwidert, MUnchen, 1863. 46.
11 Eamusio, Dclle navi/jationi et viatjgi,
Venetia, 1554, fol. 4046.
1- Calendar of State Papers, Colonial
xerics. East /ii ';e--\ 1802. 181.
(^ARYOPHYLLI.
283
expeditions for the purpose of destroying any yovmg trees that might
have accidentally sprung up. This policy, the object of which was to
confine the growth of the spice to a group of small islands of which
Amhoyna is the largest, has but very recently been abandoned : though
the cultivation of the spice was free in all other localities, the clove
parks of the Amboyna islands remained the property of the Dutch
Government. The original Moluccas or Clove Islands now produce no
cloves at all.
The enterprise of Poivre, the French governor of Mauritius and
Bourbon, so far eluded the vigilance of the Dutch, that both clove and
nutmeg- trees were introduced into those islands in the year 1770.^
The clove-tree was carried thence to Cayenne in 1793, and to Zanzibar
about the end of the century.
Crawfurd,'- in an excellent article of which we have made free
use, aptly remarks that it is difficult to understand how the clove
lirst came to the notice of foreign nations, considering the well-
ascertained fact that it has never been used as a condiment or in any
other way by the inhabitants of the islands of which it is a native.
We may observe however that there were some singular supersti-
tions among the islanders with regard to the so-called Royal Clove
(p. 287), a tree of which on the island of Makiyan was long supposed
to be unique.
Collection — The flower-buds of the clove-tree when young are
nearly white, but afterwards become green and lastly bright red, when
they mvist at once be gathered. This in Zanzibar is done by hand ;
each clove is picked singly, a moveable stage the height of the tree
being used to enable the labourers to reach the upper branches. The
buds are then simply dried in the sun, by which they acquire the
familiar dark brown tint of the commercial article. The gathering
takes place twice a year ; in the Moluccas where the harvest occurs in
June and December, the cloves are partly gathered by hand, and partly
beaten off the tree by bamboos on to cloths spread beneath. The
annual yield of a good tree is about pounds, but sometimes reaches
doid)le that quantity.
Description — Cloves are about of an inch in length, and consist
of a long cylindrical calyx dividing above into 4 pointed spreading sepals
which surround 4 petals, closely imbricated as a globular bud about
of an inch in diameter.
The petals which are of lighter colour than the rest of the drug and
somewhat translucent from numerous oil-cells, spring from the base of
a 4-sided epigynous disc, the angles of which are directed towards the
lobes of the calyx. The stamens which are very numerous, are inserted
at the base of the petals and are arched over the style. The latter
which is short and subulate, rises from a depression in the centre of the
disc. Immediately below it and united with the upper portion of the
calyx is the ovary, which is 2-cened and contains many owiles. The
lower end of the calyx (liypantldum) has a compressed form ; it is solid
^ Tessier, Sur Vimportalion da Girqflier
lias j\fohiijaes aux Isles de France, de Bour-
bon tt de Sechelks, et de ces isles 11 C'ai/eiDie.
— Observations sur la physique, Paris,
JuiUet, 1779.
- Dictiona.ru of the Indian Islands, 185G,
article flove.
2S4
MYRTACEyE.
but has its internal tissue far more porous than the walls. The whole
calyx is of a deep rich brown, has a dull wrinkled surface, a dense
fleshy texture, and abounds in essential oil which exudes on simple
pressure with the nail. Cloves have an agreeable spicy odour, and a
strong biting aromatic taste.
The varieties of cloves occurring in commerce do not exhibit any
structural differences. Inferior kinds are distinguished by being less
plump, less bright in tint, and less rich in essential oil. In London
price-currents, cloves are enumerated in the order of value thus :
Penang, Bencoolen, Amboyna, Zanzibar.
Microscopic Structure — A transverse section of the lower part of
a clove shows a dark rhomboid zone, the tissue on either side of which
is of a lighter hue. The outer layer beneath the epidermis exhibits a
large number of oil-cells, frequently as much as 300 mkm. in diameter.
About 200 oil-cells may be counted in one transverse section, so that
the large amount of essential oil in the drug is well shown by its
microscopic characters. The above-mentioned zone is chiefly made vip
of about 30 fibro-vascular bimdles, another stronger bundle traversing
the centre of the clove. The fibro-vascular bundles, as well as the tissue
bordering the oil-cells, assume a greenish black hue by alcoholic per-
chloride of iron. Oil-cells are also largely distributed in the leaves,
petals and even the stamens of Eugenia.
Chemical Composition — Few plants possess any organ so rich in
essential oil as the drug mider consideration. The oil known in phar-
macy as Oleum Caryo'phylli, which is the important constituent of
cloves, is obtainable to the extent of 16 to 20 per cent. But to extract
the whole, the distillation must be long continued, the water being
returned to the same material.
The oil is a colourless or yellowish liquid with a powerful odour
and taste of cloves, sp. gr. 1'04<6 to I'OoS. It is a mixture of a hydro-
carbon, and an oxygenated oil called Eugenol, in variable proportions.
The former which is termed light oil of cloves and comes over in the
first period of the distillation, has the composition C^^H^*, a sp. gr. of
0'918 and boils at 251° C. It deviates the plane of polarization slightly
to the left, and is not coloured on addition of ferric chloride ; it is of a
rather terebinthinaceous odour.
Eugenol, sometimes called Eugenic Acid, has a sp. gr. of 1-087 at
0" C, and possesses the full taste and smell of cloves. Its boiling
point is 24'7°'5. With alkalis, especially ammonia and baryta, it yields
crystallizable salts. Eugenol may therefore be prepared by submitting
the crude oil of cloves to distillation with caustic soda ; the " light
oil " distils then, the eugenol, being now combined with sodium,
remains in the still. It will be obtained on addition of an acid and again
distilling. Eugenol is devoid of rotatory power, whence the crude oil
of cloves, of which eugenol is by far the prevailing constituent, is
optically almost inactive. The constitution of eugenol is given by the
rocff
formula CH^ -< OH . It belongs to the phenol class, and has
( CH.CH.Cff
also been met with in the fruits of Pimenta officinalis (see next
article), in the Bay leaVes, in Canella bark (see page 75), in the
CARYOPHYLLI.
2«5
leaves and flower buds of Cinnamomum zeilanicum and in Brazilian
clove-bark {Licijpdlium caryophyllatum Nees).
Eugenol can be converted into Vanillin (see Fructus Vanillae).
The "water distilled from cloves is stated to contain, in addition to
the essential oil, another body, Eugenin, which sometimes separates
after a while in the form of tasteless, crystalline laminjB, having the
same composition as evigenol/ We have never met with it.
According to Scheuch (1863), oil of cloves also (sometimes) con-
tains a little Salicylic acid, C^H* \ qqqh ^^^^^^^ "^^J removed by
shaking the oil with a solution of carbonate of ammonium.
Caryophyllin, C-"H-''-0, is a neutral, tasteless, inodorous substance,
crystallizing in needle-shaped prisms. We have obtained it in small
quantity, by treating with boiling ether cloves, which we had pre-
viously deprived of most of their essential oil by small quantities
of alcohol. E. Mylius (1873) obtained from it by nitric acid, crystals
of CaryophylUnic Acid, C-"H'-^0'\
Ca r mil fell ic Acid obtained in colourless crystals, C^-H-<'0^'', in
1851 by Muspratt and Danson after digesting an aqueovis extract of
cloves with nitric acid, is a product of this treatment and not a natural
constituent of cloves.
Cloves contain a considerable proportion of gum ; also a tannic acid
not yet particularly examined.
Production and Commerce — Of late years the principal locality
for the production of cloves has been the islands of Zanzibar and Peml>a
on the east coast of Africa, which until very recently were capable of
producing a maxiimxm cro]) of lOi millions of pounds in a single
season. On the 15th April 1872, Zanzibar was visited by a hurricane
of extraordinary violence, by which about five-sixths of the clove-trees
in the island were destroyed ; and although the plantations are being-
renewed, many years must elapse before the crop can resume its former
importance. Pemba, which is distant from Zanzibar 25 miles, and pro-
duced about half as much of the spice as that island, did not
appreciably sufler from the storm.
The crop on these islands fluctuates, a good year alternating with a
bad one. This is partly shown in the imports of Bombay, the great
mart of Zanzibar produce, which have been as follows : —
1869-70 1870-71 1871-72 1872-73
45,G42cwt. 21,968 cwt. 43,891 cwt. 25,185 cwt.
The quantity of cloves shipped from Bombay to the United
Kingdom is comparatively small, being in 1871-72, 3279 cwt.; in
1872-73, 3271 cwt.
The imports of cloves to the United Kingdom are from one million
to four million pounds annually.
Cloves are also largely shipped direct from Zanzibar to the United
States and Hamburg. A small amount is taken in native vessels to
the Red Sea ports ; these are packed in raw hides. Those for the
European and American markets are shipped in mat bags made of split
cocoa-nut leaf.
The clove trade of the Moluccas has been for many years in the
1 Gmelin, Chemistry, xiv. (1860) 201.
28G
MYRTACE^.
hands of the Dutch Government, wliich, by its restrictive policy,
assumed practically the position of growers, disposing of their produce
through the Netherlands Trading Company at auctions held in Holland
twice a year. This system having been abolished in 1872, has proved
disastrous to the trade it was designed to protect, and to such a
degree that the produce of cloves in the Moluccas is but a tenth of
what it was in the early days of their intercourse with Europe. The
crop of the four islands, Amboyna, Haruku, Saparua, and Nusalaut,
the only Moluccas in which the tree is cultivated, was reckoned in
1854 as 510,9121b.
The export of cloves from Java in 1S71 was 1897 peculs'
(186,226 lb.). The French island of Reunion which from 1825 to
1849 used to produce annually as much as 800,000 kilogrammes
(1,764,571 lb.), now yields almost none, owing chiefly to the frequent
hurricanes.
Uses — As a remedy, cloves are unimportant, though in the form of
infusion or distilled water they are useful in combination with other
medicines. The essential oil which sometimes relieves toothache is
a frequent ingredient of pill-masses. The chief consumption of
cloves is as a culinary spice.
Substitutes — 1. Clove Stalks — Festuccelvel Stipites CaryophylU, in
French Griffes de Oirojie, in German Nelkenstiele, were an article of
import into Europe during the middle ages, when they were chiefly
known by their low Latin name of fusti, or the Italian hastaroni.
Thus imder the statutes of Pisa,- a.d. 1305, duty was levied not only
on cloves (garofali), but also on Folia et fusti garofaloriim. Pego-
lotti^ a little later names both as being articles of trade at Constantinople.
Clove Leaves are enumerated* as an import into Palestine in the
12th century; they are also mentioned in a list of the drugs sold
at Frankfort'' about the year 1450; we are not aware that they
are used in modern times.
As to Clove Stalks, they are still a considerable object of trade,
especially from Zanzibar, where they are called ])y the natives Vikwnhi.
They taste tolerably aromatic, and yield 4 to G'4 per cent, of volatile
levogjrre oil ; they are used for adulterating the Ground Cloves sold by
grocers. Such an admixture may be detected by the microscope,
especially if the powder after treatment with potash be examined in
glycerin. If clove stalks have been ground, thick-walled or stone-
cells will be found in the powder ; such cells do not occur in cloves.
Powdered allspice is also an adulterant of powdered cloves ; it also
contains stone-cells, but in addition numerous starch-granules which
are entirely wanting in cloves.
2. 3Iother Cloves, AntUophyllt — are the fruits of the clove-tree,
and are ovate-oblong berries about an inch in length and much less rich
in essential oil than cloves. Though occasionally seen in the London
drug sales in some quantity, they are not an article of regular import."
^ Consular Reports, Aug. 1873. 952.
^ Bonaini, Btatuti inediti della ciltd di
Pisa dal xii. al xiv. secolo, iii. (1857)
106.
3 See p. 235, note 2.
Recueil des Historiens des Croisades,
Lois, ii. (1843) 173.
' FlUckiger, Die Frankfurter Lisle, Halle,
1873. 11. 38.
^ We find in the fortnightly price cur-
rent of a London drug-broker under date
FRUCTUS PIMENTO.
287
As they contain very large stai'ch-granules, their presence as an adul-
teration of ground cloves would be revealed by the microscope.
3. Roj/al CJoi'es — Under this name or Gdvyoph.yllum regkim, a
curious monstrosity of the clove was formerly held in the highest
reputation, on account of its rarity and the strange stories told respect-
ing it.' Specimens in our possession show it to be a very small clove,
distinguished by an abnormal number of sepals and large bracts at the
base of the calyx-tube, the corolla and internal organs being imperfectly
developed.
FRUCTUS PIMENTiE.
Semen Amomi; Pimento, Alhpice, Jamaica Pep2)er ; F. Poivre de la
Jamaique, Piment des Anglais, Toute-epice ; G. Nelkenpfeffer,
Nelkenhdpfe, Neiujevmrz.
Botanical Origin — Pimeiita ojjficinalishindlej' (Myrtas Pimenta
Jj., Eugenia Pimenta DC), a beautiful evergreen tree, growing to about
30 feet in height, with a trvink 2 feet in circumference, common
throughout the West India Islands. In Jamaica, it prefers limestone
hills near the sea, and is especially plentiful on the north side of the
island.
History — The high value placed on the spices of India sufficiently
explains the interest with which aromatic and pungent plants were
regarded by the early explorers of the New World ; while the eager
desire to obtain these lucrative commodities is shown by the names
Pepjjer, Cinnamon, Balsam, Melegueta, Amomum, bestowed on pro-
ductions totally distinct from those originally so designated.
Among the spices thus brought to the notice of Eiirope were the
little dry berries of certain trees of the myrtle tril)e, which had some
resemblance in shape and flavour to peppercorns, and hence were
named Pimienta,^ corrupted to Pimenta. or Pimento. It was doubt-
less a drug of this kind, if not our veritable allspice, that was given to
Clusius in IGOl by Garret, a druggist of London, r.nd described and
figured by the former in his Liher Exoticorum.^ A few years later it
began to be imported into England, being, as Parkinson'^ says,
" obtruded for Amomum " (Round Cardamom), so that " some more
audacious than wise . . . put it in their compositions instead of the
right." Francesco Redi mentioned the fruits as Pimienta de Chajoa ;
Chiapas, now the south-eastern department of Mexico, bordering
Guatemala. Redi states that the spice was also called Pimienta de
Tavasco from the adjoining department of Tabasco. According to
Nov. 27, 1S73, the announcement of the
sale of 1,050 bags of Mother Cloves at 2d.
to 3fZ. per lb., besides 4,200 packages of
Clove Stalks at 3</. to 4(Z. per lb.
1 Rumphius in his letter from Amboina,
Sept. 20, 1696, to Dr. Schnick, in Ephe-
merkles Acad. Cces. Leopold. Decur. iii.
Frankfiu-t and Leipzig. 1700. p. 308, with
figure. — Also Rumphius, Herh. Amh. ii.
(1742) 11. tab. 2.— See also Hasskarl,
Neuer Schllini^el zu Rumph's Herb. Amh.,
Halle, 1866 ; Berg, Linncea, 1854. 137 ;
Valmont de Bomare, Diet, d' Hist. Nat. iii.
(1775)70.^
- Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Plants, part 20 (1877).
^ Pimienta, the Spanish for pepper, is
derived from pnijmenium, a general name in
mediaeval Latin for spi.ceri/. — Malagnetta
(see article Grana Paradisi) is also a name
which has been transferred by the Spaniards
and Portuguese to the drug under notice.
^ Lib. i. c. 17.
Theatrum Botanicum (1640) 1567.
288
MYRTACE.E.
Sloane^ (1691) it was commonly sold by druggists for Carpo-
balsamum. Ray (1693) distinguished the spice as a production of
Jamaica under the name of Sweet-scented Jamaica Pepper or Allsp>ice,
and states it to be abundantly imported into England, and in frequent
use as a condiment, though not employed in medicine. The spice had
a place in the London Pharmacopoeia as early as 1721.
The consumption of Pimento has been enormous. In the year
180-i-.5, the quantity shipped from the British West Indies was
2,257,000 lb., producing on import duty a net revenue of £38,063.2
Production and Commerce — The spice found in commerce is
furnished wholly by the island of Jamaica. A plantation, there called
a Pimento walk, is a piece of natural woodland stocked with the trees,
which require but little attention. The flowers appear in June, July,
and August, and are quickly succeeded by the berries, which are
gathered when of full size but still unripe. This is performed by
breaking off the small twigs bearing the bunches. These are then
spread out, and exposed to the sun and air for some days, after which
the stalks are removed, and the berries are fit for being packed.
By an official document ^ it appears that, in the year 1871, the amount
of land in Jamaica cropped with pimento was 7,178 acres. In that year
the island exported of the spice 6,8.'57,838 lb., value £28,574. Of this
quantity Great Britain took 4,287,551 lb., and the United States
2,266,950 lb. In 1875 the export was 57,500 cwts., valued at £40,250,
of which 10,894 cwts. only went to the United States.
Description — Allspice is a small, dry globular berry, rather variable
in size, measuring to less than of an inch in diameter. It is
crowned by a short style, seated in a depression, and surrounded by 4
short thick sepals ; generally however the latter have been rubbed off,
a scar-like raised ring marking their former position. The berry has
a woody shell or pericarp, easily cut, of a dark ferruginous brown, and
rugose by reason of minute tubercles filled with essential oil. It is two-
celled, each cell containing a single, reniform, exalbuminous seed, having
a large spirally curved embryo. The seed is aromatic, but less so
than the pericarp.
Allspice has an agreeable, pungent, spicy flavour, much resembling
that of cloves.
Microscopic Structure — The outer layer of the pericarp, immed-
iately beneath the epidermis, contains numerous large cells filled with
essential oil. The parenchyme further exhibits thick-walled cells loaded
with resin, and smaller cells enclosing crystals of oxalate of calcium.
The whole tissue is traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles. The seeds
are also provided with a small number of oil-cells, and contain starch
granules.
Chemical Composition — The composition of pimento resembles in
many points that of cloves. The berries yield to the extent of 3 to 4<h
per cent, a volatile oil, sp. gr. 1-087 (Gladstone), having the character-
istic taste and odour of the spice, and known in the shops as Oleum
^ Description of the Pimienta or Jamaica quoted in Young's West-India Common-
Pepper-tree. — Phil. Trans, xvii. No. 191. place Booh, 1807. 79.
'^Parliamentary Return, March 1805, 3 i?/i(e 5ooZ; for Jamaica, printed 1872.
CORTEX GRANATI FRUCTUS.
289
PimenUe. We have found it to deviate the ray of polarized light 2° to
tlie left, when examined in a column of 50 mm.
Oeser (1804), whose experiments have been confirmed by Gladstone
(1872), has shown that oil of pimento has substantially the same
coiiiposition as oil of cloves ; salicylic acid has not been found. Pimento
is rich in tannin, striking with a persalt of iron an inky black. Its
decoction is coloured deep blue by iodine, showing the presence of
starch. Dragendortf (1871) pointed out the existence in allspice of an
extremely small quantity of an alkaloid, having somewhat the odour of
eoniine.
Uses — Employed as an aromatic clove; a distilled water {Aqua
Pimerdce) is frequently prescribed. The chief use of pimento is as a
culinary sj^ice.
Substitute — The Mexican spice called Pimienta cle Tabasco (Pimeni
Tahajjo Guibourt) is somewhat larger and less aromatic than Jamaica
allspice. Analogous products are atibrded by Pimenta acris Wight '
{Myrcla acris L)C, Amomis acris Berg), the Bay-hcrry tree, and P.
Pimento Griscb. The oil of bay-berry consists of eugenol and a hydro-
carbon, possibly identical with the " light oil of cloves " (p. 284), but
present in a larger amount. Bay rum, much used in the United
States by the perfumers, is an alcoholic tincture flavoured with oil of
bay-berry.
GRANATE^.
CORTEX GRANATI FRUCTUS.
Cortex Grcmati; Pomegranate Peel; F. Ecorce de Grenades;
G. Granatschalen.
Botanical Origin — Punica Granatum L., a shrub or low tree, with
small deciduous foliau'e and handsome scarlet flowers. It is indio-enous
to North-western India, and the counties south and south-west of the
Caspian to the Persian Gulf and Palestine, and grows wild in the hills of
Western Sindh in elevations of 4000 feet, in Balutchistan to GOOO feet,
also in the east flank of Soliman range. The trunk is short, rarely over
20 feet high. The tree has long been cultivated, and is now found
throughout the warm parts of Europe, and in the subtropical regions of
both hemispheres.
History — The pomegranate has been highly prized by mankind
from the remotest antiquity, as is shown by the references to it in the
Scriptures," and by the numerous representations of the fruit in the
sculptures of Persepolis and Assyria,^ and on the ancient monuments of
Egypt.'' It was probably introduced into the south of Italy by Greek
colonists, and is named as a common fruit-tree by Porcius Cato ^ in the
3rd century B.C. The peel of the fruit was recognized as medicinal
1 Figiired in Bentley and Trimen, part Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, ed. 5,
20. — The fruit of this species is easily dis- ii. (1849) 296.
tingnislied, being crowned by 5-calyx ^ Wilkinson, j4nc/e«< iiV/yp&jis, ii, (1S37)
lobes. 142.
- Exodus xxviii. 33, 34; Numbers xx. 2; ^ Nisard's edition, Paris, 1877, capp. 7.
Deut. viii. 8 ; Cant. iv. 13 ; viii. 2. 127. 133.
290
GRANATE^.
hy the ancients, and among the Romans was in common use for tanning-
leather/ as it still is in Tunis.
Description — The fruit of the pomegranate tree is a spherical,
somewhat flattened and obscurely six-sided berry, the size of a common
orange and often much larger, crowned by the thick, tubular, 5- to
9-toothed calyx. It has a smooth, hard, coriaceous skin, which when the
fruit is ripe, is of a brownish yellow tint, often finely shaded with red.
Membranous dissepiments, about 6 in number meeting in the axis of the
fruit, divide the upper and larger portion into equal cells. Below these
a confused conical diaphragm separates the lower and smaller half,
which in its turn is divided into 4 or 5 irregular cells. Each cell is tilled
with a large number of grains, crowded on thick spongy placentai', which
in the upper cells are parietal but in the lower appear to be central.
The grains, which are about ^ an inch in length, are oblong or obconical
and many-sided, and consist of a thin transparent vesicle containing an
acid, saccharine, red, juicy pulp, surrounding an elongated angular
seed.
The only part of the fruit used medicinally is the peel. Cortex
Granati of the druggists, which in the fresh state is leathery. When
dry as imported, it is in irregular, more or less concave fragments, some
of which have the toothed, tubular calyx still enclosing the stamens and
style. It is i\ to -j'o of an inch thick, easily breaking with a short
corky fracture ; externally it is rather rough, of a yellowish brown or
reddish colour. Internally it is more or less brown or yellow, and
honey-combed with depressions left by the seeds. It has hardly any
odour, but has a strongly astringent taste.
Microscopic Structure — The middle layer of the peel consists of
large thin-walled and elongated, sometimes even branched cells, among
which occur thick-walled cells and fibro-vascular bundles. Both the
outer and the inner surface are made up of smaller, nearly cubic and
densely packed cells. Small starch granules occur sparingly throughout
the tissue, as well as crystals of oxalate of calcium.
Chemical Composition — The chief constituent is tannin, which in
an aqueous infusion of the dried peel produces with perchloride of iron
an abundant dark blue precipitate. The peel also contains sugar and a
little gum. Dried at 100° C. and incinerated, it yielded us 5"9 per
cent, of ash.
Uses — Pomegranate peel is an excellent astringent, now almost
obsolete in British medicine. Waring ^ asserts that when combined
with opium and an aromatic, as cloves, it is a most useful remedy in
the chronic dysentery of the natives of India, as well as in diarrhoea.
CORTEX GRANATI RADICIS.
Pomegranate-root Bark; F, Ecorce de racine de Grenadier;
G. GranatxvuTzelrinde.
Botanical Origin — unica Granatum L., see page 289.
History — ^In addition to the particulars regarding the pomegranate
1 See also Helm, KuUurnflanzen, Berlin, ^ pkarm. of India, 1868. 93. 447.
1877, 206.
CORTEX GRANATI RADICIS.
291
tree given in the preceding article, the following which concern the
drug under notice may be stated.
A decoction of the root of the pomegranate was recommended by
Celsus/ Dioscorides,^ and Pliny ^ for the expulsion of tape-worm ; but
the remedy had fallen into complete oblivion, until its use among the
Hindus attracted the notice of Buchanan'' at Calcutta about the
year 1N05. This physician pointed out the elFicacy of the root-bark,
wliich was further shown by Fleming and others. Pomegranate root
is known to have been long used for a similar purpose by the
Chinese.^
Though the medicine is admitted to be efficient, and is employed
with advantage in India where it is easily procui-ed both genuine and
fresh, it is hardly ever administered in England, the extract of male-
fern being generally preferred ; but it has a place in several continental
pharmacopoeias.
Description — The bark occurs in rather thin quills or fragments, 3
to 4 inches long. Their outer surface is yellowish grey, sometimes
marked with tine loncfitudinal striations or reticulated wrinkles, but
more often furrowed by bands of cork, running together in the
tliickest pieces into broad flat conchoidal scales. The inner surface,
wliich is smooth or marked with fine striae and is of a greyish
yellow, has often strips of the tough whitish wood attached to it.
The bark breaks short and granular ; it has a purely astringent
taste, but scarcely any odoiu*.
Microscopic Structure — On a transverse section, the liber is
seen to be the prevailing part of the cortical tissue. The former
consists of alternating layers of two kinds of cells — one of them loaded
with tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium, the other filled with starch
granules and tannic matter. The bark is traversed by narrow
medullary rays, and very large sclerenchymatous cells are scattered
through the liber. Touched with a dilute solution of a persalt of
iron, the bark assumes a dark blackish blue tint.
Chemical Composition — The bark contains, according to Wacken-
roder (1824), more than 22 per cent, of tannic acid, which Rembold
(18G7) has ascertained to consist for the most part of a peculiar variety
called Pmiico-tannic Acid, C-"H"'0'''; when boiled with dilute sul-
phuric acid, it is resolved into Ellagic Ac Id, C^ffO", and sugar. Punico-
tannic acid is accompanied by common tannic acid, yielding, by means
of sulphuric acid, gallic acid, which appears sometimes to pre-exist in
the bark. If a decoction of pomegranate bark is precipitated by
acetate of lead, and the lead is separated from the filtered liquid, the
latter on evaporation yields a considerable amo\int of mannite. This
is probably the Punicin or Granatin of former observers.
The tasnicide power is due, according to Tanret (1878) to Pelle-
tierhie, CH^NO, a liquid dextrogyre alkaloid, boiling at 180° to 185° C.
It can be obtained colourless by evaporating its ethereal solution in a
vacuum, but in the open air becomes yellow. Pelletierine, so called in
^ De Medicina,\\h. iw. c. 17. * Edinh. Med. and Surg. Journ., iii.
- Lib. i. c. 153. (1807) 22
3 Lib. x.xiii. c. 60. * Debeaux, Pliarmack et Mat, M6d. des
Chinois, 1865. 70.
202
CUCURBITACE^.
honour of Pelletier, is readily soluble in water, alcohol or chloroform,
and has a somewhat aromatic odour. Several of its salts are crystal-
lizable, yet extremely hygroscopic. The yield of the root bark was
about -J- per cent, of the alkaloid, or about 2 per cent, of crystallized
sulphate from trees grown near Troyes, in the Champagne.
Uses — A decoction, followed by a purgative, is stated by Waring *
and others to be most efficient for the expulsion of the tape-worm.
The fresh bark is said to be preferable to the dried.
Adulterations — The commercial drug frequently consists partly
or entirely of the bark of the stem or branches, characterized by its
less abundant coi"k-formation, which exhibits longitudinal bands or
ridges of light brownish cork, but not conchoidal exfoliations. The
middle cortical layer is somewhat more developed, and contains in
the outer cells deposits of chlorophyll. The cambial zone is not dis-
tinctly observable. Such bark is reputed to be less active than
that of the root, but we are not aware that the fact has ever been
proved.
The bark of Buxas sempervirens and of Berberis vulgaris are
somewhat similar to the drug under notice, but their decoctions are not
affected by salts of iron.
CUCURBITACE^.
FRUCTUS ECBALLII.
Fnidus Elaterii ; Elaterium Fruit, Squirting Cucumber, Wild
Cucumber; F. Concombre purged if ou sauvage ; G. Sp)ringgurke.
Botanical Origin — Eehallimn^ Elaterium A. Richard (Momordica
Ehiterium L.), a coarse, hispid, fleshy, decumbent plant without ten-
drils, having a thick white perennial root. It is common throughout
the Mediterranean region, extending eastward as far as Southern
Russia and Persia, and westward to Portugal. It succeeds well in
Central Europe, and is cidtivated to a small extent for medicinal use
at Mitcham and Hitchin in England.
History — Theophrastus mentions the plant under notice by the
name of 2t/cuo? ayp'o?. It is also particularly noticed by Dioscorides,
who explicitly describes the singular process for making elaterium
(eXaT/jpiov), which was almost exactly like that followed at the
present day.
The Wild or Squirting Cucumber was well known and cultivated
in gardens in England as early as the middle of the 16th century.^
Description — The fruit is ovoid-oblong, nodding, about 1| inch
long, hispid from numerous short fleshy prickles terminating in white
elongated points. It is attached by a long scabrous peduncle, is fleshy
and green while young, becoming slightly yellowish when mature ; it is
^Indian Annals of Med. Science, vi. allusion to the exjmlsion of the seeds: often
(1859); P?ta7-macopceia of India, 1868. 93. erroneously written £'c^<a/i«m.
^ Ecballium from t/c/SaWw, I expel, in 3 Turner's i/eriaW, 1508, part i. ISO.
FRUCTUS ECBALLIl.
293
3-celle(l and contains numerous oblong seeds lodged in a very bitter
succulent pulp. The fruit when ripe separates suddenly from the
stalk, and at the same moment the seeds and juice are forcibly expelled
from the aperture left by the detached peduncle. This interesting-
phenomenon ^ is d<ie to the process of exosmosis, by which the juice of
the outer part of the fruit gradually passes through the strong contractile
tissue which lines the central cavity, until the pressure becomes so
great that the cell gives way at its weakest point. This point is that
at which the pedvmcle is articulated with the fruit ; and it is the
sudden and powerful contraction of the elastic tissue when relieved
from pressure that occasions the violent expulsion of the contents of
the central cavity.
For the preparation of the officinal elaterium, the fruit has to be
employed while still somewhat immature, for the simple reason that it
Avould be impossible to gather it so as to retain its all-important juice
if left till quite ripe. When it is sliced longitudinally as in making
elatex'ium, some of the juice is expelled by virtue of the endosmotic
action already described, as can easily be seen on examining the con-
tracted lining of the sliced fruit.
Pereira observes- that if the juice of a fruit is received on a plate of
glass, it is seen to be nearly colourless and transparent. In a few
minutes however, by exposui-e to the air, it becomes slightly turbid, and
small white coagida are formed in it. By slow evaporation, minute
rhomboidal crystals make their appearance : these are elatcrin.
Hot, dry weather favours the development of the active principle of
the drug.^
Microscopic Structure — The middle layer of the fruit is built up
of large somewhat thick-walled cells, traversed by a few fibro-vascular
bundles. The former abound in small starch grains, and also contain
granules of albuminous matter.
Chemical Composition — The experiments of Clutterbuck (1819)
proved that the active properties of the elateriunr plant reside chiefly,
though not exclusively, in the juice that surrounds the seeds ; and it is
to this juice and to the medicinal product Avhich it yields, that the
attention of chemists has been hitherto directed.
The juice obtained by lightly pressing the sliced fruits is at first
greenish and slightly turbid. After having been set aside a few hours,
it yields a deposit, which has to be collected on calico, rapidly drained
with gentle pressure between layers of bibulous paper and porous bricks,
and dried in a warm place. The substance thus obtained is the Elaterium
of pharmacy.^ The method recommended by Clutterbuck^ involves no
pressing. The juice of the sliced fruit is saved, and the pulp, scooped
out by the thumb of the operator, is thrown on a sieve and slightly
washed with pure water. From these liquors, elaterium is deposited.
1 I have not yet seen Yule's paper on the
dehiscence of this fruit in the Journ. of
Aiiut. (Did Phijsiologi/, 1877. The struc-
ture of the testa of the seed is explained
by Fickel, in the Botanische Zcituiig, 1876.
774.— F.A.F.
-EJem. of Mat. il/«Z. ii. (1853) 1745.
3 Having liad to procure elaterium fruits
at Mitcham in the very fine summer of
1868, I was told that the people occupied
in slicing the fruits had never suffered so
severely from their work as in that year. —
D. H.
* There is a genus of Cucurhitacece founded
by Linnajus, also called Elaterium.
^ Lond. Med. Repository, xii. (1820)1.
294
CUCURBITACE.E.
Elaterium occurs in irregular cake-like fragments, light, friable, and
opaque ; when new, of a bright pale green, becoming by age greyish and
exhibiting minute crystals on the surface. It has a herby tea-like
odour and. a very bitter taste. The produce is extremely small : 240 lb.
of fruit gathered at Mitcham, 10th August 18G8, yielded 4f ounces of
elaterium 0123 per cent.
Elaterium consists, according to Pereira, of Elater 'm, to which the
activity of the drug is due, contaminated with green colouring matter,
cellular tissue, and starch, together with a little of the residue of the
bitter liquor from which these substances were deposited. Yet, in our
opinion, this description is not applicable to the best varieties of elater-
ium. We have examined elaterium carefiilly prepared in the labora-
tory of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London, and a fine specimen
imported from Malta. Both are devoid of starch, as well as of cellular
tissue, but were seen to be largely made up of crystals. The first
sample contained 12 per cent, of water, and yielded after drying, 8'4
per cent, of ash.
The most interesting principle of elaterium is Elaterin, C'"H"**0"',
discovered about the year 1831 by Morries, and independently by
Hennell. The best method of obtaining it, according to our experience,
is to exhaust elaterium with chloroform. From this solution, a white
crystalline deposit of elaterin is immediately separated by addition of
ether. It should be washed with a little ether, and recrystallized from
chloroform. We have thus obtained 33'6 per cent, of pure elaterin
from the above-mentioned elaterium of London, and 27'G per cent, from
that of Malta. Elaterin crystallizes in hexagonal scales or prisms ; it
has an extremely bitter, somewhat acrid taste. It is readily soluble in
boiling alcohol, amylic alcohol, bisulphide of carbon, or chloroform. Its
alcoholic solutions are neutral and are not precipitated by tannin, nor
by any metallic solution. It is but very little coloured by cold concen-
trated sulphuric acid.
Elaterin is the drastic principle of Ecballium ; if to its boiling-
alcoholic solution, solid caustic potash is added, the liquid thus obtained
is stated by Buchheim (1872) to be no longer precipitable by water.
The elaterin is then in fact converted into an acid body, which may be
separated by supersaturating the solution with a mineral acid. The
principle thus obtained has been found by Buchheim to be devoid of
drastic power.
The fresh juice of the fruits was foimd by Kohler (1869) to contain
95 per cent, of water, 3 to 3 5 of organic and 1 to I'O of inorganic con-
stituents. The same chemist observed that the percentage of elaterin
gradually diminished as the season advanced, until in the month of
September he was unable to obtain any of it whatever.
Walz (1859) found in the juice of the fruits and herb of Echallium,
as well as in that of Gucumis Prophetarum L., a second crystallizable
bitter principle, Pro^Aetin, and the amorphous substances Echallin or
Elateric Acid, Hydro-elaterin, and Elateride, all of which require
further examination.^ Prophetin is a glucoside, — not so the other
principles. The four together constitute, according to Walz, 8'7 per
cent, of elaterium, which moreover contains about the same percentage
of pectic matter.
' Gmelin's Chemistry, xvii. (186G) 335-367.
FRUCTUS COLOCYNTHIDIS.
295
Uses — Squirting cucumbers are only employed for making
elaterium, which is a very powerful hydragogue cathartic' Elaterin
is not employed in medicine, but seeing how much elaterium is liable
to vary from climate or season, it might probably be introduced into
use with advantage.
FRUCTUS COLOCYNTHIDIS.
Golocynth, Coloquintida, Bitter Apple; F. Coloquinte ; G. Coloquinthe.
Botanical Origin — Citrulliis Colocynthis Schrader (Cucumis Colo-
cynthis L.) — The colocynth gourd is a slender scabrous plant with a
jDerennial root, native of warm and dry regions in the Old World, over
which it has an extensive area.
Commencino' eastward, it occurs in abundance in the arid districts
of the Punjab and Sind, in sandy places on the Coromandel coast, in
Ceylon, Persia as far north as the Caspian, in Arabia (Aden), Syria,
and in some of the Greek islands. It is found in immense quantities
in Upper Egypt and Nubia, spreading itself over sand hillocks of the
desert after each rainy season. It further extends throughout North
Africa to Morocco and Senegambia, in the Cape de Verd Islands, and
on maritime sands in the south-east of Spain and Portugal. Finally,
it is said to have been collected in Japan.
History — Colocynth was familiar to the Greek and Roman, as well
as to the Arabian physicians; it also occurs in Susruta ("Indravaruni") ;
and if we may judge by the mention of it in an Anglo-Saxon herbal
of the 11th century,^ was not then unknown in Britain. The drug-
was collected in Spain at an early period, as is evident from an Arabic
calendar of A.D. 961.^
The plant has been long cultivated in Cyprus, and its fruit is
mentioned in the 14th century as one of the more important products
of the island.* Tragus (1552) figured the plant, and stated that the
fruit is imported from Alexandria.
Description — The colocynth plant bears a goiird of the size and
shape of an orange, having a smooth, marbled-green surface. It is
sometimes imported simply dried, in which case it is of a brown
colour ; but far more usually it is found in the market peeled with a
knife and dried. It then forms light, pithy, nearly white balls, which
consist of the dried intei-nal pulp of the fruit with the seeds imbedded
in it. This pulp is nearly inodorous, but has an intensely bitter taste,
perceptible by reason of its dust when the drug is slightly handled.
The balls are generally more or less broken ; when dried too slowly
they have a light brown colour.
The seeds are disposed in vertical rows on 3 thick parietal placentse,
which project to the centre of the fruit, then divide and turn back,
forming two branches directed towards one another. Owing to this
structure, the fruit easily breaks up vertically into 3 wedges in each of
which are lodged 2 rows of dark brown seeds. The seeds, of which a
^ Clutterbuck says J of a grain purges Le Calendrie)uJe Cordoue, ■^■ablie.T^&T'R.
violently. Dozy, Leyde, 1873. 92.
- Cockayne, Leechdomn, etc., i. (18G5) ^ De Mas Latrie, Hiat. de. I'ile de City pre,
325. iii. (1852-Gl) 498.
296
CUCURBITACE^.
fruit contains from 200 to 300, a,re of flattened ovoid form, -j^'y of an
inch long by y% broad, not Itordcred. The testa which is hard and
thick, having its surface minutely granvdated, is marked on each
side of its more pointed end by two furrows directed towards the
hilum. The seed, as in other Cuxurhitacecti, is exalbuminous, and has
thick oily cotyledons, enclosing an embryo with short straight radicle
directed towards the hilum.
Colocynth fruits are mostly supplied by wholesale druggists, broken
up and having the seeds removed, the drug in such case being called
Colocynth Ptdp or P'ltli.
Microscopic Structure — The pulp is made up of large thin-
walled parenchymatous cells, their outer layer consisting of rows of
smaller cells more densely packed. The tissue is irregularly traversed
by fibro-vascular bundles, and also exhibits numerous large inter-
cellular spaces. The cells contain but an insignificant amount of
minute granules, to which neither iodine nor a persalt of iron
imparts any coloration. The tissue is not much swollen by water,
although one part of the pulp easily retains from 10 to 12 parts of
water like a sponge.
Chemical Composition — The bitter principle has been isolated
in 1847 by Hlibschmann.^ He observed that alcohol removes from the
fruit a large amount of resin. By submitting this solution to distilla-
tion, the bitter principle remains partly in the aqueous liquid, partly in
the resin, from which the " ColocyntJdn " is to be extracted by boiling
water. The whole solution Avas then concentrated and mixed with
carbonate of potassium, when a thickish viscid liquid separated.
Hubschmann dried it and redissolved it in a mixture of 1 part of strong
alcohol and 8 parts of ether. After treatment with charcoal, the sol-
vents were distilled and the remaining bitter principle removed by
means of water. This on evaporating aff"orded 2 per cent, of the pulp
of a yellow extremely bitter powder, readily soluble in water or alcohol,
not in pure ether. Colocynthin is precipitated from its aqueous solution
by carbonate of potassium. Colocynthin was further extracted by
Lebourdais (1848) by evajwi-ating the aqueous infusion of the fruit
with charcoal, and exhausting the dried powder with boiling alcohol.
Again, another method was followed by Walz (1858). He treated
alcoholic extract of colocynth with water, and mixed the solution firstly
with neutral acetate of lead, and subsequently with basic acetate of
lead. From tlie filtered liquid the lead was separated by means of
sulphuretted hydrogen, and then tannic acid added to it. The
latter caused the colocynthin to be precipitated; the precipitate washed
and dried was decomposed by oxide of lead, and finally the colocynthin
was dissolved out by ether.
"Walz thus obtained about I per cent, of a yellowish mass or tufts,
which he considered as possessing crystalline structure and to which
he gave the name ColocyntMn. He assigns to it the formula
(;;5ojj84Q23^ which in our opinion requires further investigation. Colo-
cynthin is a violent purgative ; it is decomposed according to Walz by
boiling dilute hydrochloric acid, and then yields Golocynthein, C*'*H'^*0^^
and grape sugar. The same chemist termed ColocyntJiitin that part of
^ Schweizei-tsche Zeitschrift fur Pharmacie, 1858. 21C.
HERBA HYDROCOTYLES.
297
the alcoholic extract of colocynth which is soluble in ether but not in
water. Purified with boiling alcohol, colocynthitin forms a tasteless
crystalline powder.
The i)ulp perfectly freed from seeds and dried at 100^ C, afforded
us 11 per cent of ash; the seeds alone yield only 2'7 per cent. They
have, even when crushed, but a faint bitter taste, and contain 17 per
cent, of fat oil.
The fresh leaves of the plant if rubbed emit a very unpleasant
smell.
Commerce — The drug is imported from Mogador, Spain and Syria.
Uses — In the foi'm of an extract made with weak alcohol, and
combined with aloes and scammony, colocynth is much employed as a
purgative. The seeds, roasted or boiled, are the miserable food of some
of the poorest tribes of the Sahara.^
The people of the Berber upon the Nile make a curious application
for the tar they obtain from the fruit. The latter is heated in an
earthen vessel with a hole in it ; the tar drips through to another
vessel and is fit for smearing leather water-bags. The bad smell of the
tar (and of the leaves) prevents the camels from cutting open the
water-bags."
Substitutes — Cucumis trlgonm Roxb. (C. Pseiulo-colocynthis
Royle), a i)lant of the plains of Northern India, with spherical or
elongated, sometimes obscurely trigonous, bitter fruits, prostate rooting
stems, and deeply divided leaves, resembles the colocynth gourd and has
been mistaken for it. Another species named by Royle C. HarchvicJdi,
and known to the natives of India as HiU Colocynth, has oval
oblong bitter fruits, but leaves entirely unlike those of the Citrullus
Colocynthi)i.
UMBELLIFER^.
HERBA HYDROCOTYLES.
radian Hydrocotylc, Indian Pennywort ; F. Bevilacqua.
Botanical Origin — Hydrocotyle asiatica L., a small creeping herb,^
with slender jointed stems, common in moist places throughout tropical
Asia and Africa, ascending in Abyssinia to elevations of 6,000 feet. It
also occurs in America from South Carolina to Valdivia, in the West
Indies, the islands of the Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia.
History — Hydrocotyle is called in Sanskrit mandfdca-jMrni, in
Hindi khulakhudi. The former name denotes various plants, but is
thought to refer in Susruta to the plant under notice (Dr. Rice). It
was known to Rheede* by its Malyalim name oi Codagam (or Kutakan),
and also to Rumphius.^ It has been long used medicinally by the
1 See my paper on Cucumis C'olocynthis
considered as a nutritive plant in the
Archiv der F/iarmacie, 201 (1872) 235.—
F. A. F.
^ Col. Grant, Botany of the Speke and
Grant expedition, Journ. Linn. Soc. xxix
pt. 2 (1873) 77,
Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
Plants, pt. 24, 1877.
* Hort. Mai. x. tab. 46.
« Herh. Amboin. v. 169.
2[)8
TJMBELLIFEU^.
natives of Java and of the Coromandel coast. In 1852, Boileau, a
French physician of Mauritius, pointed out its virtues in the treatment
of leprosy,^ for whicli disease it was largely tried in the hospitals of
Madras by Hunter^ in 1855. It has since been admitted to a place in
the Pharmacojmia of India.
Description^— The peduncles and petioles are fasciculed; the latter
are frequently 2^ inches long; the peduncles are shorter and bear a 3-
or 4-flowered simple umbel with very short rays. The leaves are reni-
form, crenate, i to 2 inches in longest diameter, 7-nerved, glabrous, or
when young somewhat hairy on the under side. The fruit is laterally
compressed, orbicular, acute on the back ; the mericarps reticulated,
sometimes a little hairy, with 3 to 5 curved ribs ; they are devoid of
vittte. The main root is an inch or two long, but roots are also thrown
out by the procumbent stem.
When fresh, the herb is said to be aromatic and of a disao-reeable
bitter and pungent taste ; but these qualities appear to be lost in
drying.
Chemical Composition — An analysis of hydrocotyle has been made
by Lepiue, a pharmacien of Pondichcrry,^ who found it to yield a some-
what peculiar body which he called Vclhirin, from Valdlmi, the Tamil
name of the plant, and regarded as its active principle. Vellarin, which
is said to be obtainable from the dry plant to the extent of 0'8 to I'O
per cent., is an oily, non-volatile liquid with the smell and taste of fresh
hydrocotyle, soluble in spirit of wine, ether, caustic ammonia, and
partially also in hj^drochloric acid. These singular properties do not
enable us to rank^vellariu in any well-characterized class of organic
compounds.
By exhausting 3 ounces of the dried herb with rectified spirit, we
did not obtain anything like vellarin, but simply a green extract almost
entirely soluble in warm water, and containing chiefly tannic acid, which
produced an abundant green precipitate with salts of iron. With caustic
potash, neither the herb nor its extract evolved any nauseous odour.
The dried plant afforded Ldpine 13 per cent, of ash.
Uses — As an alterative tonic, hydrocotyle is allowed to be of some
utility, but the power claimed for it by Boileau of curing leprosy is
generally denied. Dorvault^ regards it as belonging to the class of
narcotico-acrid poisons such as hemlock, but Ave see no evidence to
warrant such an opinion. Besides being administered internally, it is
sometimes locally applied in the form of a poultice. Boileau says that
the entire plant is pi'eferable to the leaves alone.''
Substitutes (?) — H. rotundifolia Roxb., another species common in
India, may be known from H. asiatica by having 10 or more flowers
in an umbel and much smaller fruits. The European H. vidgaris L.,
easily distinguishable from the allied tropical species just described, by
having its leaves orbicular and peltate (not reniform), is said to possess
deleterious properties.
iBoutoii, Med.', Plants of Mauritius, ^ L'Officine {1812) 55i.
1857. 7.3-83. ' ^It is probably by oversight that the
- Medical Reports, Madras, 1853. 356. leaves alone are ordered in the Fhanna-
^ Drawn up from Indian specimens. copuiia of India,
* Juurn. de F/iarm. xxviii. (1855) 47.
FRUCTUS CONII.
290
FRUCTUS CONII.
Hemlock fruits; F. Fruits cle Ci(jm; G. Schierlingsfruclit.
Botanical Ovigin—Coniiirii macalattcvi L., an erect biennial
herbaceous plant, flourishing by the sides of flelds and streams, and
in neglected spots of cultivated ground, throughout temperate Europe
and Asia. It occurs in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean islands, and
has been naturalized in North and South America. But the plant is
very unevenly distributed, and in many districts is entirely wanting.
It is found in most parts of Britain from Kent and Cornwall to the
Orkneys.
History — Kcoi/eiov, occurring as early as the fourth or fifth
century B.C. in the Greek literature, was the plant under notice, at
least in most cases. The famous hemlock potion of the Greeks by
which criminals were put to death' was essentially composed of the
juice of this plant. The old Roman name of Conium was Cicatd ; it
prevails in the mediaeval Latin literature, but was applied, about
15-il, by Gesner (and probably before him by others) to Cicidd virosa
L., another umbelliferous plant which is altogether wanting in Greece
and in Southern Europe generally, and does not contain any poisonous
alkaloid. To avoid tlie confusion arising from the same appellation
given to these widely difterent and quite dissimilar plants, LiniioBus, in
1737, restoring the classical Greek name, called it Conium maculatum.^
Hemlock was used in Anglo-Saxon medicine. It is mentioned as
early as the 10th century in the vocabulary of Alfric, archbishop of
Canterbury, as " Cicatd, hemlic,"'' and also in the Meddygon Myddfai.
Hemlock is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words " hem," border, shore,
and " leac " leek. Its use in modern medicine is due chiefly to the
recommendation of Storck of Vienna, since whose time (1760) the plant
has been much employed. The extreme uncertainty and even inertness
of its preparations, which had long been known to physicians and had
caused its rejection by many, have been recently investigated by
Harley.'' The careful experiments of this physician show what are the
real powers of the drug, and by what method its active properties may
be utilized.
Description — The fruit has the structure usual to the order ; it is
broadly ovoid, somewhat compresseu laterally, and constricted towards
the commissure, attenuated towards the apex, which is crowned with a
depressed stylopodium. As met with in the shops, it consists of the
separated mericarps which are about \ of an inch long. Tlie dorsal
surface of these has 5 prominent longitudinal ridges, the edges of which
are marked with little protuberances giving them a jagged or crenate
outline, which is most conspicuous before the fruits are fully ripe. The
furrows are glabrous but slightly wrinkled longitudinally ; they are
' See Imbert-Gourbeyre, De la mart de
Socrate par la CkjuH, Paris, 1876.
- An extensive paper has been devoted
by Albert Regel to the History of Conium
and Cic'ita in the Bulletin de la Soc. imp. des
^''aturalides de Mohcou, tome li. (1876,
first part) 155-203 and lii. (1877) first part,
1-52.
' Volume of Vocabularies, edited by
Wright, 1857. 31.
^Pharm. Journ. viii. (1867) 460-710; ix.
(1868) 53.
300
UMBELLIFERiE.
devoid of vitte. When a mericarp is cut transversely, the seed exhibits
a reniform outline, due to a deep furrow in the albumen on the side of
the commissure.
The fruits of hemlock are dull greenish grey, and ha.ve but little
taste and smell ; but when triturated with a solution of caustic alkali
they evolve a strong and offensive odour.
Microscopic Structure — Hemlock fruits differ from other fruits
of the order by the absence of vittaj.^ In the endocarp, there is a
peculiar layer of small nearly cubic cells surrounding the albumen.
The cells of the endocarp ai'e loaded with a brown liquid consisting
chiefly of conine and essential oil.
Chemical Composition — The most important constituent of the
fruits of hemlock Conine or Conia, C'H'^NH, a limpid colourless oily
fluid, 0 846 sp. gr. at 12°"o C. It has a strong alkaline reaction, and boils
at 170°C. in an atmosphere devoid of oxygen, without decomposition. It
was first observed by Giseke at Eisleben, Saxony, in 1827, recognized
as an alkaloid by Geiger in 1831, and moi^e amply studied by Wertheim
in 1856 and 1862. To obtain it, an alcoholic extract is submitted to dis-
tillationwith a little slaked lime. The product should be neutralized with
oxalic acid, and the oxalate of conine removed by absolute alcohol mixed
with a little ether, oxalate of ammonium being insoluble. The oxalate
of the alkaloid shaken with caustic lye and ether, affords the conine, on
evaporating the solvent and distilling the alkaloid in a current of dry
hydrogen. In the plant it is combined with an acid (malic?), and ac-
companied by ammonia, as well as by a second, less poisonous crystalliz-
able base, called ConJtyclrine, C^ff'NO, which may be converted into
conine by abstraction of the elements of water. From these alkaloids a
liquid non-poisonous hydrocarbon, Conylene, C^H", has been separated
by Wertheim. Even in nature one hydrogen atom of conine is fre-
quently replaced by methyl, CH^; and commercial conine commonly con-
tains, as shown by A. von Planta and Kekule, methyl-conine, C'^H'^'NCHl
Lastly there is present in hemlock fruits a third alkaloid having pro-
bably the composition C'H^'N.
As to the yield of conine, it varies according to the development of
the fruits, but it is at best only about I per cent. According to Schrofl'
(1870), the fruits are most active just before maturity, provided they are
gathered from the biennial plant. At a later stage, conine is probably
partly transformed into conhydrine, which however is present in but
very small proportion, — about 1| per mille at most.
In its deleterious action, conine resembles nicotine, but is much less
powerful.
Schiff (1871-1872) has artificially produced an alkaloid partaking of
the general properties of conine, and having the same composition ;
but it is optically indifferent. Conine, on the other hand, we find turns
the plane of polarization to the right.
The fruits of hemlock contain also a volatile oil which appears devoid
of poisonous properties ; it exists in but small quantity and has not yet
been fully examined.
Uses — The fruits of hemlock are the only convenient source of the
alkaloid conine. They were introduced into British medicine in 1864, as a
' See Moynier de Vilk>2'>oix, Aiinales dcs Sciences nnturelkts, Botaniqiie, v. (1878) 348.
FOLIA CONII.
301
substitute for the dried leaf in makin^^ the tincture. But it has been
shown that a tincture, whether of leaf or fruit, is a preparation of very
small value, and that it is far inferior to the preserved juice of tlie
herb. It has however been pointed out by W. jNIanliiis Smith/ and
his observations have been confirmed by Harley," that the green unripe
fruits possess more than any other jiart the peculiar energies of the
"plant, and tliat tliey may even be dried without loss of activity. A
medicinal fluid extract of considerable power has been made from them
by Squibb of New York.
FOLIA CONII.
Hemlock Leaves ; F. Feuilles de Cigue ; G. Schierlingshldtter.
Botanical Origin — Conium niaculatum L., see p. 299.
History— See p. 299.
Description — Hemlock in its first year produces only a tuft of
leaves ; but in its second a stout erect stem which often grows to the
height of 5 or 9 feet, is much branched in itsu])per part, and terminates
in small umbels, each having about 12 rays. The lower leaves, often a
foot in length, have a triangular outline, and a hollow stalk as long as
the lamina, clasping the stem at its base with a membi-anous sheath.
Towards the upper portion of the plant, the leaves have shorter stalks,
are less divided, and are opposite or in cohorts of 3 to 5. The involucral
bracts are lanceolate, reflexed, and about a | of an inch long. Those of
the partial umbel are turned towards the outside, and are always 3 in
number. The larger leaves are twice or thrice pinnate, the ultimate
segments being ovate-oblong, acute, and deeply incised.
The stem is cylindrical and hollow, of a glaucous green, genei'ally
marked on its lower part with reddish-brown spots. The leaves are of
a dull dai"k green, and like the rest of the plant quite glabrous. They
have when bruised a disagreeable foetid smell.
For medicinal purposes the plant should be taken when in full
blossom.^
Chemical Composition — The leaves of hemlock contain, though
in exceedingly small proportion, the same alkaloids as the fruits. Geiger
obtained from the fresh herb not so much as one ten-thousandth part of
Conine. It is probable however that the active constituents vary in
proportion considerably, and that a dry and sunny climate promotes
their development.
The same observer, as well as Pereira, has pointed out that hemlock
leaves when dried are very frequently almost devoid of conine, and the
observation is supported by the more recent experimentsofHarley (1867).
It has also been shown by the last-named physician, that the inspissated
juice known in pharmacy as Exiractum Gonii usually contains but a
mere trace of alkaloid, the latter having in fact been dissipated by theheat
1 Tran.i. of the Nciv York State Mediml
Societii for 1867.
'■^ The old Veijetable Xeitroticfi, Lond. 1869.
^ The London herbalists often collect it
while much of the inflorescence is still in
bud, in which state it affords far more of
leaf than when well matured ; but it is in
the latter condition that the j)lant is to l)e
preferred.
302
UMBELLIFER^.
employed in reducing the juice to the required consistence. On the
other hand, Harley has proved that the juice of fresh hemlock preserved
hy the addition of spirit of wine, as in the Succus Conii of the Pharma-
copoeia, possesses in an eminent degree the poisonous properties of
the plant.
The entire amount of nitrogen in dried hemlock leaves was estimated
by Wrightson (1845) at G'8 per cent. ; tlie ash at 12"8 per cent. The
latter consists mainly of salts of pota.ssium, sodium, and calcium,
especially of sodium chloride and calcium phosphate.
A ferment-oil may be obtained from Gonium ; it is stated to have
an odour unlike that of the plant and a burning taste, and not to be
poisonous.^
Uses — Hemlock administered in the form of Succus Conii, has a
peculiar sedative action on the motor nerves, on account of which it is
occasionally prescribed. It was formerly much more employed than at
present, although the preparations used were so defective that they could
rarely have produced the specific action of the medicine.
Plants liable to be confounded with Hemlock — Several common
plants of the order Umhell iferce have a superficial resemblance to Gonium,
but can be discriminated by characters easy of observation. One of these
is jEilmsa Gyvajtiuvi L. or Fool's Pdrsley, a common annual garden weed,
of much smaller stature than hemlock. It may be known by its primary
umbel having no involucre, and by its partial umbel having an in-
volucel of 2 or 3 linear penduloias bracts. The ridges of its fruit more-
over are not wavy or crenate as in hemlock, nor is its stem spotted.
Cheer ophy Hum Anthriscus L. (Anthrisctis vulgaris Pers.) and two
or three other species of ClLCtropliyllum have the lower leaves not un-
like those of hemlock, but they ai'e pubescent or ciliated. The fruits
too are linear-ohlong, and thus very dissimilar from those of Gonium.
The latter plant is in fact clearly distinguished by its smooth spotted
stem, the character of its involucral bracts and fruit, and finally by the
circumstance that when triturated with a few drops of solution of caustic
alkali, it evolves conine (and ammonia), easily observable as a white
fume when a rod moistened with strong acetic acid is held over the
mortar.
FRUCTUS AJOWAN.
Semen Ajavce vel Ajouain ; Ajowan, True Bishop's tveed.
Botanical Origin — Carum Ajoiuan Bentham et Hooker {Ammi
copticum L. Ftychoils coptica et Pt. Ajowan DC.) — an erect annual
herb, cultivated in Egypt and Persia, and especially in India where it
is well known as Ajvan or Omam.
History — The minute spicy fruits of the above-named plant have
been used in India from a remote period, as we may infer from their
being mentioned in Sanskrit writings, as, for instance, by the gram-
marian Panini, in the third century B.C. (or later ? ), and in Susruta.
Owing to their having been confounded with some other very small
umbelliferous fruits, it is difficult to trace them precisely in many of the
Gmelin, Chemistrij, xiv. 405.
FRUCTUS AJOWAN.
303
older writers on materia inedica. It is however probable that they are
the Arnriii which Anguillara' met with in 1549 at Venice, where it had
then, exceptionally, been imported in small quantity from Alexandria.
It is also, we sup|)ose, the Ammi j)erpiLs'dliim of Lobel (1571), in whose
time the drug was likewise imported from Egypt, as well as the Ammi
(dtenim 2^(('i'vum, the seed of which Dodonaius (1583) mentions as
being " minutissimum, acre et fervidum." Dale," who says it is brought
from Alexandria, reports it as very scarce in the London shops. Under
the name of Ajave Seeds:, the drug was again brought into notice in
1773 by Percival,^ who received a small quantity of it from Malabar as
a remedy for cholic ; and still more recently, it has been favourably'
spoken of by Fleming, Ainslie, Roxburgh, O'Shaughnessy, Waring and
other writers who have treated of Indian materia medica.
Description — Ajowan fruits, like those of other cultivated Umhelli-
feixe, vary somewhat in size and form. The lai'gest kind much re-
semble those of parsley, being of about the same shape and weight.
The length of the large fruits is about ^o, of the smaller form scarcely
yV of an inch. The fruits ai-e greyish brown, })lump, very rough on the
surface, owing to numerous minute tubercles (frudus muricidatus).
Each mericarp has five prominent ridges, the intervening channels
being dark brown, with a single vitta in each. The comrais.sural side
bears two vittse. The fruits when rubbed exhale a str.mg odour of
thyme (Thymtis vulgaris L.), and have a biting aromatic taste.
Microscopic Structure — The oil-ducts of ajowan are ver}' large,
often attaining a diameter of 200 mkm. The ridges contain numerous
spii'al vessels ; the blunt tubercles of the epidermis are of the same
structure as those in anise, but comparatively largei- and not pointed.
The tissue of the albumen exhibits numerous crystalloid grarmles of
albuminous matter (aleuron), distinctly observable in polarized light.
Chemical Composition — The fruits on an average afford from 4 to
4'5 per cent, of an agreeable aromatic, volatile oil ; at the same time
there often collects on the surfjice of the distilled water a crystalline
substance, which is prepared at Oojein and elsewhere in Central India,
by exposing the oil to spontaneous evaporation at a low temperature.
This stearoptene, sold in the shops of Poona and other places of the
Deccan, under the name of Ajivain-ka-2')liid, i.e. Jiowers of ajtvain, was
showed by Stenhouse (1855) and by Haines (1856) to be identical with
rOH
Thymol, Cff-I CH^ , as contained in Thymus vulgaris.
We obtained it by exposing oil of our own distillation, first rectified
from chloride of calcium, to a temperature of 0° (J., when the oil de-
posited 36 per cent, of thymol in superb tabular crystals, an inch or
more in length. The liquid portion, even after long exposure to a cold
some degrees below the freezing point, yielded no further crop. We
found the thymol thus obtained began to melt at 44° C, yet using
somewhat larger quantities, it appeared to require fully 51° C. for com-
plete fusion. On cooling, it continues fluid for a long time, and only
recrystallizes when a crystal of thymol is projected into it.
^ Semplici, Vinegia, 1561. 130. ^Essays, Medical and Experimental, ii.
- Pharmacologia, 1693. 211. (1773) 226.
304
UMBELLIFERiE.
Thymol is more conveniently and completely extracted from the
oil by shaking it repeatedly with caustic lye, and neutralizing the
latter.
The oil of ajowan, from which the thymol has been removed, boils
at about 172°, and contains cymene (or cymol), C'"H", which, with con-
centrated sulphuiic acid, afibrds cyraen-sulphonic acid, C'"H"SO'()H.
The latter is not very readily crystallizable, but forms crystallized salts
with baryum, calcium, zinc, lead, which are abundantly soluble in water.
In the oil of ajowan no constituent of the formula C"*H^'' appears to be
present ; mixed with alcohol and nitric acid (see p. 279) it at least pro-
duces no crystals of tcrpin.
The residual portions of the oil, from which the cymene has been
distilled, contains another substance of the phenol class different from
thymol.
We have found that neither the thymol nor the liquid part of
ajowan oil possesses any rotatory power.
Uses — Ajowan is much used by the natives of India as a condi-
ment.' The distilled water which has been introduced into the Pharma-
copoeia of India, is reputed to be carminative, and a good vehicle for
nauseous medicines. It has a powerful burning taste, and would seem
to require dilution. The volatile oil may be used in the place of oil of
thyme, which it closely resembles.
Ajowan seeds are largely imported into Europe since thymol has
been universally introduced into medical practice (see Folia Thymi).
The}^ have proved much more remunerative for the manufacture of
thymol than Thymus vulgaris. The largest quantities, we believe, of
thymol have been made from ajowan at Leipzig.
Substitutes — Under the name Semen Ammi, the very small fruits
of Amm'h ma jus L. and of Sison Amomum L. have been often con-
founded with those of Ajowan ; but the absence of hairs on the two
former, not to mention some other diff'erences, is sufficient to negative
any supposition of identity.
The seeds of Hyoscyamus niger L. being called in India Khordsdni-
ajwdn, a confusion might arise between them and true ajowan ; though
the slightest examination would suffice to show the difference."
FRUCTUS CARUI.
Semen Carui vel Carvi ; Caraivay Fruits, Caraway Seeds, Caraways ;
F. Fruits ou Semences de Carvi ; G. Kiimmel.
Botanical Origin — Garum Carvi L., an erect annual or biennial
plant not unlike a carrot, growing in meadows and moist grassy land
over the northern and midland parts of Europe and Asia, but to what
extent truly wild cannot be always ascertained.
It is much cultivated in Iceland, and is also apparently wild.^ It
grows throughout Scandinavia, in Finland, Arctic, Central, and
1 Roxburgh, Flor. Ltd. ii. (1832) 91.
2 To such a mistake may probably be re-
ferred the statement of Irvine {Account of
the Mat. Med. of Patna, 1848, p. G) that
the seeds of henbane are " used in food as
carminative and stimulant " !
^ Babington in Journ. of Linn. Sgc,
Bot. xi. (1871) 310.
FRTJCTUS CARTTI.
305
Southern Russia, Persia, and in Siberia. It appears as a wild plant in
many pai'ts of Britain (Lincolnshire and Yorkshire), but is also culti-
vated in fields, and may not be strictly indigenous. The caraway is
found throughout the eastern part of France, in the Pyrenees, Spain,
Central Europe, Armenia, and the Caucasian provinces ; and it grows
wild largely in the high alpine region of Lahul, in the Western
Himala^'a.'
But the most curious fact in the distribution of Carum Carvi is its
occurrence in Morocco, where it is largely cultivated about El Araiche,
and round the city of Morocco." The plant differs somewhat from that
of Europe ; it is an annual with a single erect stem, 4 feet high. Its
foliage is more divided, and its flowers larger, with shorter styles and
on more spreading umbels than the common caraway, and its fruit is
more elongated.*
History — The opinion that this plant is the Ka'/oo? of Dioscorides,
and that, as Pliny states, it derived its name from Caria (where it has
never been met with in modern times) has very reasonably been
doubted.*
Cai'away fruits were known to the Arabians, who called them
Karaivya, a name they still bear in the East, and the original of our
words cavatvay and carui, as well as of the Spanish alcaraliueya. In
the description of Morocco by Edrisi,^ 12th century, it is stated that
the inhabitants of Sidjilmasa (the south-eastern province) cultivate
cotton, cumin, caraiuay, henna {Latusonia alba Lamarck). In the
Arab writings quoted by Ibn Baytar,'' himself a Mauro-Spaniard of the
13th century, caraway is compared to cumin and anise. The spice
probably came into use about this period. It is not noticed by St.
Isidore, archbishop of Seville in the 7th century, though he mentions
fennel, dill, coriander, anise, and parsley ; nor is it named by St.
Hildegard in Germany in the 12th century. Neither have we found
any reference to it in the Anglo-Saxon Herha rium of Apuleius, written
civca A.D. 1050,'' or in other works of the same period, though cumin,
anise, fennel, and dill are all mentioned.
On the other hand, in two German medicine-books of the 12th and
13th centuries* there occurs the word Cumich, which is still the popular
name of caraway, in Southern Germany ; and Cumin is also mentioned.
In the same period the seeds appear to have been used by the Welsh
physicians of Myddvai." Caraway was certainly in use in England at
the close of the 14th century, as it figures with coriander, pepper and
garlick in the Form of Cury, a roll of ancient English cookery com-
piled by the master-cooks of Richard II. about A.D. 1390.
The oriental names of caraway show that as a spice it is not a
production of the East : — thus we find it termed Roman (i.e. Euro2Jean),
Armenian, mountain, or foreign Cumin; Persian or Andalusian
' Aitchison in /ott?7i. of Linn. Soc, Bot., trad, par Dozy et M. J. de Goeje, Leyde,
X. (1869) 76. 94. 1866, 75. 97. 150.
^ Leared in Pharm. Journ. Feb. 8, 1873. ^ Sontheimer's translation, ii. .368.
623. '' Leechdoms, etc, of Early England, i.
have cultivated the Morocco plant in (1864).
1872 and 1873 by the side of the common ^Pfeiffer, Zvk'i deutsche Arzneibiicher aris
form. — D. H. dem xii. und. xiii. Jahrhundert, Wien 1863.
■'Dierbach, Flora Apiciana, 1831. 53. 14.
^ Description de rAfriqve et de VE^tpagne ^ Meddygon Myddfai, 158. 354.
U
306
UMBELLIFERiE.
Caraway ; or foreign Anise. And though it is now sold in the Indian
bazaars, its name does not occur in the earlier lists of Indian spices.
Cultivation^ — In England, the caraway is cultivated exclusively in
Kent and Essex, on clay lands. It was formerly sown mixed with
coriander and teazel seed, but now with the former only. The plant,
which requires the most diligent and careful cultivation, yields in its
second year a crop which is ready for harvesting in the beginning of
July. It is cut with a hook at about a foot from the ground, and a few
days afterwards may be thrashed. The produce is very variable, but
may be stated at 4 to 8 cwt. per acre.
Description — The fruits, which in structure correspond to those of
other plants of the order, are laterally compressed and ovate. The
mericarps which hang loosely suspended from the arms of the carpo-
phore, are in the English drug about ^ of an inch in length and in
diameter, subcylindrical, slightly arched, and tipped with the conical,
shrivelled stylopodium. They are marked with five pale ridges, nearly
half as broad as the shining, dark brown furrows, each of which is
furnished with a conspicuous vitta; a pair of vittse sepai'ated from
each other by a comparatively thin fibro-vascular bundle, occurs on the
commissure.
Caraways are somewhat horny and translucent ; when bruised, they
evolve an agreeable fragrance resembling that of dill, and they have a
pleasant spicy taste. In the London market, they are distinguished as
English, Dutch, German, and Mogador, the first sort fetching the
highest pi'ice. The fruit varies in size, tint and flavour ; the English
is shorter and plumper than the others ; the Mogador is paler, stalky,
and elongated — often of an inch in length.
Microscopic Structure — Caraways are especially distinguished by
their enormous vittse, which in transverse section display a triangular
outline, the largest diameter, i.e. the base of the triangle, often attaining
as much as 300 mkm. Even those of the commissure are usually not
smaller.
Chemical Composition — Caraways contain a volatile oil, which
the Dutch drug afibrds to the extent of o'5 per cent., that grown in
Germany to the amount of 7 per cent." ; in Norway 5'8 per cent, have
also been obtained from indigenous caraways.^ The position and size
of the vittse account for the fact that comminution of the fruits previous
to distillation, does not increase the yield of oil.
Volckel (1840) showed that the oil is a mixture of a hydrocarbon
C^'H'^ and an oxygenated oil, C^"H"0. Berzelius subsequently termed
the former Carvene and the latter Carvol.
Carvene, constituting about one third of the crude oil, boils at 173°
C, and forms with dry hydrochloric gas crystals of C"ff'' + 2HC1. It
has been ascertained by us that carvene, as well as carvol, has a dextro-
gyrate power, that of carvene being considerably the stronger; there
ai'e probably not many liquids exhibiting a stronger dextrogyrate rota-
tion. Carvene is of a weaker odour than carvol, from which it has not
yet been absolutely deprived ; perfectly pure carvene would no doubt
1 Morton, Cyclop, of Agriculture, i. (1855) Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig.
390. ^ Schiibeler, PJlanzenwelt Norwegens.
2 Information obligingly sujiplied by Christiania, 1863-1875. 85.
FRUCTUS CARUI.
:307
prove no longer to possess the specific odour of the drug. By distilling
it over sodium it acquires a rather pleasant odour ; its spec. gr. at 15°
C. is equal to O'SOl.
Carvol at 20° C. has a sp. gr. of 0-953 ; it boils at 224° 0. ; the
same oil appears to occur in dill (see Fructus Anethi), and an oil of the
same percental constitution is yielded by the spearmint. The latter
however deviates the plane of polarization to the left. If 4 parts of
carvol, either from caraways, dill, or spearmint, are mixed with 1 part
of alcohol, sp. gr. O'SSO, and saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen,
crystals of (C^''H"C)"SH^ are at once formed as soon as a little ammonia
is added.^
Oil of caraway of inferior quality is obtained from the refuse of the
fruit ; we find it less dextrogyrate than the oil from the fruits alone ;
this is due to the admixture of oil of turpentine before distilling.
If the carvol is distilled there remains in the still a thickish residue,
from which a substance of the phenol class may be extracted by
caustic lye.
Oil of caraway distilled in England from home-grown caraways is
preferred in this country. On the Continent, that extracted from the
caraways of Halle and Holland is considered to be of finer flavour than
the oil obtained from those of Southern Germany.
The immature fruit of caraway is rich in tannic matter, striking blue
with a salt of iron. It occurs abundantly in the tissue around the oil-
ducts, where the presence of sugar may be also detected by alkaline
tartrate of copper. Sugar occurs likewise in the embryo, but not in the
albumen, in which latter protein substances predominate.
Production and Commerce — Caraways are exported from Fin-
mark, the most northerly province of Norway ; from Finland and
Russia. In Germany, the cultivation, recommended by Gleditsch in
1776, is now largely carried on in Moravia, and in Prussia, especially
in the neighbourhood of Halle. The districts of Erfurt and Merseburg,
also in Prussia, are stated to yield annually about 30,000 cwt. Dutch
caraways are produced in the provinces of North Holland, Gelderland
and Noi'th Brabant, in the latter two from wild plants.^ Caraways are
frequently shipped from the ports of Morocco ; the quantity exported
thence in 1872 was 952 cwt. and 288 cwt. in 1875.^
The import of caraways into the United Kingdom in 1870 amounted
to 19,160 cwt., almost all being from Holland.
The essential oil is manufactured oa a large scale. According to a
statement of the Chamber of Commei'ce of Leipzig,* four establishments
of that district produced in 1872 no less a quantity than 30,955 kilo.
(68,277 lb.), valued at £24,000.
Uses — Caraway in the form of essential oil or distilled water is used
in medicine as an aromatic stimulant, or as a flavouring ingredient.
But the consumption in Europe is far more important as a spice, in
bread, cakes, cheese, pastry, confectionary, sauces, etc., or in the form of
oil as an ingredient of alcoholic liquors. The oil is also used for the
scenting of soap.
' Pliarm. Joiirn. vii. (1876) 75. ^ Consular Eeports, 1873 and 1876.
- Oudemans, Aanteekeningen, etc., Eot- * Pharmaceiitische Zcitung, 15tli April
terdam, 1854-1856. 351. 1874.
308
UMBELLIFER^.
FRUCTUS FCENICULI.
Fennel Fruits, Fennel Seeds ; F. Fruits de Fenouil ; G. Fenchel.
Botanical Origin — Fceniculum vulgare Gartn. (Anetkum Fceni-
cidum L.), an erect, branching plant with an herbaceous stem and
perennial rootstock, growing to the height of 3 or 4 feet, having leaves
3 or 3 times pinnate with narrow linear segments. In allusion to the
latter the plant had also been named Fceniculum capillaceum by
Gilibert.
It appears to be truly indigenous to the countries extending from
the Caspian regions (or even China?) to the Mediterranean and the Greek
Peninsula, but is a doubtful native in many parts of Central and
Southern Russia. The plant on the other hand is also found apparently
wild, over a large portion of Western Eui'ope as far as the British Isles,
especially in the vicinity of the sea.
Fennel is largely cultivated in the central parts of Europe, as Saxony,
Franconia and Wurtemberg, also in the South of France about Nimes,
and in Italy. It is extensively grown in India and China. The Indian
plant is an annual of somewhat low stature.'
The plant varies in stature, foliage, and in the size and form of its
fruits ; but all the forms belong apparently to a single species.
History — Fennel was used by the ancient Romans, as well for its aro-
matic fruits, as for its edible succulent shoots. It was also employed in
Northern Europe at a remote period, as it is cons tan tlj'' mentioned in
the Anglo-Saxon medical receipts, which date as early at least as the
11th century. The diffusion of the plant in Central Europe was stimu-
lated by Charlemagne, who enjoined its cultivation on the imperial
farms. Fennel shoots {turiones foenuculi), fennel water, and fennel seed,
as well as anise, are all mentioned in an ancient record ^ of Spanish agri-
culture dating A.D. 961.
Description — The fennel fruits of commerce, commonly called
Fennel Seeds, are of several kinds and of very different pecuniary value.
The following are the principal sorts : —
1. Stveet Fennel, — known also as Roman Fennel, is cultivated in the
neighbourhood of Nimes in the south of France. The plant is a tall
perennial with large umbels of 25 to 30 rays.^ As the plants grow old,
the fruits of each succeeding season gradually change in shape and
diminish in size, till at the end of 4 or 5 years they are hardly to be
distinguished from those of the wild fennel growing in the same district.
This curious fact, remarked by Tabernsemontanus (1588), was experi-
mentally proved by Guibourt.*
The fruits of Sweet Fennel as found in the shops are oblong,
cylindrical, about ^ of an inch in length by in diameter, more or less
arched, terminating with the two-pointed base of the style, and smooth
1 It is an annual even in England, ripen-
ing seeds in its first year, and then dying.
^ Le Galendrkr de Cordoiie de Vanni^e,
961, publish par R. Dozy, Leyde, 1873.
^ The Nimes fennel has been usually re-
ferred to Fcenkidiim didce DC, but that
plant has the stem compressed at the base,
and only 6 to 8 rays in the umbel ; and is
the fennel which is eaten as a vegetable or
as a salad.
■^Hist. des Brogues, iii. (1869) 233.
FRUCTUS F(ENICUL1.
309
on the surface. Each mericarp is marked by 5 prominent ridges, the
lateral being thicker than the dorsal. Between the ridges lie vittje,
and there are two vitt;B on the commissural surface, — all filled with
dark oily matter. The fruits seen in bulk have a pale greenish
hue; their odour is aromatic, and they have a pleasant, saccharine,
spicy taste.
2. German Fennel, Saxon Fennel, produced especially near Weissen-
fels in the Prussian pi-ovince of Saxony ; the fruits are to \ of an
inch long, ovoid-oblong, a little compressed latei'ally, slightly cm-ved,
terminating in a short conical stylopodium ; they are glabrous, of a
deep brown, each mericarp marked with 5 conspicuous pale ridges, of
which the lateral are the largest. Seen in bulk, the fruits have a
greenish brown hue ; they have an aromatic saccharine taste, with the
peculiar smell of fennel.
3. Wild or Bitter Fennel (Fenoml aruer), collected in the south of
France, where the plant grows without cultivation. They are smaller
and broader than those of the German Fennel, being from 1 to of an
inch long by about J. of an inch wide. They have less prominent ridges
and at maturity are a little scurfy in the furrows and on the commissure.
Their taste is bitterish, spicy, and stroiigly fennel-like. The essential
oil (Essence de Fenoml amer) is distilled from the entire herb.
4. Indian Fennel. — A sample in our possession from Bombay
I'esembles Sweet Fennel, but the fruits are not so long, and are usually
straight. The mother-plant of this drug is F. Panmorium DC, now
regarded as a simple variety of F. vulgare Gartn.
Microscopic Structure — The most marked peculiarity of fennel is
exhibited by the vitta3, which arc surrounded by a brown tissue. The
latter is made up of cells resembling the usual form of cork-cells. In
Sweet Fennel the vittae are smaller than in the German fruit ; in the
transverse section of the latter, the largest diameter of these ducts is
about 200 mkm.
Chemical Composition — The most important constituent of
fennel fruits is the volatile oil, which is afforded both by the Sweet
and the German fennel to the extent of about 3| per cent.
Oil of fennel, from whatever variety of the drug obtained, consists of
f OCH^
Anethol (or Anise-camphor) CH^ \ CHCH^ ' variable but less
considerable proportions of an oil, isomeric with oil of turpentine.
Anethol is obtainable from fennel in two forms, the solid and the
liquid ; crystals of the former are deposited when the oil is subjected
to a somewhat low temperature ; the liquid anethol may be got by
collecting the portion of the crude oil passing over at 225° C. The
crystals of anethol fuse between IG and 2()° ; the liquid form of
anethol remains fluid even at — 10° C. By long keeping, the crystals
slowly become liquid and lose their power of reassuming a crystal-
line form.
Three varieties of oil of fennel are found in commerce, namely the
oils of Sweet Fennel and Bitter Fennel ofiered by the drug-houses of
the south of France ; their money value is as 3 to 1, the oil of sweet
fennel, which has a decidedly siveet taste, being by far the most
esteemed. The third variety is obtained from Saxon fennel, especially
310
UMBELLIFER^.
by the manufacturers of Dresden and Leipzig/ We have been supplied
with type-specimens of the first two oils by the distillers, Messrs. J.
Sagnier, fils, & Cie., Nimes ; a specimen of the third has been distilled
in the laboratoiy of one of ourselves.
Oil of fennel differs from that of anise by displaying a considerable
rotatory power. We found the above-mentioned specimens, examined
in a column 50 mm. long, to deviate the ray of polarized light to the
right thus : —
Oil of Sweet Fennel 29° "8
,, Bitter ,, 4° -8
,, German ,, ...... 9°'l
The rotatory power is due to the hydrocarbon contained in the oil ;
we ascertain that anethol from oil of anise is devoid of it.
Fennel fruits contain sugar, yet their sweetness or bitterness depends
on the essential oil rather than on the presence of that body. The
albumen of the seed contains fixed oil, which amounts to about 12 per
cent, of the fruit.
Uses — Fennel fruits are used in medicine in the form of distilled
water and volatile oil, but to no considerable extent. The chief con-
sumption is in cattle medicines, and of the oil in the manufacture of
cordials.
FRUCTUS ANISI.
Anise, Aniseed; F. Fruits d'Anis vert; G. Anis.
Botanical Origin — Pimpinella Anisum L., an annual plant, is
indigenous to Asia Minor, the Greek Islands and Egypt, but nowhere
to be met with undoubtedly growing wild. It is now also cultivated
in many parts of Europe where the summer is hot enough for ripening
its fruits, as well as in India and South America. It is not grown in
Britain.
History — Anise, which the ancients obtained chiefly from Crete and
Egypt, is among the oldest of medicines and spices.^ It is mentioned
by Theophrastus, by the later writers Dioscorides and Pliny, as well as
by Edrisi,^ who enumerates anise " sorte de graine douce " among the
products of Tunisia. In Europe we find that Charlemagne (a.d. 812)
commanded that anise should be cultivated on the imperial farms in
Germany. The Anglo-Saxon writings contain frequent allusions to the
use of dill and cumin, but we have failed to find in them any reference
to anise, nor in the Meddygon Myddfai.
The Patent of Pontage granted by Edward I. in 1305 to raise funds
for repairing the Bridge of London,* enumerates Anise ( anisium) among
the commodities liable to toll. There are entries for it under the name
of Annis vert in the account of the expenses of John, king of France,
during his abode in England, 1359-60;^ and it is one of the spices of
which the Grocers' Company of London had the weighing and oversight
^ The Leipzig Chamber of Commerce re-
ports the quantity made by four establish-
ments in 1872, as 4350 kilo. (9594 ft.).
^ On the Anise of the Bible, see note in
our article Fructus Anethi.
'Page 150 of the "Description," etc..
qvioted in the article Fructus Cainii, p. 305,
note 5.
■* [Thomson, R.], Chronicles of London
Bridge, 1827. 156.
' Dotiet d'Arcq, Comptes de V Argenterie
des Rois de France, 1851. 206. 220.
FRUCTUS ANISI.
311
from 1453.' By the Wardrvhe Accounts of Eilwavd IV., a.d. 1480,2 it
appears that the royal linen was perfumed by means of " lytill bagges
of fustian stuffed with ireos and amwys!'
Anise seems to have been grown in England as a potherb prior to
1542, for Boorde in his Dyetary of Helth, printed in that year,^ says of
it and fennel, — " these herbes be seldom vsed, but theyr seedes be greatly
occupj'de."
In common with all other foreign commodities, anise was enormously
taxed during the reign of Charles I., the duties levied upon it amounting
to 75s. per 112 ft.'
Description — Anise fruits, which have the usual characters ot the
order, are about 3% of an inch in length, mostly undivided and attached
to a slender pedicel. They are of ovoid form, tapering towards the
summit, which is crowned by a pair of short styles rising from a thick
stylopode; they are nearly cylindrical, but a little constricted towards the
commissure. Each fruit is marked by 10 light-coloured ridges which
give it a prismatic form ; these as well as the rest of the surface of the
fruit, are clothed with short rough hairs. The drug has a greyish brown
hue, a spicy saccharine taste, and an agreeable aromatic smell.
Microscopic Structure — The most sti-iking peculiarity of anise
fruit is the large number of oil-ducts or vittc^ it contains ; each half of
the fruit exhibits in transverse section nearly 30 oil-ducts, of which the
4 to 6 in the commissure are by far the largest. The hairs display
a simple structure, inasmuch as they are the elongated cells of the
epidermis a little rounded at the end.
Chemical Composition — The only important con.stituent of anise
is the essential oil (Oleum Anisi), which the fruits afford to the extent
of 3 per cent, from the best Moravian sort ; Russian anise yields from
2'5 to 27 per cent., the German 2'3 per cent.^ This oil is a colourless
liquid, having an agreeable odour of anise and a sweetish aromatic
taste ; its sp. gr. varies from 0'977 to 0-983. At 10° to 15° C, it solidi-
fies to a hard crystalline mass, which does not resume its fluidity till
the temperature rises to about 17° C.
Oil of anise resembles the oils of fennel, star-anise, and tarragon, in
that it consists almost wholly of Anethol or Anise-camphor described
in the pi-evious article (p. 309). This fact explains the rotatory power
of oil of anise being inferior to that of fennel. Oil of German anise,
distilled by one of us, examined unde" the conditions stated, page 310,
deviated only 1°'7, but to the left. Franck (1868) found oil of Saxon
anise deviatinc; l°'l to the right.
Production and Commerce — Anise is produced in Malta, about
Alicante in Spain, in Touraine and Guienne in France, in Pugiia
(Southern Italy), in several parts of Northern and Central Germany,
Bohemia and Moravia. The Russian provinces of Orel, Tula and
Woronesh, south of Moscow, also produce excellent anise, and in
Southern Russia, Charkow is likewise known for the production of
^ Herbert, Hist, of the twelve Great Livery
Companies of London, 1834, 310.
2 Edited by N. H. Nicolas, Lond. 1830.
131.
^ Reprinted for the Early English Text
Society, 1870. 281.
■* Rates of Marchandizes, 1635.
^ Laboratory notes obligingly furnished
by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig.
(1878).
312
UMBELLIFER^.
this drug. In Greece, anise is largely cultivated under the name of
yXvKtti/iiTov, and it is much grown in Northern India. Considerable
quantities are also now imported from Chili. The drug is, on the
whole, always of a remarkably uniform appearance.
Uses — Anise is an aromatic stimulant and carminative, usually
administered in the form of essential oil as an adjunct to other medicines.
It is also used as a cattle medicine. The essential oil is largely consumed
in the manufacture of cordials, chiefly in France, Spain, Italy, and South
America.
Adulteration — The fruits of anise are sometimes mixed with those
of hemlock, but whether by design or by carelessness we know not.
Careful inspection with a lens will reveal this dangerous adulteration.
We have known j)oivdevecl anise also to contain hemlock, and have
detected it by trituration in a mortar with a few drops of solution
of potash, a sample of pure anise for comparison being tried at the
same time.
The essential oil of aniseed may readily be confounded with that of
Star-anise, which is distilled from the fruits of the widely different
Illicium anisatum. As stated at p. 22, these oils agree so closely in
their chemical and optical properties, that no scientific means are known
for distinguishing them.
RADIX SUMBUL.
Sv/mbul Root; F. Racine de Sumhid, Sambola ou Sambula ;
G. Moschuswurzel.
Botanical Origin — Fenda Sumbid Hooker fil. (Euryangium
Sumbul Kauffmann^), a tall perennial plant discovered in 1869 by a
Russian traveller, Fedschenko, in the mountains of Maghian near
Pianjakent, in the northern part of the Khanat of Bukhara, nearly 40°
N. lat., and 68° to 69° E. long. From Wittmann's statements (1876)
it would appear that the Sumbul plant abounds far east from that
country, in the coast province of the Amoor. A living plant trans-
mitted from the former district to the Botanical Garden of Moscow
flowered there in 1871, another in 1873 at Kew, where the plant died
after flowering.
History— The word sumbul, which is Arabic and signifies an ear
or spike, is used as the designation of various substances, but especially
of Indian Nard, the rhizome of Nardostachys Jatamansi DC. Under
what circumstances, or at what period, it came to be applied to the
drug under notice, we know not. Nor are we better informed as to
the history of sumbul root, which we have been unable to trace by
means of any of the works at our disposal. All we can say is, that the
drug was first introduced into Russia about the year 1835 as a sub-
stitute for musk, that it was then recommended as a remedy for
cholera, and that it began to be known in Germany in 1840, and ten
years afterwards in England. It was admitted into the British
Pharmacopoeia in 1867.
* Nouv, Mem. de la Soc. imp. des A^af. Also figured in Bentley and Trimen, Med.
de Moscou, xii. (1871) 253. tabb. 24. 25.— Plants, part 20 (1877).
RADIX SUMBUL.
313
Description — The root as found in commerce consists of transverse
slices, 1 to :i inches, rarely as much as 5 inches in diameter, and an inch
or more in thickness ; the bristly crown, and tapering lower portions,
often no thicker than a quill, are also met with. The outside is covered
by a dark papery bark ; the inner surface of the slices is of a dirty brown,
marbled with white, showing when viewed with a lens an abundant
resinous exudation, especially towards the circumference. The interior
is a spongy, iibrous, farinaceous-looking substance, having a pleasant
nuisky odour and a bitter aromatic taste.
Microscopic Structure — The interior tissue of sumbul root is very
irregularly constructed of woody and medullary rays, while the cortical
part exhibits a loose spongy parenchyme. The structui^al peculiarity
of the root becomes obvious, if thin slices are moistened with solution
of iodine, when the medullary rays assume by reason of the starch they
contain an intense blue. The structure of the root differs from the
usual arrangement by the formation of independent secondary cambial
zones with libro-vascular bundles within the original cambium. Similar
peculiarities are also displayed by the roots of Myrrhis odorata, Con-
volvulus Scammonia, Ipomoea Turpethum and others.' Large balsam-
ducts are also observable in Sumbul as well as in the roots of many
other Umbelliferai.2
Chemical Composition — Sumbul root yields about 0 per cent, of
a soft balsamic i-esin soluble in ether, and J per cent, of a dingy bluish
essential oil. The resin has a musky smell, not fully developed until after
contact with water. According to Reinsch (1848), it dissolves in strong
sulphuric acid with a fine blue colour, but in our experience with a
crimson brown. The same chemist states that when subjected to dry
distillation, it yields a blue oil.
Solution of potash is stated to convert the resin of sumbul into a
crystalline potassium salt of Suruhulamic Acid, which latter was ob-
tained in a crystalline state by Reinsch in 1843, but has not been further
examined. Sumbulamic acid, which smells strongly of musk, appears
to be a different substance from Suvihidic or Sumhidolic Acid, the
potassium salt of which may be extracted by water from the above-
mentioned alkaline solution. Ricker and Reinsch (1848), assert that
the last-mentioned acid, of which the root contains about f per cent., is
none other than Angelic Acid, accompanied, as in angelica root, by a
little valerianic acid. All these substances require further investigation,
as well as the body called SumbuUn, which was prepared by Murawjeff
(1853), and is said to form with acids, crystalline salts.
Sommer has shown (1859) that by dry distillation, sumbul resin
yields Umhelliferone, which substance we shall further notice when
describing the constituents of galbanum.
Uses — Prescribed in the form of tincture as a stimulatino- tonic.
Adulteration — Bombay Sumbul, or " Boi," is the root of Dorema
Ammoniacum (see article Ammoniacum, p. 324), which is largely im-
ported into Bombay, being used there in the Parsee fire temples as an
1 See A. de Bary, Anatomie, 1877. 623.
^ The structure and gi-owth of Sumbul
root have been elaborately studied by Tchis-
tiakofF, of whose observations, first pub-
lished in Russian in 1870, an Italian trans-
lation with two plates has appeared in the
JViiovo Giornale Botanico for Oct. 1873.
•298.
31 4- UMBELLIFER^. ^
incense.^ The largest roots, for which we are indebted to Professor
Dymock, are three inches in diameter al the crown, by 8 inches in
length. They are easily distinguished from the Sumbul by their
decidedly yellowish hue as well as by the absence of any musky odour.
We extracted by alcohol, from the root dried at 100° C, 26 per cent, of
a resin identical with that afforded by commercial Ammoniacum.
Bombay Sumbul agrees with the Indian Sumbul as described by
Pereira."
ASAFCETIDA.
Gummi-resina Asafcetida vel Assafcetida; Asafoetida; F. Asafoetida;
G. Asant, Stinkasant.
Botanical Origin — Two perennial umbelliferous plants are now
generally cited as the source of this drug ; but though they are both
capable of affording a gum-resin of strong alliaceous odour, it has not
been proved that either of them furnishes the asafoetida of commerce.
The plants in question are : —
1. Ferida Narthex Boiss. {Ka rtliex- Asafoetida Falconer), a gigantic
hei'baceous plant, having a large root several inches in thickness, the
crown of which is clothed with coarse bristly fibres ; it has an erect
stem attaining 10 feet in height, throwing out from near its base
upwards a regular series of branches bearing compound umbels, each
branch proceeding from the axil of a large sheathing inflated petiole,
the upper of which are destitute of lamina. The radical leaves, 1^ feet
long, are bipinnate with broadly ligulate obtuse lobes. It has a large
flat fruit with winged margin. When wounded, the plant exudes a
milky juice having a powerful smell of asafoetida. Tt commences to
grow in early spring, rapidly throwing up its foliage, which dies away
at the beginning of summer. It does not flower till the root has
acquired a considerable size and is several years old.
F. Narthex, which now exists in several botanic gardens and has
flowered twice in that of Edinburgh, was discovered by Falconer in
1838, in the valley of Astor or Hasora (35° N. lat., 7l°-30 E. long, north
of Kashmir.^
2. Ferida Scorodosma Bentham et Hooker {Scorodosma foetiditm
Bunge; Ferula Assafcetida L. in Boissier, Flora orientalis ii. 994) — In
form of leaf, in the bristly summit of the root, and in general aspect,
this plant resembles the preceding ; but it has the stem (5 to 7 feet
high) nearly naked, with the umbels, which are very numerous, collected
at the summit ; and the few stem-leaves have not the voluminous
sheathing petioles that are so striking a feature in Narthex. In
Narthex, the vittse of the fruit are conspicuous, — in Scorodosma almost
obsolete ; but the development of these organs in feruloid plants varies
considerably, and has been rejected by Bentham and Hooker as afford-
ing no important distinctive character. Scorodosma is apparently
more pubescent than Narthex.
1 Pharm. Journ. vi. (1875) 321. ^ We refrain from citing localities in
-Elements of Mat. Med. ii. p. 2 (1857) Tibet, Beluchistan and Persia, where jjlants
208; also Bentley, P/iarm. /owm. ix. (1878) supposed to agree with that of Falconer
479. have been found by other collectors.
ASAFCETIDA.
315
F. Soorodosma was discovered by Lehmann in 184<1, in the sandy
deserts eastwards of the Sea of Aral, and also on the hills of the
Karatagh range south of the river Zarafshan, — that is to say, south-
east of Samarkand. In 1858-59, it was observed by Bunge about
Herat. At nearly the same period, it was afresh collected between the
Caspian and Sea of Aral, and in the country lying eastward of the
latter, by Borszczow, a Russian botanist, wlio has made it the subject
of an elaborate and valuable memoir.^
The most detailed account of the asafoetida plant we possess is that
of the German traveller Eugelbert Kixmpfer, who in 1G87 observed it in
the Persian province of Laristan, between the river Shur and the town
of Kongun, also in the neighbourhood of the town of Dusgan or Disgun,
in which latter locality - alone he saw the gum-resin collected. He
states that he found the plant also growing near Herat. Kampfer has
given figures of his plant which he calls Asa fuetidd Disgionensis, and
his specimens consisting of remnants of leaves, a couple of mericarps
(in a bad state) and a piece of the stem a few inches long, are still
preserved in the British Museum.
These materials have been the subject of much study, in order to
determine which of the asafoetida plants of modern botanists should be
identified with that of Kampfer. Falconer and Borszczow have arrived
in turns at the conclusion that his own plant accords with Kampfer's.
But Kampfer's figures agree well neither with Navthex nor with Scoro-
dosma. The plant they represent does not form, it would seem, the
branching pyramid of the Nartliex (as it flowered at Edinburgh),
nor has it the multitude of umbels seen in Borszczow's figure of
Scorodosma'^
Whether Kampfer's plant is really identical with either of those we
have noticed, and whether the discrepancies observable are due to care-
less drawing, or to actual difierence, are points that cannot be settled
without the examination of more ample sjjecimens.
Great allowance must be made for the period of growth at which
these plants have been observed. Kampfer saw his plant when quite
mature, and not when its stem was young and flowering. Navthex is
scarcely known except from specimens grown at Edinburgh, those ob-
tained by Falconer in Tibet having been gathered when dry and
withered. Even Borszczow's plant appears never to have been seen by
any botanist while its flower-stem was in a growing state.
History — Whether the substance which the ancients called Laser
was the same as the modern Aasafa;tida, is a question that has been
often discussed during the last three hundred years, and it is one upon
which we shall attempt to ofier no further evidence. Suffice it to say
that Laser is mentioned along with products of India and Persia, among
the articles on which duty was levied at the Roman custom house of
Alexandria in the 2nd century.
" Hingv,," doubtless meaniflg Asafoetida, occurs in many Sanskrit
works, especially in epic poetry, but also in Susruta.
^ Die Pharmaceidiscli-wicldigenFeriilaceen
der Aralo-Casinnchen Wiiste, St. Petersb.
1860, pp. 40, eight plates.— In the Medi-
cinal plants of Bentley and Trimen, Nar-
thex is figured in part 29 and Scoro-
dosma in part 24.
- Which we cannot find on any map.
^ Kiimpfer figures his plant with about 6
umbels on a stalk, while Scorodosnia, as
represented by Borszczow, has at least 25.
316
UMBELLIFER^.
Asafoetida was certainly known to the Arabian and Persian geo-
graphers and travellers of the middle ages. One of these, Ali Istakhri,
a native of Istakir, the ancient Persepolis, who lived in the 10th century,
states' that it produced abundantly in the desert between Sistan and
Makran, and is much used by the people as a condiment. The region
in question comprises a portion of Beluchistan.
The geogi'apher Edrisi,- who wrote about the middle of the 12th
century, asserts that asafoetida, called in Arabic Hiltit, is collected
largely in a district of Afghanistan near Kaleh Bust, at the junction of
the Helmand with the Arghundab, a locality still producing the drug.
Other Arabian writers as quoted by Ibn Baytar,^ describe asafoetida in
terms which show it to have been well known and much valued.
Matthseus Platearius, who flourished in the second half of the
12th century, mentions asafoetida in his work on simple medicines,
known as Circa instans, which was held in great esteem during the
middle ages. It is also named a little later by Otho of Cremona,^ who
remarks that the more foetid tlie drug, the better its quality. Like
other productions of the East, asafoetida found its way in European
commerce during the middle ages through the trading cities of Italy.
It is worthy of remark that it is much less frequently mentioned by the
older writers than galbanum, sagapenum and opopanax. In the 13th
century, the " Physicians of Myddfai," in Wales,^ considered asafoetida
as one of the substances which every physician " ought to know and
use."
Collection — The collecting of asafoetida on the mountains about
Dusgun in Laristan in Persia, as described by Kampfer,^ is performed
thus : —
The peasants repair to the localities where the plants abound, about
the middle of April, at which time the latter have ceased growing, and
their leaves begin to show signs of withering. The soil surrounding the
plant is removed to the depth of a span, so as to bare a portion of the
root. The leaves are then pulled off, the soil is replaced, and over it are
laid the leaves and other herbage, with a stone to keep them in place,
the whole being arranged in this way to prevent injury to the root
by the heat of the sun.
About forty days later, that is towards the end of May, the people
return, the men being armed with knives for cutting the root, and broad
iron spatulas for collecting the exuded juice. Having first removed the
leaves and earth, a thinnish slice is taken from the fibrous crown of the
root, and two days later the juice is scraped from the fiat cut surface.
The root is again sheltered, care being taken that nothing rests on it.
This operation is repeated twice in the course of the next few days, a
very thin slice being removed from the root after each scraping. The
product got during the first cutting is called sJdr, i.e. milk, and is
thinner and more milky and less esteemed than that obtained after-
wards. It is not sold in its natural state, but is mixed with soft earth
^ Buck der Lciwler, translated by Mordt-
mann, Hamburg, 1845. 111.
^ G^ocjraphie d' Jidrisi, traduite par.Jau-
bert, i. (1836)450.
' Sontheimer's transl. i. (1840) 84.
^ Choulant, Macer Floridus, Lips. 1832.
159.
5 Mcddygon Myddfai. 282. 457 (see
bibliographical notices at the end).
" Amoenitates Exoticce, Lemgovias, 1712.
535-552.
ASAFCETIDA.
817
(term limosa) which is added to the extent of an equal, or even double,
weight of the gum-resin, according to the softness of the latter.
After the last cutting, the roots are allowed to rest 8 or 10 days,
when a thicker exudation called 'pispaz, more esteemed than the first, is
obtained by a similar process cai'ried on at intervals during June and
July, or even latter, until the root is quite exhausted.
The only recent account of the production of asafoetida that we have
met with, is that of Staff-surgeon H. W. Bellew, who witnessed the
collection of the drug in 1857 in the neighbourhood of Kandahar.^
The frail withered stem of the previous year with the cluster of newly-
sprouted leaves, is cut away from the top of the root, around which
a trench of 6 inches wide and as many deep, is dug in the earth.
Several deep incisions are now made in the upper part of the root, and
this operation is repeated every 3 or -i days as the sap continues to
exude, which goes on for a week or two according to the strength of
the plant. The juice collects in tears about the top of the root, or
when very abundant flows into the hollow around it. In all cases as
soon as incisions are made, the root is covered with a bundle of loose
twigs or herbs, or even with a heap of stones, to protect it from the
drying effects of the sun. The quantity of gum-resin obtained is
variable ; some roots yield scarcely half an ounce, others as much as
two pounds. Some of the roots are no larger than a carrot, others
attain the thickness of a man's leg. The drug is said to be mostly
adulterated before it leaves the country, by admixture of powdered
gypsum or flour. The finest sort, which is generally sold pure, is
obtained solely " from the node or leaf-bud in the centre of the root-
head." At Kandahar, the price of this superior drug is equivalent
to from 2.S. 8(/. to 4,s\ 8(/. per ft., while the ordinary sort is worth but
from Is. to
During a journey from North-western India to Teheran in Persia,
through Beluchistan and Afghanistan, performed in the spring of 1872,
the same traveller observed the asafoetida plant in great abundance on
many of the elevated undulating pasture-covered plains and hills of
Afghanistan, and of the Persian province of Khorassan. He states that
the plant is of two kinds, the one called Kamd-i-gawi which is grazed
by cattle and used as a potherb, and the other known as Kamd-i-anguza
which affords the gum-resin of commerce. The collecting of this last
is almost exclusively in the hands of the western people of the Kakarr
ti'ibe, one of the most numerous and powerful of the Afghan clans, who,
when thus occupied, spread their camps over the plains of Kandahar to
the confines of Herat.^
Wood, in his journey to the source of the Oxus, found asafoetida to
be largely produced in a district to the north of this, namely the moun-
tains around Saigan or Sykan (lat. 35° 10, long. 67° 40), where, says he,
the land affording the plant is as regularly apportioned out and as
carefully guarded as the cornfields on the plain.^
Description — The best asafoetida is that consisting chiefly of
slightly or not agglutinated tears. This is the Kandahari-Hing of the
1 Journal of a Mission to Afghanistan,
Lond. 1862. 270
2 Bellew, From the Indus to the Tigris,
London. 1874. 101. 102. 286. 321. &c.
* Wood, Journey to the Source of the River
Oxus, new ed. 1872, 131.
318
UMBELLIFERiE.
Bombay market, which is not always to be met with in Bombay, and
even there is only used by wealthy people as a condiment. It is not
exported to Europe. The best sort shipped to Europe is the Anguzeh-
l-Lari, coming from Laristan by way of Afghanistan and the Bolan
Pass to Bombay. It shows agglutinated tears, or when freshly im-
ported, it forms a clammy yet hard yellowish-grey mass, in which
opaque, white or yellowish milky tears, sometimes an inch or two long,
are more or less abundant.
Sometimes asafoetida is imported as a fluid honey-like mass, ap-
parently pure. We presume that such is that of the first gathering,
which Kampfer says is called viilk. The drug is often adulterated
with earthy matter which renders it very ponderous ; it must be
granted that an addition of such matters may often be necessary in
order to enable the drug to be transported. This earthy or stony
asafoetida constitutes at Bombay a distinct article of commerce under
the name of Hingra.
By exposure to air, asafoetida acquires a bright pink and then a
brown hue. The perfectly pure tears display when fractured a con-
choidal surface, which changes from milky white to purplish pink in
the course of some hours. If a tear is touched with nitric acid sp. gr.
1"2, it assumes for a short time a fine green colour.
When asafcetida is rubbed in a mortar with oil of vitriol, then diluted
with water and neutralized, the slightly coloured solution exhibits a
bluish fluorescence. The same will be observed, to some extent, if tears
of the drug are immersed in water and a little ammonia is added. The
tears of asafoetida when warmed become adhesive, but by cold are
rendered so brittle that they may be powdered. With water they
easily form a white emulsion.
The drug has a powerful and persistent alliaceous odour and a
bitter acrid alliaceous taste.
Chemical Composition — Asafoetida consists of resin, gum and
essential oil, in varying proportions, but the resin generally amounting
to more than one half
As to the oil, we have repeatedly obtained from 6 to 9 per cent, by
distilling it from common copper stills. It is light yellow, has a re-
pulsive, very pungent odour of asafcetida, tastes at first mild, then
irritating, but does not stimulate like oil of mustard when applied to
the skin. It is neutral, but after exposure to the air acquires an acid
reaction and different odour ; it evolves sulphuretted hydrogen. In the
fresh state, the oil is free from oxygen ; it begins to boil at 135° to 140°
C, but with continued evolution of hydrogen sulphide, so that we did
not succeed in preparing it of constant composition, the amount of
sulphur varying from 20 to 25 per cent. We found it to have a sp. gr. of
0-951 at 25°, and a strong dextrogyrate power. If one drop of it is
allowed to float on water it assumes a fine violet hue by vapours of
bromine.
The essential oil of asafoetida submitted to fractional distillation
yielded us, at 300°, a considerable proportion of a most beautifully blue
coloured oil. By very cautiously oxidizing the crude oil, we obtained
a small amount of extremely deliquescent crystals of a sulphonic acid.
Sodium or potassium decomposes the oil with evolution of gas, forming
ASAFCETIDA.
319
potassium sulphide ; the residual oil is found to have the odour of cin-
namon.
The resin of asafoetida is not wholly soluble in ether or in chloroform,
but dissolves with decomposition in warm concentrated nitric acid. It
contains a little Feridcdc Acid, C^H^ ^q^^'^CH.CH.COOH, dis-
covered by Hlasiwetz and Barth in 1866, crystallizing in iridescent
needles soluble in boiling water ; it is homologous with Eiigetic Acid,
C^H- ^Q^^ ^ CH*C^CH^ ' which is to be obtained by adding CO" to
the inolecule of eiigenol (page. 284;).
rocH^
Ferulaic acid may be obtained from vanillin, CH^k OH (see
(CHO
article Vanilla).
Fused with potash, ferulaic acid yields oxalic and carbonic acids,
several acids of the fatty series, and protocatechuic acid. The resin
itself treated in like manner after it has been previously freed from
gum, yields resorcin ; and by dry distillation, oils of a green, blue,
violet or red tint, besides about \ per cent, of Umhelliferone, C^H^O^.
The mucilaginous matter of asafoetida consists of a smaller part
soluble in water and an insoluble portion. The former yields a neutral
solution which is not precipitated by neutral acetate of lead. The
insoluble part is readily dissolved by caustic lye and again separates on
addition of acids.
Commerce — The drug is at the present day produced exclusively
in Afghanistan. Much of it is shipped in the Persian Gulf for Bombay,
whence it is conveyed to Europe ; it is also brought into India by way
of Peshawur, and by the Bolan pass in Beluchistan.
In the year 1872-73, there were imported into Bombay by sea,
chiefly from the Persian Gulf, 3367 cwt. of asafoetida, and 4780 cwt. of
the impure form of the drug called Hivgra. The value of the latter is
scarcely a fifth that of the genuine kind. The export of asafoetida from
Bombay to Europe is very small in comparison with the shipments to
other ports of India.
Uses — Asafoetida is reputed stimulant and antispasmodic. It is in
great demand on the Continent, but is little employed in Great Britain.
Among the Mahommedan as well as Hindu population of India, it is
generally used as a condiment, and is eaten especially with the various
pulses known as ddl. In regions where the plant grows, the fresh
leaves ai*e cooked as an article of diet.
Adulteration — The systematic adulteration, chiefly with earthy
matter already pointed out, may be estimated by exhausting the drug
with alcohol and incinerating the residue.
Allied Substances.
Hing from Abushahir, also in Bombay simply called Hing.
Among the natives of Bombay, a peculiar form of asafoetida is in
use that commands a much higher price than those just described ; it is
also the only kind admitted there in the government sanitary establish-
320
UMBELLIFERiE.
ments. This is the Ahushaheree Hing, imported from Abushir (Bender
Bushehr) and Bender Abassi on the Persian Gulf. It is the product of
Ferula alliacea Boiss.^ (F. Asafcetida Boiss. et Buhse, non Linn.) dis-
covered in 1850 by Buhse, and observed in 1858-59 by Bunge in many
places in Persia. This Hing is collected near Yezd in Khorassan, and
also in the province of Kerman, the plant being known as anguza, the
same name that is applied to Scorodosvia.
Abushaheree Hing is never brought into European trade.^ It forms
an almost blackish brown, originally ^vcmsZitcm^, brittle mass, of extremely
foetid alliaceous odour, containing many pieces of the stem with no
admixture of earth. Guibourt, by whom it was first noticed,^ was con-
vinced that it had not been obtained from the root, but had been cut
from the stem. He remarks that Theophrastus alludes to asafcetida (as
he terms the 8ilj>liium'^ of this author) as being of two kinds, — the one
of the stem, the other of the root ; and thinks the former may be the
sort under notice. Vigier,' who calls it Asafcetida nauseeux, found it to
contain in 100 parts, of resin and essential oil 37'5, and gum 23'7.
We find the odour of the Hing much more repulsive than that of
common Asafcetida. The former yields an abundance of essential oil,
which differs by its reddish hue from that of asafcetida. The oil of
Hing, as distilled by one of us (1877) has also a higher specific gravity,
namely, 1'02 at 25° C. We find also its rotatory power stronger; it
deviated 38°"8 to the right, when examined in a column of 100 milli-
metres in length. The oil of common asafcetida deviated 13° '5 under
the same conditions.
By gently warming the Abushaheree Hing with concentrated
hydrochloric acid, about 1"12 sp. gr., it displays simply a dingy brown
hue. By shaking it with water and a little ammonia no fluorescence
is produced. In all these respects there is consequently a well-marked
difference between the drug under examination and common asafcetida.
F. teterrima Kar. et Kir., a plant of Soungaria, is likewise remailcable
for its intense alliaceous smell; but the plant is not known as the source
of any commercial product."
GALBANUM.
Oummi-resiva Galbanum; Galbanum; F. Galbanum; G. Mutterharz.
Botanical Origin — The uncertainty that exists as to the plants
which furnish asafoetida, hangs over those which produce the nearly
allied drug Galbanum. Judging from the characters of the latter, it
can scarcely be doubted that it is yielded by umbelliferous plants of at
least two species, which are probably the following -7 —
^ Flora Orientalis, ii. (1872) 995.
2 A large specimen of it was kindly pre-
sented to one of us (H. ) by Mr. D. S. Kemp
of Bombay. We have also examined the
same drug in the Indian Museum, and
further received good specimens by the kind-
ness of Professor Dymock. See his notes
Pharm. Journ. v. (1875) 103, and viii.
(1877) 103.
^Hist. des Drogues, iii. (1850) 223.
* Hist. Plantarum, 1. vi. c. 3.
= Oomrms-risincs des Omhellifires (thfese),
Paris, 1869. 32.
^ Borszczow, op. cit. 13-14.
' The following in addition have at vari-
oustimes been supposed to afford galbanum:
— Fertdago galhanifera Koch, a native of
the Mediterranean region and Southern
Russia; 0]widia galhanifera Lindl., a
Persian plant of doubtful genus ; Buhon
Oalbarmm L., a shrubby umbellifer of South
Africa.
GALBANUM.
321
1. Ferula galbanijiua Boiss. et Buh.se/ — a plant with a tall, solid
stem, 4 to 5 feet high, greyish, tomentose leaves, and thin flat fruits, 5
to G lines long, 2 to 3 broad, discovered in 1848 at the foot of Dema-
wend in Northern Persia, and on the slopes of the same mountain at
4,000 to 8,000 feet, also on the mountains near Kushkak and Churchura
(Jajarud?). Bunge collected the same plant at Subzawar. Buhse says
that the inhabitants of the district of Demawend collect the gum resin
of this plant which is Galbanum ; the tears which exude spontane-
ously from the stem, especially on its lower part and about the bases of
the leaves, are at first milk-white, but become yellow by exposure to
light and air. It is not the practice, so far as he observed, to wound
the plant for the purpose of causing the juice to exude more freely, nor
is the gathering of the gum in this district any special object of
industry." The plant is called in Persian Khassnih, and the Mazan-
deran dialect Boridsheh.
2. F. rubricaulis Boiss.* (F. erubescens Boiss. ex parte, Aucher
exsicc. n. 4614, Kotschy n. G66). — This plant was collected by Kotschy
in gorges of the Kuh I)inar range in Southern Persia, and probably by
Aucher-Eloy on the mountain of Dalmkuh in Northern Persia.
Borszczow,^ who regards it as the same as the preceding (though
Boissier' places it in a different section of the genus), says, on the
authority of Buhse, that it occurs locally throughout the whole of
Northern Persia, is found in plenty on the slopes of Elwund near
Hamadan, here and there on the edge of the great central salt-desert of
Persia, on the mountains near Subzawar, between Ghurian and Khaf,
west of Herat, and on the desert plateau west of Khaf He states,
though not from personal observation, that its gum-resin, which con-
stitutes Persian Galbanum, is collected for commercial purposes
around Hamadan. F. rubricaulis Boiss. has been beautifully figured
by Berg" under the name of F. erubescens.
History — Galbanum, in Hebrew Ghelbenah, was an ingredient of
the incense used in the worship of the ancient Israelites,'' and is men-
tioned by the earliest writers on medicine as Hippocrates and Theo-
phrastus.^ Dioscorides states it to be the juice of a A'ar^/^ eic growing
in Syria, and describes its characters, and the method of purifying it by
hot water exactly as followed in modern times. We find it mentioned
in the 2nd century among the drugs on which duty was levied at the
Roman custom house at Alexandria." Under the name of Kinnah it
was well known to the Arabians, and through them to the physicians
of the school of Salerno.
In the journal of expenses of John, king of France, during his capti-
vity in England, A.D. 1359-60, there is an entry for the purchase of 1 lb.
^Av/zcihlung der in e'mer Reise dvrch
Transkaickasien und Persien gesammellen
Pflanzen. — Noiiv. Mim. de laSoc. imp, des
Nat. de Moscov, xii. (1860) 99.— Fig. in
Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, part IC.
2 Buhse, I.e. ; also Bulletin de la Soc. imj}.
cZe.9 Nat. de Moscov, xxiii. (1850) 548.
^Diagnoses Plantarum novarum prcesertim
orientalium, ser. ii. fasc. 2 (1856) 92.
^Op. cit. 36 (see p. 315, note 1).
= Flora Orientalis, ii. (1872) 995.
"Berg u. Schmidt, Offizinelle Gewdchse,
iv. (1863) tab. 31 b.
'Exodus XXX. 34. — Jes. Sirach xxiv. 18.
— In imitation of the ancient Jewish
custom, Galbanum is a component of the
incense used in the Irvingite chapels in
London.
8XaX/3ai/?) — Theophr. Hist. Plant, ix.
c. 1.
^Vincent, Commerce of the Ancients, ii.
(1807 692.
X
.322
UMBELLIFERiE.
of Galbanum which cost 1 Gs., 1 lb. of Sagapenum (Serapin) at the same
time costing only 2s/ In common with other products of the East,
these drugs used to reach England by way of Venice, and are mentioned
among the exports of that city to London in 1503.-
An edict of Henry III. of France promulgated in 1581, gives the
prices per lb. of the gum resins of the Umhelliferce as follows : — Opopa-
nax, 32 sols, Sagapenum 22 sols, Asafoetida 15 sols, Galbanum 10 sols,
Ammoniacum 6 sols 6 deniers.''
Description — Galbanum is met with in drops or tears, adhering
inter se into a mass, usually compact and hard, but sometimes found so
soft as to be fluid The tears are of the size of a lentil to that of a
hazel-nut, translucent, and of various shades of light brown, yellowish
or faintly greenish. The drug has a peculiar, not unpleasant, aromatic
odour, and a disagreeable, bitter, alliaceous taste.
In one variety, the tears are dull and waxy, of a light yellowish
tint when fresh, but becoming of an orange brown by keeping ; they are
but little disposed to run together, and are sometimes quite dry and
loose, with an odour that somewhat reminds one of savine. In recent
importations of this form of galbanum, we have noticed a considerable
admixture of thin transverse slices of the root of the plant, an inch or
more in diameter.
Chemical Composition — Galbanum contains volatile oil, resin and
mucilage. The first, of which 7 per cent, may be obtained by distillation
with water, is a colourless or slightly yellowish liquid, partly consisting
of a hydrocarbon, C''W\ boiling at from 170° to 180^ This oil affords
easily crystals of terpin, G"ff '^ + 3 OH", if it is treated as mentioned in
the article Oleum Cajuputi; it also affords the crystallized compound
C'"H"^ + HC1. But the prevailing part of oil of galbanum consists of
hydrocarbons of a much higher boiling point. The crude oil has a
mild aromatic taste, and deviates the ray of polarized light to
the right.
The resin, which we find to constitute about GO per cent, of the
drug, is very soft, and dissolves in ether or in alkaline liquids, even
in milk of lime, but only partially in bisulphide of carbon. When
heated for some time at 100° C. with hydrochloric acid, it yields
Umbelliferone, C^ffO'', which may be dissolved from the acid liquid by
means of ether or chloroform ; it is obtained on evaporation in colour-
less acicular crystals. Umbelliferone is soluble in hot water; its
solution exhibits, especially on addition of an alkali, a brilliant blue
fluorescence which is destroyed by an acid. If a small fragment of
galbanum is immersed in water, the fluorescence is immediately pro-
duced by a drop of ammonia.'* The same phenomenon takes place with
asafoetida, not at all with ammoniacum ; it is probably due to traces of
umbelliferone pre-existing in the former drugs. By boiling the umbel-
^ Doiiet d'Arcq, Comptes de I'Argenterie
ties Boin de France (1851) 236.— The prices
must be multiplied by 3 to give a notion of
present value.
2 Pasi, Tariffa de Pesi e Misure, Venet.
1521. 204 (1st edition, 1503).
^ Fontanon, Edicts et Ordonnances dcs
Eohde France, ii. (1585) 388.
^ This property of umbelliferone may be
beautifully shown by dipping some bibu-
lous paper into water which has stood for
an hour or two on lumps of galbanum, and
drying it. A strip of this paper j)laced in
a test tube of water with a drop of am-
monia, will give a superb blue solution,
instantly losing its colour on the addition
of a drop of hydrochloric acid.
GALBANUM.
823
liferone with concentrated caustic lye, it splits up into resorcin, carbonic
acid and formic acid.
Umbelliferone is also produced from many other aromatic umbelli-
ferous plants, as Angelica, Levisticum and Meum, when their respec-
tive resins are submitted to dry distillation. According to Zwenger
(1860) it may be likewise obtained from the resin of Daphne Mezereuni
L. The yield is always small ; it is highest in galbanum, but even
in this does not much exceed 0'8 per cent, reckoned on the crude
drag-
By submitting galbanum-resin to dry distillation, there will be
obtained a thick oil of an intense and brilliant blue,' which was noticed
as early as about the year 1730 by Caspar Neumann of Berlin. It is a
liquid having an aromatic odour and a bitter acrid taste ; in cold it
deposits crystals of umbelliferone, which can be extracted by repeatedly
shaking the oil with boiling water. A small amount of fatty acids is
also removed at the same time. Submitted to rectification the crude
oil at first yields a greenish portion and then the superb blue oil.
Kachler (1871) found that it could be resolved by fractional distillation
into a colourless oil having the formula C^"W^, and a blue oil to which
he assigned the composition C"H'"0, boiling at 289° C. As to the
hydrocarbon, it boils at 240° C, and therefore differs from the essential
oil obtained when galbanum is distilled with water. The blue oil, after
due purification, agrees, according to Kachler, with the blue oil of the
flowers of Matricaria Ghamomilla L. Each may be transformed by
means of potassium into a colourless hydrocarbon, C'"H" ; or by
anhydride of phosphoric acid into anotlier product, C'"H", likewise
colourless. The latter, as well as the former hydrocarbon, if diluted
with ether, and bromine be added, assumes for a moment a fine blue
tint; the colourless oil as aff'orded by the drug on distillation with
water assumes also the same coloration with bromine.
By fusing galbanum-resin with potash, Hlasiwetz and Barth (1864)
obtained crystals (about 6 per cent.) of Resorcin or Meta-Dioxyhenzol,
together with acetic and volatile fatty acids. The name of this remark-
able substance alludes to Orcin, which -had been extracted in 1829 by
Robiquet from lichens. The formula of Resorcin, ^^^(OH)^ shows at
once its relations to Orcin, C''H^CH^(OH)l Resorcin has been ascer-
tained to be frequently produced by melting other resins with potash ;
it has also been prepared on a large scale for the manufacture of the
brilliant colouring matter called Eosin. Galbanum-resin treated with
nitric acid yields Trinitroresorcin C'^H(NO'y(OH)", the so-called
Styphnic Acid.
If galbanum, or still better its resin, is very moderately warmed
with concentrated hydrochloric acid, a red hue is developed, which
turns violet or bluish if spirit of wine is slowly added. Asafcetida
treated in the same way assumes a dingy greenish colour, and ara-
moniacum is not alterecl at all. This test probably depends upon the
formation of resorcin, which in itself is not coloured by hydrochloric
acid, but assumes a red or blue colour if sugar or mucilage or certain
other substances are present. It is remarkable that ammoniacum,
though likewise yielding resorcin when fused with potash, assumes no
' We have found it best to mix the gal- ice-stone ; the oil is then easily and
banum-resin with coarsely powdered pum- abundantly obtainable.
324
UMBELLIFERyE.
I
red colour when warnied with hydrochloric acid. The mucilage of
galbanum has not been minutely examined.
Commerce — Galbanum is, we believe, brought into commerce chiefly
from Eastern Europe. It is stated that considerable quantities reach
Russia by way of Astrachan and Orenburg.
Uses — Galbanum is administered internally as a stimulating expec-
torant, and is occasionally applied in the form of plaster to indolent
swellings.
Allied Substances,
Sagcqyenum — This is a gum-resin which, when pure, forms a tough
softish mass of closely agglutinated tears. It differs from asafoetida in
forming brownish (not milk-white) tears, which when broken do not
acquire a pink tint ; also in not having an alliaceous odour. A good
specimen presented to us by Professor Dymock of Bombay (1878) re-
minds in that and other respects rather of galbanum. We find this
sagapenum to be devoid of sulphur but containing umbelliferone ; it is
extremely remarkable for the intense and permanent purely blue colour
it acquires in cold when the smallest fragment of the drug is immersed
in hydrochloric acid 1'13 sp. gr.
Sagapenum, which in mediaeval pharmacy was often called Sera-
pinum, is so frequently mentioned by the older writers that it must
have been a plentiful substance. At the present day it can scarcely
be procured genuine even at Bombay, whither it is sometimes brought
from Persia. The botanical origin of the drug is unknown.
AMMONIACUM.
Gummi-resina Ammoniacum; Amnioniacum or Gum Ammoniacum;
F. Gomme-resine Ammoniaque ; G. Ammoniah-gummiliarz.
Botanical Origin. — Dorema Ammoniacum, Don, a perennial plant,^
with a stout, erect, leafless flower-stem, 6 to 8 feet high, dividing towards
its upper part into numerous ascending branches, along which are dis-
posed on thick short stalks, ball-like simple umbels, scarcely half an inch
across, of very small flowers. The aspect of the full-grown plant is there-
fore very unlike that of Ferula. The Dorema has large compound
leaves with broad lobes. The whole plant in its young state is covered
with a tomentum of soft, stellate hairs, which give it a greyish look, but
which disappear as it ripens its fruits. The withered stems long remain
erect, and occurring in immense abundance and overtopping the other
vegetation of the arid desert, having a striking appearance.^ The root is
described in the article on Sumbul, p. 313.
The plant occurs over a wide area of the barren regions of which
Persia is the centre. According to Bunge and Bienert, its north-western
limit appears to be Shahrud (S.E. of Asterabad), whence it extends east-
wards to the deserts south of the Sea of Aral and the Sir-Daria. The
most southern point at which the plant has been observed is Basiran,
a village of Southern Khorassan in N. lat. 32°, E. long. 59°.
1 Fig.- in Bentley and Trimen, Medic. 118; Polak, Persien, das Land und seine
Plants, part 33 (1878). Leuie, li. (1865) 282.
^ Fraser, Journey into Khorasun, 182.5.
AMMONIACUM.
325
Of the three or four other species of Dorevia, D. Aucheri Boiss.^
affords very good ammoniacum, as we know by an ample specimen of the
gum deposited together with the plant in the British Museum by Mr.
VV. K. Loftus, who in 1751 collected both at Kirrind in Western Persia,
where the i)lant is called in Kurdish Zuh. Boissier- includes as J).
A ucheri another plant, called by Loftus I), robiistum, the gum of which
is certainly different from ammoniacum. Of the plant itself there are
only fruits in the British Museum.
History — The first writer to mention ammoniacum is Dioscorides,
who states it to be the juice of a Nartltex growing about Gyrene in
Libya, and that it is produced in the neighbourhood of the temple of
Ammon. He says it is of two sorts, the one like frankincense in pure,
solid tears, the other massive, and contaminated with earthy impurities.
Pliny gives essentially the same account.
The succeeding Greek and Latin authors on medicine throw but little
light on the drug, which however is mentioned by most of them as used
in fumigation. Hence we find such terms as Ammoniacum thymicima^
Ammoniacum siifjimen, Thus Lihycum.
The African origin assigned to the drug by Dioscorides, has long
perplexed pharmacologists ; but it is now well ascertained that inMorocco
a large species of Ferula yields a gum-resin having some res'^mblance to
ammoniacum, and still an object of traffic with Egypt and Arabia, where
it is employed, like the ancient drug, in fumigations. There can be
but little doubt we think, that the ammoniacum of Morocco is identical
with the ammoniacum of the ancients ; it may well have been imported
by way of Gyrene from regions lying further westward.^
Persian ammoniacum or the ammoniacum of European commerce
may also have been known in very remote times, though we are unable
to trace it back earlier than the 10th century, at which period it is men-
tioned by Isaac Juda'us'^ and by the Persian physician Alhervi." Both
these writers designate it UshaJc, a name which it beai's in Persia to the
present day.
Collection — The stem of the plant abounds in a milky juice which
flows out on the slightest puncture. The agent which occasions the exu-
dation is a beetle, multitudes of which pierce the stem. The gum, tlie
drops of which speedily harden, partly remains adherent to the stem and
partly falls to the ground ; it is gathered about the end of July by
the peasants, who sell it to dealers foi conveyance to Ispahan or the
coast.''
Young roots 3 to 4 years old are, according to Borszezow, extremely
rich in milky juice which sometimes exudes into the surrounding soil in
large drops ; there is also an exudation from the fibrous crown of the
root of a dark inferior sort of ammoniacum. The gum-resin appears to
be collected in quantity only in Persia. One of the chief localities
1 Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, part 4.
- Flora Orieiitalis, ii. (1872) 1009.
' Alexander Trallianus in Puschmann's
edition (see appendix) 581. 588.
Hanbury, Pharm. Journ. March 22,
1873. 741 ; ov Science Papers, 375.
^ Opera Omnia, Lugd. 1515, lib. ii. Prac-
tices c. 44.
^Seligmann, Liber FundamentorumPhar-
macologke, Vindob. 1830. 35.
'' Johnson, Journey frorti Indiato England
through Persia, etc., 1818. 93. 94 ; Hart,
quoted by Don, Linn. Trans, xvi. (1833)
C05.
826
UMBELLIFERvE.
for it are the desert plains about Yezdikliast, between Ispahan and
Shiraz.
Description — Ammoniacum occurs in dry grains or tears of roundish
form, from the size of a small pea to that of a cheriy, or in nodular
lumps. They are externally of a pale creamy yellow, opaque and
milky -white within. By long keeping, the outer colour darkens to a
cinnamon-brown. Ammoniacum is brittle, showing when broken a dull
waxy lustre, but it easily softens with warmth. It has a bitter acrid
taste, and a peculiar, characteristic, non-alliaceous odour. It readily
forms a white emulsion when triturated with water. It is coloured
yellow by caustic potash. Hypochlorites, as common bleaching powder,
give it a bright orange hue, while they do not affect the Morocco drug.
Ammoniacum is obtained from the mature plant, the ripe mericarps
of which, f of an inch in length, are often found sticking to the tears.
By pressure the tears agglutinate into a compact mass, which is the
Lump Ammoniacum of the druggists. It is generally less pure than the
detached grains, and fetches a lower price.
Chemical Composition — Ammoniacum is a mixture of volatile
oil with resin and gum. We obtained only -J per cent, of oil which we
find to be dextrogyrate ; we failed in obtaining terpin (see Galbanum, p.
822) from it. The oil has the precise odour of the drug, contains, accord-
ing to our experiments, no sulphur ; a similar observation was made by
Przeciszewski.^ Vigier" asserts that it blackens silver, and that after
oxidation with nitric acid, he detected in it sulphuric acid. He states
that, with hydrochloric acid, the oil acquires a fine violet tint passing
by all shades to black ; we failed in obtaining this coloration. By
diluting the oil with bisulphide of carbon, and then adding mineral acids,
we observed only yellow colorations. The oil diluted with alcohol
acquires a reddish hue by ferric chloride.
The resin ammoniacum usually amounts to about 70 per cent.
Przeciszewski asserts that the indiff'erent I'esin when heated yields sul-
phuretted hydrogen. Our own experiments failed to show the presence
of sulphur in the crude drug; and the same negative result has been
more recently obtained in some careful experiments by Moss.' Water
when boiled with the resin acquires a yellowhue and slightly acid reaction;
the liquid assumes an intense red coloration on addition of ferric
chloride.
Unlike the gum resin of allied plants, ammoniacum yields no um-
bel! iferone. When melted with caustic potash it affords a little
resorcin.
The mucilaginous matter of the drug consists of a gum readil}^
soluble in water and a smaller quantity of about \ of an insoluble part,
no doubt identical with that occurring in asafoetida and galbanum.
The aqueous solution of the gum of ammoniacum is very slightly
levogj'^re.
Commerce — Ammoniacum is shipped to Europe from the Persian
Gulf by way of Bombay. The exports ft-om the latter place in the year
1871-72 were 453 cwt., all shipped to the United Kingdom. The
^ Pliarmakolon'ische UntersucJiu)ir/cn i'lher " Gommcs-resines des OmhelUferes {Thhse),
Ammoniacum, Scujapenum wul Opojmnax, Paris, 1869. 93.
Dorpat, 1861. ■* Fharm. Journ. March 29, 1873. 761.
FRUCTUS ANETHI.
327
quantity imported into Bombay in 1872-73 was 1G71 cwt., all from the
Persian Gulf/
Uses — The drug is administered as an expectorant and is also used
in certain plasters.
Allied Gum-resins.
African Ammoniacum. — This is according to Lindley^ the pro-
duct of Ferula iingitana L., a species growing over all northern Africa
as far as Syria, Rhodus and Chios. It is called Keith in Moi'occo, its pro-
duct, Fasaij, being shipped occasionally at Mazagan (el Bridja) or also
at Mogador. This gum-resin is in lai'ge, compact, dark masses, formed
of agglutinated tears having a whitish or pale green i.sh, or a fawn
colour. But there are also seen very impure masses. The weak
odour of the Moi'occan druo- is not sug-oestive of true ammoniacum.
Moss (1873) found in a specimen of the former 9 per cent, of gum and
67 per cent, of resin. It yielded umbelliferone to Hirschsohn (1875),
and by melting it with potash Goldschmiedt (1878) obtained Resorcin
and a peculiar acid, C^H'^O", which he failed to obtain from true
ammoniacum.
Opopanax — A gum-resin occurring in hard, nodular, brittle, earthy-
looking lumps of a bright orange-brown hue, and penetratmg offensive
odour, reminding one of crushed ivy- leaves. It is commonly attributed
to Opopanax Chironium Koch, a native of Mediterranean Europe.
We have never seen a specimen known to have been obtained from
this plant; but can say that the gum-resin of the nearly allied Opopa-
nax pcrsicum Boiss., as collected by Loftus at Kirriud in Western
Persia in 1851, has neither the appearance nor the characteristic odour
of officinal opopanax. Powell,^ who endeavoured to trace the origin of
the drug, regards it as a product of Persia.
Opopanax was very common in old pharmacy, but has fallen out of
use, and is now both rare and expensive.*
FRUCTUS ANETHI.
Semen AnetJii ; Dill Fruits, Dill Seeds; F. Fruits d'Aneth ;
G. DillfrucJde. .
Botanical Origin — Ancthnm gra.veolens L., (Peucedanum^ graveo-
Icns Hiern) an erect, glaucous annual plant, with finely striated stems,
usually to 1 to 1|- feet high, pinnate leaves with setaceous linear seg-
ments, and yellow flowers.
It is indigenous to the Mediterranean region, Southern Russia and
the Caucasian provinces, but is found as a cornfield weed in many
' Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of the Presidency of Bomhay, 1871-72, and
1872-73.
- As stated by Pereira, Mat. Medica, ii.
part 2 (1857) p. 18G. See also Hanbury,
Science Papers, 1876. 376.
^ Economic Products of the Punjab, i.
(1868) 402.
* Further particulars regarding Opopanax
and Sagapenum, may be found in the
thesf s of Przeciszewski (1861) and Vigier
(1869), noticed in our article on Ammo-
niacum, and Dragendorff's Jahreshericht,
1875. 119. 120.
Bentham and Hooker (Gen. Plant. 919)
suppress the genus Anethuvi, uniting its
one solitary species with Pcucedanum.
328
UMBELLIFER^.
other countries, and is frequently cultivated in gardens. It succeeds in
Norway as far north as Throndhjem.
Dill, under the Hindustani name of Suva or Soyah, is largely grown
in various ports of India, where the plant though of but a few months'
duration, grows to a height of 2 to 3 feet. On account of a slight
peculiarity in the fruit, the Indian plant was regarded by Roxburgh
and De Candolle as a distinct species, and called Anethuvi Soiva, but
it possesses no botanical characters to warrant its separation from A.
graveolens.
History — Dill is commonly regarded to be the "Xvi^Oov of Diosco-
rides, the Anethum of Palladius and other ancient writers, as well as of
the New Testament.^ In Greece the name "AvrjOop is at present
applied ^ to a plant of very similar appearance, Carum Ridolfia Benth.
et Hook {Anethum segetum L.). By the later Greeks, the term
'KvrjBov was also used for dill.^
Dill, as well as coriander, fennel, cumin, and am mi, was in frequent
requisition in Britain in Anglo-Saxon times.* The name is derived
according to Pi-ior ^ from the old Norse word clilla, to lull, in allusion
to the reputed carminative properties of the drug. However this may
be, we find the word occurring in the 10th century in the Vocabulary
of Alfric, archbishop of Canterbury." The words dill and till, un-
doubtedly meaning this drug, were also used in Germany and Switzer-
land as early as A.D. 1000.
Description — The fruit, which has the characters usual to Umbel-
lifcrce, is of ovoid form, much compressed dorsally, surrounded with a
broad flattened margin. The mericarps about of an inch wide, are
mostly separate ; they are provided with 5 equidistant, filiform ridges,
of which the two lateral lose themselves in the paler, broad, thin
margin. The three others are sharply keeled ; the darkest space
between them is occupied by a vitta and two occur on the commissure.
In the Indian drug, the mericarps are narrower and more convex, the
ridges more distinct and pale, and the border less winged. In other
respects it accords with that of Europe. The odour and taste of dill
are agreeably aromatic.
Microscopic Characters — The pericarp is formed of a small
number of flattened cells, which in the inner layer are of a brown
colour ; the ridges consist as usual of a strong fibro-vascular bundle.
The vittffi in a transverse section present an elliptic outline yio of
an inch or less in diameter. The margin of the mericarp is built up
of porous, parenchymatous tissue. The albumen as in the seeds of all
umbellifers, consists of thick-walled, angular cells, loaded with fatty
oil, and globular grains of albuminous matters which present a dark
c^OHfi when examined by polarized light.
Chemical Composition — Dill fruit yields from 3 to 4 per cent, of
^ Matt, xxiii. 23, — where it has been ren-
dered anise by the English translators from
Wicklif (1380) downwards. But in other
versions, the word is correctly translated.
^ Heldreich, Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands
(1862) 40.
^ Langkavel, Botanih d. spdtcren Griechen,
Berlin, 1866. 39.
Leechdoms, &c. , edited by Cockayne,
1804-66, — see esjjecially Herharium Apu-
k'ii, dating about A.D. 1050, in vol. i. i^p.
219. 235. 237. 281. 293.
^ Popular Karnes of Br'dhh Plants, 1870.
Volume of Vocabularies, edited by
Wright, 1857. 30.
FRUCTUS CORIANDRI.
329
an essential oil, the largest proportion of which was found by Gladstone
(1864-1872) to be a hj^drocarbou, C^"H}^, to which he gave the name
Anethene. This substance has a lemon-like odour, sp. gr. 'SliG, and
boils at 172° C. It deviates a ray of polarized light strongly to the
right. Nietzki (1874) ascertained that there is, moreover, present
another hydrocarbon, C'"H''', in a very small proportion, which boils at
155-100°. A third constituent of oil of dill is in all probability identi-
cal with carvol (see page 307) ; we prepared from the former immed-
iately the crystals CC'*'H"0)2SH^.
Uses — The distilled water of dill is stomachic and carminative, and
frequently prescribed as a vehicle for more active medicines. The seeds
are much used for culinary and medicinal purposes by the people of
India, but are little employed in Continental Europe.
FRUCTUS CORIANDRI.
Semen Coricmdri ; Coriander Fruits, Coriander Seeds, Corianders ;
F. Fruits de Coriandre ; G. Koriander.
Botanical Origin — Coriandrum sativum L., a small glabrous,
annual plant, apparently indigenous to the Mediterranean and Caucasian
regions, not known growing wild, but now found as a cornfield weed
throughout the temperate parts of the Old World. It is cultivated in
many countries, and has thus found its way even to Paraguay. In
England the cultivation of coriander has long been carried on, but only
to a very limited extent.
History — Coriander appears to occur in the famous Egyptian
papyrus Ebers ; it is also mentioned, under the name of Kustumburu,
in early Sanskrit authors, and is also met with in the Scriptures.^
The plant owes its names Ivopiov, Koplavvoi^, and KopiduSpov, or also
in the middle ages, KoXulvSpov, to the oifensive odour it exhales when
handled, and which reminds one of bugs, — in Greek Kopt?. This
character caused it to be regarded in the middle ages as having poison-
ous properties.' The ripe fruits which are entirely free from the foetid
smell of the growing plant, were used as a spice by the Jews and the
Romans, and in medicine from a very early period. Cato, who wrote
on agriculture in the 3rd century B.C., notices the cultivation of
coriander. Pliny states that the best is that of Egypt. It is of fre-
quent occurrence in the book " De opsoniis et condimentis " of Apicius
Coelius, about the 3rd century of our era. Coriander is also included
in the list of Charlemagne, alluded to pages 92, 98, etc.
Coriander was well known in Britain pi-ior to the Norman Conquest,
and often employed in ancient Welsh and English medicine and
cookery.
Cultivation — Coriander, called by the farmers Col, is cultivated in
the eastern counties of England, especially in Essex. It is sometimes
sown with caraway, and being an annual is gathered and harvested the
first year, the caraway remaining in the ground. The seedling plants
are hoed so as to leave those that are to remain in rows 10 to 12 inches
1 Exod. xvi. 31 ; Num. xi. 7.
- Pelriis de Abbano, Tract, de Veiienis,
Venetiis, 1473. capp. 25. 46.
830
UMBELLIFERiE.
apart. The plant is cut with sicitles, and when dry the seed is thrashed
out on a cloth in the centre of the field. On the best land, 15 cwt. per
acre is reckoned an average crop.^
Description — The fruit of coriander consists of a pair of hemi-
spherical mericarps, firmly joined so as to foi'm an almost I'egular globe,
measuring on an average about i of an inch in diameter, crowned by
the stylopodium and calycinal teeth, and sometimes by the slender
diverging styles. The pericarp bears on each half, 4 perfectly straight
sharpish ridges, regarded as secondary (juga sectindaria) ; two other
ridges, often of darker colour, belonging to the mericai"ps in common,
the separation of vi^hich takes place in a rather sinuous line. The
shallow depression between each pair of these straight ridges is occu-
pied by a zig-zag raised line (jitgum 'primarium), of which there are
therefore 5 in each mericarp. It will thus be seen that each mericarp
has 5 (zig-zag) so-called j9?'M7ia7'2/ ridges, and 4 (keeled and more pro-
minent) secondary, besides the lateral ridges which mark the suture
or line of separation. There are no vittiie on the outer surface of the
pericarp. Of the 5 teeth of the calyx, 2 often grow into long, pointed,
persistent lobes ; they proceed from the outer flowers of the umbel.
Though the two mericarps are closely united, they adhere only by
the thin pericarp, enclosing when ripe a lenticular cavity. On each
side of this cavity, the skin of the fruit separates from that of the seed,
displaying the two brown vittae of each mericarp. In transverse sec-
tion, the albumen appears crescent-shaped, the concave side being
towards the cavity. The carpophore stands in the middle of the latter
as a column, connected with the pericarp only at top and bottom.
Corianders are smooth and rather hard, in colour buff or light brown.
They have a very mild aromatic taste, and, when crushed, a peculiar
fragrant smell. When unripe, their odour, like that of the fresh plant,
is offensive. The nature of the chemical change that occasions this
alteration in odour has not been made out.
The Indian corianders shipped from Bombay ai-e of large size and of
elongated form.
Microscopic Structure — The structural peculiarities of coriander
fruit chiefly refer to the pericarp. Its middle layer is made up of thick
walled ligneous prosenchyme, traversed by a few fibro- vascular bundles
which in the zig-zag ridges vary exceedingly in position.
Chemical Composition — The essential oil of coriander has a com-
position indicated by the formula C^^ff^O, and is therefore isomeric
with borneol. If the elements of water are abstracted by phosphoric
anhydride, it is converted, according to Kawalier (1852), into an oil of
offensive odour, C^^H^°.
The fruits yield of volatile oil from 0'7 to 11 per cent. ; as the vittfe
are well protected by the woody pericarp, corianders should be bruised
before being submitted to distillation. Trommsdorff (1835) found the
fruits to afford 13 per cent, of fixed oil.
The fresh herb distilled in July when the fruits were far from ripe,
yielded to one of us (F.) from 0-57 to 11 per mille of an essential oil
possessing in a high degree the disagreeable odour already alluded to.
This oil was found to deviate the ray of polarized light 11° to the right
^R. Baker, in Morton's Cyclopaedia of Agriculture, i. (1855) 545.
FRUCTUS CUMIN I.
331
when examined in a column 50 mm. long. The oil distilled by us from
ripe commercial fruit deviated 5'1° to the right.
Production and Commerce — Coriander is cultivated in various
parts of Continental Europe, and, as already stated, to a small extent
in England. It is also produced in Northern Africa and in India. In
1872-73, the export of coriander from the province of Sind^ was 948
cwt.; from Bombay ' in the same year 619 cwt. From Calcutta^ there
were shipped in 1870-71, 1G,347 cwt.
Uses — Coriander fruits are reputed stimulant and carminative, yet
are but little employed in medicine. They are however used in veteri-
nary practice, and by the distillers of gin, also in some countries in
cookery.
FRUCTUS CUMINI.
Fructus vel Semen Cymini ; Cumin or Cummin^ Fruits, Cummin
Seeds ; F. Graines cle Cumin ; G. Mutterkiimmel, Kreuzkummel,
Langer ocler Romischer Kilmmel, Mohrenkummel.
Botanical Origin. — Guminum Gyminum L., a small annual plant,
indigenous to the upper regions of the Nile, but carried at an early
period by cultivation to Arabia, India and China, as well as to the
countries bordering the Mediterranean. The fruits of the plant ripen
as far north as Southern Norway; but in Europe, Sicily and Malta
alone produce them in quantity.
History — Cumin was well known to the ancients ; it is alluded to
by the Hebrew prophet Isaiah,'^ and is mentioned in the gospel of Mat-
thew" as one of the minor titheable productions of the Holy Land.
Under the name Ivvixivov, it is commended for its agreeable taste by
Dioscorides, in whose day it was produced on the coasts of Asia Minor
and Southern Italy. It is named as Guminum by Horace and Persius;
Scribonius Largus, in the first century of our era, mentions Cuminum
tethiopicum, silvaticum and thebaicum.
During the middle ages, cumin was one of the spices in most common
use. Thus in A.D. 71 G, an annual provision of 150 lb. of cumin for the
monastery of Corbie in Normandy, was not thought too large a supply/
Edrisi mentioned cumin as a product of Morocco (see article Fructus
Carui, p. 305), Algeria and Tunisia. It was in fi'equent use in England,
its average price between 1264 and 1400 being a little over 2rf. per tb.^
Cumin is emunerated in the Liber albus" of the city of London,
compiled in 1419, among the merchandize on which the king levied the
impost called scavage. It is mentioned^" in 1453 as one of the articles
^Statement of the Trade, and Navigation
of Siyid for the year 1872-73, Karachi,
1873. 36.
Ditto for Bombay, 1872-73. ii. 90.
^ Anyiual Volume of Trade, etc. for the
Bengal Presidency, 1870-71. 121.
■* C'om)/ne in Wicklif 's Bible (1380), Corn-
men in Tjmdale's (1534), Commyn in Cran-
mer's (1539), Cummine in the Authorised
Version (ICll), Cumin in Gerarde's Herbal
(1636) and Paris's Pharmacologia (1822),
Cummin, Ray (1693) and in modern trade-
lists and price-currents.
5 Ch. xxviii. 25-27.
<■' Ch. xxiii. 23.
<■ Pardessus, Diplomata, etc., Paris, 1849.
ii. 309.
^ Rogers, Hist, of Aqriculture and Prices
in England, 1876. i. 631, ii. 543-547.
' Munimenta Gildliallce Londoniensis,
edited by Riley, i. (1859) 224.
Herbert, Hist, of the Great Livery
Companies of London, 1834. 114.
332
UMBELLIFER^.
ofwhicli the Grocers' Company had the weighing and oversight, and
was classed in l-i84! in the same way in the German warehouse in
Venice.'
Description — The fruit, the colour of which is brown, has the usual
structui'e of the order ; it is of an elongated ovoid form, tapering towards
each end, and somewhat laterally compressed. The mericarps, which
do not readily separate from the carpophore, are about J of an inch in
length and of '^^ it^ch in greatest breadth. Each has 5 primary
ridges which are filiform, and scabrous or muriculate, and 4 secondary
covered with rough hairs. Between the primary ridges is a single
elongated vitta, and 2 vittje occur on the commissural surface. A
transverse section of the seed shows a reniform outline. There is a form
of C. Cyminum in cultivation, the fruit of which is perfectly glabrous.
Cumin has a strong aromatic taste and smell, far less agreeable than
that of caraway.
Microscopic Structure — The hairs are rather brittle, sometimes
\ mm. in length, formed of cells springing from the epidermis. The
larger consists of groups of cells, vertically or laterally combined, and
enclosed by a common envelope ; the smaller of but a single cell ending
in a rounded point. The whole pericarp is rich in tannic matter, striking
with salts of iron a dark greenish colour.
The tissue of the seed is loaded with colourless drops of a fatty oil ;
the vittfe with a yellowish-brown essential oil. But the most striking
contents of the parenchyme of the albumen consist of transparent,
colourless, spherical grains, 7 to 5 mkm. in diameter, several of which
are enclosed in each cell. Under a high magnifying power, they show
a central cavity with a series of concentric layers around it, frequently
traversed by radial clefts. Examined in polarized light, these grains
display exactly the same cross as is seen in granules of starch, although
their behaviour with chemical tests at once proves that they are by no
means that substance ; in fact iodine does not render them blue, but
intensely brown. Grains of the same character", assuming sometimes
a crystalloid form, occur in most umbelliferous fruits, and in many
seeds of other orders. All these bodies are composed of albuminous and
fatty matters ; the more crystalloid form as met with in the seeds of
Ricinus and in the fruit of parsley, is the body called by Hartig
AleuTon.
Chemical Composition — Cumin fruits yielded to Bley (1829) 7
per cent, of fat oil, 13 per cent, of resin (?), 8 of mucilage and gum, 15
of albuminous matter, and a large amount of malates. Their peculiar,
strong, aromatic smell and taste, depend on the essential oil of which
they afford as much as 4 per cent. It contains about 5G per cent, of
f CHO
Cuminol (or Cuminaldehyde), CH^ | C^ff ' ^ liq.uid of sp. gr. 0'972,
boiling point 237° C. It has also been met with, in 1858, by Trapp in
the oil of Cicuta virosa. By boiling cuminol with potash in alcoholic
solution, cuminalcohol, C^H* | qsjj? , as well as the potassium salt of
cuminic acid, C'^H* | qsjj?^ > formed.
1 Thomas, Fontego del Todeschi in Venezia, 1874. 252.
FLORES SAMBUCI.
338
The oil of cumin, secondly, contains a mixture of hydrocarbons.
That which constitutes about one half of the crude oil has been first
obtained in 18-il by Gerhardt and Cahours, just from the oil under
notice, and therefore called Cymene (or also Cymol). It is a liquid of
() 873 sp. gr. at 0° (32° F.), boiling at 175°; neither cymene nor cuminol
have the same odour and taste as the crude oil. Many other plants
have been noticed as containing cymene among the constituents of
their essential oils. Thus for instance Cicuta virosa L., Caruni Ajowan
(page 30-i), Thymus vulgaris (see art. Folia Thymi), Eucalyptus
globulus Labill.
Cymene, CH* -j qsjj? (Propylmethyl-benzol), may also be artificially
obtained from a large number of essential oils having the composition
<J'W\ or C"'H"0, or C"'H^«0, or (J'WO. It diff^ers very remarkably
from the oils of the formula C'"!!"*, inasmuch as cymene yields the
crystallizable cymensulphonic acids when it is warmed with concen-
trated sulphuric acid.
Lastly, there is present in the oil of cumin a small amount of a
terpene, C'^H'', boiling at 155-8° C, as stated in 1865 by C. M. Warren,
and in 1873 by Beilstein and Kupffer.
The dextrogyrate power of cuminol is a little less strong than that
of cymene; artificial cymene is optically inert.
Commerce — Cumin is shipped to England from Mogador, Malta
and Sicily. In Malta there were in 18G3, 140 acres under cultivation
with this crop ; in 1865, 730 acres, producing 2766 cwt.^
The export of cumin from Morocco ^ in 1872 was 1657 cwt. ; that
from Bombay in the year 1872-73 was 6766 cwt.;^ and 20,040 cwt.
from Calcutta'' in the year 1870-71.
Uses — Cumin is sold by druggists as an ingredient of curry powders,
but to a much larger extent for use in veterinary medicine.
CAPKIFOLIACE^.
FLORES SAMBUCI.
Elder Flowers ; F. Fleurs de Sureau ; G-. Holwnderhluthe,
Fliederhlvmen.
Botanical Origin — Sambucus nigra L. — a large deciduous shrub
or small tree, indigenous to Southern and Central Europe (not in Russia),
Western Asia, the Crimea, the regions of the Caucasus and Southern
Siberia. It is believed to be a native of England and Ireland, but not
to be trul}^ wild in Scotland. In other northern parts of Europe, as
Norway and Sweden, the elder appears only as a plant introduced there
during the middle ages by the monks.'
History — The Romans, as we learn from Pliny, made use in
^ Statistical Tables relating to the Colonial
and other possessions of the United Kingdom,
xi. 618. 619.
- Considar Reports, Aug. 1873, 917; in 1876
only 380 cwt.
^ Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of the Presidency of Bombay for 1872-73.
pt. ii. 90.
* Ammal Volume of Trade, etc. for the
Bengal Presidency for 1870-71. 121.
^ Scliiibeler, Pflanzemvelt Norweqens
(1873-75) 253.
834
CAPRIFOLIACEiE.
medicine of the plant under notice as well as of the Dwarf Elder (S.
Ehulus L.) Both kinds were employed in Britain by the ancient
English^ and Welsh- leeches, and in Italy in the medicine of the
school of Salernum.
Description — The elder produces in the early summer, conspicuous,
many-flowered cymes, 4 to 5 inches in diameter, of which the long
peduncle divides into 5 branches, which subdivide once or several
times by threes or fives, ultimately separating by repeated forking into
slender, furrowed pedicels about \ of an inch long, each bearing a single
flower. In the second or third furcations, the middle flower remains
short-stalked or sessile, and opens sooner than the rest. In like manner,
on the outermost small forks only one of the florets is usually long-
stalked. The whole of this inflorescence forms a flattish umbelliform
cyme, perfectly glabrous and destitute of bracts.
The calyx is combined with the ovary and boi'dered with 4 or 5
small teeth. The corolla, which is of a creamy white, is monopetalous
with a very short tube and 5 spreading ovate lobes. The stamens
Avhich are about as long as the divisions of the corolla and alternate
with them, are inserted in the tube of the latter. The yellow pollen
which thickly powders the flowers, appears under the microscope
3-pored. The pi'ojecting ovary is crowned by a 2- or 8-lobed sessile
stigma.
For use in pharmacy, the part of the flower most desirable is the
corolla, to obtain a good proportion of which the gathered cymes are
left for a few hours in a large heap ; the mass slightly heats, the corollas
detach themselves, and are separated from the gi'een stalks by shaking,
rubbing, and sifting ; they require to be then rapidly dried. This done,
they become much shrivelled and assume a dull yellow tint. When
fresh, they have a sweet faint smell, which becomes stronger and some-
what different by drying, and is quite unlike the repulsive odour of the
fresh leaves and bark. Dried elder flowers have a bitterish, slightly
gummy flavour. On the Continent they are sold with the stalks, i.e.
in entire cymes.
Chemical Composition — Elder flowers yield a very small per-
centage of a butter-like essential oil, lighter than water, and smelling
strongly of the flowers ; it is easily altered by exposure to the air.^ The
oil is accompanied by traces of volatile acids.
Uses — Elder flowers are only employed in British medicine for
making an aromatic distilled water, and for communicating a pleasant
odour to lard (Unguentum Sambuci). The flowers of Samhucus
canadensis L.* indigenous in the United States, which are extremely
similar to those of our species, appear to be more fragrant. The
leaves of the latter are sometimes used for giving a fine green
tint to oil or fat, as in the Oleum viride and Umguentum Sambuci
^ Leechdoms, etc. of Early Enrjland edited
by Cockayne, iii. (1866) 324.347. Accord-
ing to the Rev. Edward Gillett (p. xxxii.),
(S*. Ebubis is believed to have been brought
to England by the Danes and planted on
the battlefield and graves of their country-
men. In Norfolk it still bears the name of
Daneicorl and blood hilder (blood elder).
^ The Physicians of Myddfai (see Appendix)
used sage, rue, mallow, and elder Jlowers
as ingredients of a gai-gle. Meddygon
Ahjddvai, 219. 403.
^ For further information, see Gmelin,
Chemistry, xiv. (1860) 368.
^ Fig. inBentley andTrimen, Med. Plants,
part 21 (1877).
GAMBIER.
335
foliorum of the shops. The bark, once much employed, is now
obsolete.
RUBIACE^.
GAMBIER.
Catechu jMllidum, Extradiom Uiicarice ; Gambler, Pale Catechu,
Oamhier Catechu, Terra Japonica; F. Gamhir, Cachou jaune ;
G. Gamhir.
Botanical Origin — 1. Uncaria Gambier Roxb. (Nauclea Gamhir
Hunter) a stout climbing shrub, supporting itself by means of its flower-
stalks which are developed into strong recurved hooks.^ It is a native
of the countries bordering the Straits of Malacca, and especially of the
numerous islands at their eastern end; but according to Crawfurd^ it
does not seem indigenous to any of the islands of the volcanic band. It
also grows in Ceylon, where however no use is made of it.
2. U. acida Roxb.,^ probably a mere variety of the preceding, and
growing in the Malayan islands, appears to be used in exactly the same
manner.
History — Gambier is one of the substances to which the name of
Catechu or Terra Japonica is often applied ; the other is Gutch, which
has been already described (p. 243). By druggists and pharmaceutists
the two articles are frequently confounded, but in the great world of
commerce they are i"eckoned as quite distinct. In many price-currents
and trade-lists. Catechu is not found under that name, but only appears
under the terms Ciitch and Gambier.
Crawfurd asserts that gambier has been exported from time imme-
morial to Java from the Malacca Straits. This statement appears
highly questionable. Rum})hius, who resided in Amboyna during the
second half of the 17th century, was a merchant, consul and naturalist;
and in these capacities became thoroughly conversant with the pro-
ducts of the Malay Archipelago and adjacent regions, as the six folio
volumes of, his Herbarium Amboinense, illustrated by 587 plates,
amply prove.
Among other plants, he figures* Uncaria Gambier, which he terms
Funis uncatiis, and states to exist under two varieties, the one with
broad, and the other with narrow leaves. The first form, he says, is
called in Malay Daun Gatta Gamhir, on account of the bitter taste of
its leaves, which is perceptible in the lozenges (trochisci) called Gatta
Gamhir, so much so that one might suppose they were made from these
leaves, which however is not the case. He further asserts that the
leaves have a detergent, drying quality by reason of their bitterness,
which is nevertheless not intense but quite bearable in the mouth :
that they are masticated instead of Pinang [Betel nut] with Siri [leaf
of Piper Betle] and lime : that the people of Java and Bali plant the
first variety near their houses for the sake of its fragrant flowers ; but
^Fig. inBentleyandTrimen, Med. Plants, ^ Beautifully figured in Berg und Schmidt,
part 7 (1876). Offizinelle Oewdcliae, xxx. c. 1863.
- Dictionary of the Indian Island.i, 1865. * Herb, Amb. v. 63. tab, 34.
142.
336
RUBIACE.E.
though they chew its leaves instead of Pinang, it must not be supposed
that it is this plant from which the lozenges Gatta are compounded, for
that indeed is quite different.
Thus, if we may credit Rumphius, it would seem that the important
manufacture of gambler had no existence at the commencement of the
last century. As to " Gatta Gav%bir," his statements are scarcely in
accord with those of more recent writers. We may however remark
that that name is very like the Tamil Katta Kdmbu, signifying Catechu,
which drug is sometimes made into little round cakes, and was certainly
a large export from India to Malacca and China as early as the 16th
century (p. 241).
That gambler was unknown to Europeans long after the time of
Rumphius, is evident from other facts. Stevens, a merchant of Bombay,
in his Gompleat Guide to the East India. Trade, published in 17G6,
quotes the prices of goods at Malacca, but makes no allusion to gambler.
Nor is there any reference to it in Savary's Dictionnaire de Commerce
(ed. of 1750), in which Malacca is mentioned as the great entrepot of
the trade of India with that of China and Japan.
The first account of gambler known to us, was communicated to the
Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences in 1780, by a Dutch trader named
Couperus. This person narrates' how the plant was introduced into
Malacca from Pontjan in 1758, and how gambler is made from its
leaves; and names several sorts of the drug and their prices.
In 1807, a description of "the drug called Gutta Gambeer," and
of the tree from which it is made, was presented to the Linnean Society
of London. 2 The writer, William Hunter, well known for scientific
observations in connection with India, states that the substance is
made chiefly at Malacca, Siak and Rhio, that it is in the form of small
squares, or little round cakes almost perfectly white, and that the finer
sorts are used for chewing with betel leaf in the same manner as
catechu, while the coarser are shipped to Batavia and China for use in
tanning and dyeing.
Manufacture — The gambler plant is cultivated in plantations.
These were commenced in 1819 in Singapore, where there were at one
time 800 plantations ; but owing to scarcity of fuel, without an abun-
dant supply of which the manufacture is impossible, and dearness of
labour, gambier-planting was in 1866 fast disappearing from the island.^
The ofiicial Blue Book, printed at Singapore in 1872, reports it as "much
increased." It is largely pursued on the mainland (Johore), and in the
islands of the Rhio-Lingga Archipelago, lying south-east of Singapore.
On the island of Bintang, the most northerly of the group, there were
about 1,250 gambler-plantations in 1854.
The plantations are often formed in clearings of the jungle, where
they last for a few years and are then abandoned,* owing to the im-
poverishment of the soil and the irrepressible growth of the lalang
grass (Imperata Koenigii P. de B.), which is more difiicult to eradicate
than even primseval jungle. It has been found profitable to combine
1 Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Ge- ^ CoUingwood, Jom?-??. of Linn. Soc, Hot.,
nootschaj^, ii. (derde druk) 217-234. x. {18G9) 52.
- Lhm. Trans, ix, (1808) 218-224. * This abuse of land has been repressed
in Singapore.
GAMBIER.
337
with the cultivation of gambier that of pepper, for which the boiled
leaves of the gambier form an excellent manure.
The gambier plants are allowed to grow 8 to 10 feet high, and as their
foliage is always in season, each plant is stripped 3 or 4 times in the
year. The apparatus and all that belongs to the manufacture of the
extract are of the most primitive description.^ A shallow cast-iron pan
about 3 feet across is built into an earthen fireplace. Water is poured
into the pan, a fire is kindled, and the leaves and young shoots, freshly
plucked, are scattered in, and boiled for about an hour. At the end of
this time they are thrown on to a capacious sloping trough, the lower
end of which projects into the pan, and squeezed with the hand so that
the absorbed liquor may run back into the boiler. The decoction is then
evaporated to the consistence of a thin syrup, and baled out into buckets.
When sufliciently cool it is subjected to a curious treatment: — instead
of simply stirring it round, the workman pushes a stick of soft wood in
a sloping direction into each bucket ; and placing two such buckets
before him, he works a stick up and down in each. The liquid thickens
round the stick, and the thickened portion being constantly rubbed off,
while at the same the whole is in motion, it gradually sets into a mass,
a result which the workman affirms would never be produced by simple
stirring round. Though we are not prepared to concur in the work-
man's opinion, it is reasonable to suppose that his manner of treating
the liquor fevours the crystallization of the catechin in a more concrete
form than it might otherwise assume. The thickened mass, which is
said by another writer to resemble soft yellowish clay, is now placed in
shallow square boxes, and when somewhat hardened is cut into cubes
and dried in the shade. The leaves are boiled a second time, and
finally washed in water, which water is saved for another operation.
From informations obtained in 1878 it would appear that now the
prevailing part of gambier is made by means of pressure into blocks.
A plantation with five labourers contains on an average 70,000 to
80,000 shrubs, and yields 40 to 50 catties (1 catty = l-J lb. = 604-8
grammes) of gambier daily.
Description — Gambier is an earthy-looking substance of light
brown hue, consisting of cubes about an inch each side, more or less
agglutinated, or it is in the form of entirely compact masses. The
cubes are externally of a reddish brown and compact, internally of a
pale cinnamon hue, dry, poi'ous, friable, devoid of odour, but with a
bitterish astringent taste, becoming subsequently sweetish. Under the
microscope, the cubes of gambier are seen to consist of very small
acicular crystals.
Chemical Composition — In a chemical point of view, gambier
agrees with cutch, especially with the pale variety made in Northern
India (p. 242). Both substances consist mainly of Catechin,'^ which may
be obtained in the hydrated state as slender colourless needles, by
exhausting gambier with cold water, and crystallizing the residue from
3 or 4 parts of hot water, which on cooling deposits nearly all the
catechin. Ferric chloride strikes with the solution of catechin, even
' We borrowthe following account, which
is the best we have met with, from Jagor's
Singapore, Malacca, undJaca, Berlin, 1866.
64.
-Gautier (1877) suggests that it is not
identical with catechin from Acacia
Catechin (p. 244).
Y
338
UVBIACEM.
«
when much diluted, a green tint. If it is shaken with ferrous sulphate
and an extremely small quantity of bicarbonate of sodium, a violet
colour makes its appearance. The same reactions arc produced by
various substances of the tannic class.
The yellowish colouring matter of gambler was determined by
Hlasiwetz (1867) and Lowe (1873) to be Qtoercetin, which is also a con-
stituent of cutch. Quercetin is but vevy sparingly soluble in water,
yet it is nevertheless found, in small quantity, in the aqueous extract of
cutch, from which it may be removed by means of ether. As many
species of Nauclea contain, according to De Vry,^ Quinovic Acid, it
is probable that that substance may be detected in gambler.
Some fine gambler in regular cubes which we incinerated left 2"6
per cent, of ash, consisting mainly of carbonates of calcium and
magnesium.
Commerce — Singapore, which is the great emporium for gambler,
exported in 1871 no less than 34,248 tons, of which quantity 19,550
tons had been imported into the colony chiefly from Rhio and the
Malayan Peninsula.^ In 1876 the export had increased to more than
50,000 tons of pressed block gambler and 2,700 tons of cubes. In 1877
it diminished to 39,117 tons, owing to difficulties which had arisen
between the Chinese dealers, who supplied the drug in a rather wet
state, and the European exporters. Of the above quantity 21,607 tons
were shipped for London, 7,572 for Liverpool, 2,345 for Marseilles.
Gambier usually fetches a lower price ^ in the London market than
cutch.
The quantity [imported into the United Kingdom in 1872 was
21,155 tons, value £451,737, almost the whole being from the Straits
Settlements.
Uses — Gambier, under the name of Catechu, is used medicinally
as an astringent, but the quantity thus consumed is as nothing in com-
parison with that employed for tanning and dyeing.
CORTEX CINCHONA.
Cortex Peruvianus, Cortex Chinm; Cinchona Bark, Peruvian Bark ;
F. Ecorce de Quinquina ; G. Chinarinde.
Botanical Origin — The genus Cinchona constitutes together with
Cascarilla (including Buena and Cosmibuena), Remijia, Ladenbergia,
Macrocnemum, and about 30 other nearly allied genera, the well-
characterized tribe Cinchonew of the order Rubiacece. This tribe
consists of shrubs or trees with opposite leaves, 2-celled ovary, capsular
fruit, and numerous minute, vertical or ascending, peltate, winged, albu-
minous seeds.
(A.) Remarks on the genus. — The genus Cinchona is distinguished
by deciduous stipules, flowers in terminal panicles, 5-toothed superior
calyx, tubular corolla expanding into 5 lobes fringed at the margin.
The corolla is of an agreeable weak odour, and of a rosy or purplish hue
or white.
' P/tarm. /o?<n!. vi. (1865) 18. '^lls. per cwt., March 1879; see
- Blue Book of the Colony of the Straits Catechu, page 242, note 3.
Settlements for 1871.
COETEX CINCHONiE.
339
The fruit is a capsule of ovoid or subcylindrical form, dehiscing from
the base (the fruitstalk also splitting) into two valves, which are held
together at the apex by the thick permanent calyx. The seeds, 30 to
40 in number, are imbricated vertically; they are fiat, winged all round
by a broad membrane, which is very irregularly toothed or lacerated at
the edge.
The Cinchonas are evergreen, with finely-veined leaves, traversed
hy a strong midrib. The thick leafstalk, often of a fine red, is sometimes
a sixth the length of the whole leaf, but usually shorter. The leaves
are ovate, obovate, or nearly circular; in some species lanceolate, rarely
cordate, always entire, glabrous or more rarely hirsute, often variable as
to size and form in the same species.
Among the valuable species, several are distinguished by small pits
called scrobicidi, situated on the under side of the leaf, in the axils of
the veins which proceed from the midrib. These pits sometimes exude
an astringent juice. In some species they are replaced by tufts of hair.
The young leaves are sometimes purplish on the under side ; in several
species the full-grown foliage assumes before falling, rich tints of crimson
or orange.
The species of Cinchona are so much alike that their definition is a
matter of the utmost difficulty, and only to be accomplished by resort-
ing to a number of characters which taken singly are of no great
importance. Individual species are moreover frequently connected
together by well-marked and permanent intermediate forms, so that
according to the expression of Howard, the whole form a continuous
series, the terminal members of which are scarcely more sharply
separated from the allied genera, than from plants of their own series.
As to the number and value of the species known, there is some
diversity of view. Weddell, in 1870, enumerated 33 species and 18
sub-species, besides numerous varieties and sub-varieties. Bentham and
Hooker, in 1873, estimated the species as about 36.
Kuntze, in the book quoted at the end of the present article, pro-
posed to reduce all the species to the four following :
1. Cinchona Weddelliana 0. Kuntze, nearly answering to C.
Calisaya Weddell.
2. C. Pavoniana O. Kuntze, including G. micrantha Kuiz and
Favon and several allied plants.
3. C. Hoivardiana O. Kuntze, con-^tituted of G. succirubra Pa von
and a few other species of former authors.
4. G. Pahudiana Howard.
Kuntze, who has examined the living Cinchona? as cultivated in
India, is of the opinion that all the numerous forms hitherto observed,
both in the wild plants and in cultivation, are merely either belonging
to the above four species or deriving from them chiefly by hybridation.
Though much in favour of a reduction of the species, we are not yet
prepared to accept Kuntze's arrangement.
(B.) Area, Climate and Soil. — The Cinchonas are natives of South
America, where they occur exclusively on the western side of the conti-
nent between 10° N. lat. and 22° S. lat., an area which includes portions
of Venezuela, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
The plants are found in the mountain regions, no species whatever
:340
RUBIACE^.
being known to inhabit the low alkivial plains. In Peru and Bolivia,
the region of" the Cinchona forms a belt, 1300 miles in length, occupying
the eastern slope of the Cordillera of the Andes.^ In Ecuador and
New Granada, the tree is not strictly limited to the eastern slopes, but
occurs on other of the Andine ranges.
The average altitude of the cinchoniferous region is given by Wed-
dell as 5,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea-level. The highest limit, as
noted by Karsten, is 11,000 feet. One valuable species, C. succiruhra,
occurs exceptionally as low as 2,600 feet. Generally, it may be said
that the altitude of the Cinchona zone decreases in proportion as it
recedes from the equator, and that the most valuable sorts are not found
lower than 5,000 feet.
The climate of the tropical mountain regions in which the Cinchonas
flourish, is extremely variable, — sunshine, showers, storms, and thick
mist, alternating in rapid succession, yet with no very great range of
temperature. A transient depression of the thermometer even to the
freezing point, and not unfrequent hail-showers, may be borne without
detriment by the more hardy species. Yet the mean temperature most
favourable for the generality of species, appears to be 12 to 20° C.
(54 to 68° F.)
Climatic agencies appear to influence the growth of Cinchona far
more than the composition of the soil. Though the tree occurs in a
great variety of geological formations, there is no distinct evidence that
these conditions control in any marked manner either the development
of the tree or the chemical constitution of its bark. Manure on the
other hand, though not increasing perceptibly luxuriance of growth, has
a decided effect in augmenting the richness of the bark in alkaloids.^
(C.) Species yielding officinal barks. — The Cinchona Barks of com-
merce are produced by about a dozen species ; of these barks the
greater number are consumed solely in the manufacture of quinine.
Those admitted for pharmaceutical use are afforded by the following
species : —
1. Cinchona officinalis Hooker ^ — A native of Ecuador and Peru,
existing under several varieties. It forms a large tree, having lanceolate
or ovate leaves, usually pointed, glabrous, and shining on the upper sur-
face, and scrobiculate on the under. The flowers are small, pubescent
and in short lax panicles, and are succeeded by oblong or lanceolate
capsules, | an inch or more in length.
2. C. Calisaija Weddell — Discovered by Weddell in 1847,* although
its bark had been an object of commerce since the latter half of the
previous century.
The tree inhabits the warmest woods of the declivities which border
the valleys of Bolivia and South-eastern Peru, at an altitiide of 5000 to
6000 feet above the sea-level. More precisely, the chief localities for
the tree are the Bolivian provinces of Enquisivi, Yungas de la Paz,
Larecaja or Sorata, Caupolican or Apolobamba, and Munecas : thence it
' That is to say the eastern Cordillera, the
western and lower range being called the
Cordillera of the Coast ; no Cinchonas grow-
on the latter.
^ Broughtou, in Phurm. Journ. Jan. 4,
1S73. 521.
3 Figured in 5o/!. Magazine, vol. 89(1863)
tab. 5364, including C. Condaminea Humb.
et Bonpl. and C. Uritusinga Pavon.
* Ann. des Sciences nat., Bot. x. (1848) 6,
and Hist. nat. des Quinquinas, 1849, tab. 3,
figured in Botanical Magazine, 1873. 6052,
and 1879. 6434.
CORTEX CINCHONA.
341
passes northward into the Peruvian province of Carabaya, suddenly
ceasing on the confines of the valley of Sandia, although, as Weddell
observed, the adjacent valleys are to all appearance precisely similar.
When well grown, G. Calisaya has a trunk often twice as thick as a
man's body, and a magnificent crown of foliage overtopping all other
trees of the forest. It has ovate capsules of about the same length
(^^ an inch) as the elegant pinkish flowers, which are in large pyramidal
panicles. The leaves are 3 to 6 inches long, of very variable form, but
usually oblong and obtuse, rarely acute.
A variety named after Joseph de Jussieu who first noticed it, |8.
Josephiana, but known in the country as IcIm-CascariUa or Cascarilla
del Pajonal, differs from the preceding in that it is a shrub, 6 to 10 feet
high, growing on the borders of mountain meadows and of thickets in
the same regions as the larger form.
Other forms known in Bolivia as Calisaya zamha, niorada, verde or
alta, and blanca, have been distinguished by Weddell as varieties of C.
Calisaya.
Towards the middle of the year 1865, Charles Ledger, an English
traveller, obtained seeds of a superior Cinchona, which had been col-
lected near Pelechuco, eastwards of the lake Titicaca, about G8° W.
long, and 15° S. lat., in the Bolivian province of Caupolican. In the
same year the seeds arrived in England, but were subsequently sold to
the Dutch government, and raised with admirable success in Java, and
a little later also in private plantations in British India. The bark of
" Cinchona, Ledgeriana " has since proved by far the most productive
in quinine of all Cinchona Barks. The tree is a mere form of C.
Calisaya.^
3. C. succirubra Pavon,^ — a magnificent tree, 50 to 80 feet high,
formerly growing in all the valleys of the Andes which debouch in the
plain of Guayaquil. The tree is now almost entirely confined to the
forests of Guaranda on the western declivities of Chimborazo, at 2,000
to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea.
The bark appears to have been appreciated in its native country
at an early period, if we may conclude that the Ited Bark mentioned
by La Condamine in 1737 was that under notice. It would seem,
however, to have scarcely reached Europe earlier than the second half
of the last century.'' The tree has broadly oval leaves, attaining about
a foot in length, nearly glabrous abovi, pubescent beneath, large ter-
minal panicles of rosy flowers, succeeded by oblong capsules 1 to 1}
inches long.
The other species of Cinchona, the bark of which is principally
consumed by the manufacturers of quinine, will be found briefly noticed,
together with the foregoing, in the conspectus at page 355.
History — -The early native history of Cinchona is lost in obscurity.
No undoubted proofs have been handed down, to show that the abori-
gines of South America had any acquaintance with the medicinal
properties of the bark. But traditions are not wanting.
^ Ledger's Calisaya is beautifully figured
and exactly described in Howard's Quino-
^ogy of the East Indian Plantations, parts
ii. and iii.
2 Figured in Howard's Nueva Quinologia,
art. CJdncJiona succirubra.
^ Howard, I.e. p. 9.
342
RUBIACEiE.
William Arrot/ a Scotch surgeon who visited Peru in the early part
of the last century, states that the opinion then current at Loxa was
that the qualities and use of the barks of Cinchona were known to the
Indians before any Spaniard came among them. Condamine, as well as
Jussieu, heard the same statements, which appear to have been generally
prevalent at the close of the 17th centmy.
It is noteworthy, on the other hand, that though the Peruvians
tenaciously adhere to their traditional customs, they make no use at the
present day of Cinchona bark, but actually regard its employment
with repugnance.
Humboldt^ declares that at Loxa the natives would rather die
than have recourse to what they consider so dangerous a remedy.
Poppig^ (1830) found a strong prejudice to prevail among the people of
Buanuco against Cinchona as a remedy for fevers, and the same fact
was observed farther north by Spruce* in 1861. The latter traveller
narrates, that it was impossible to convince the cascarilleros of
Ecuador that their Red Bark could be wanted for any other purpose
than dyeing cloth ; and that even at Guayaquil there was a general
dislike to the use of quinine.
Markham" notices the curious fact that the wallets of the native
itinerant doctors, who from father to son have plied their art since the
days of the Incas, never contain cinchona bark.
Although Peru was discovered in 1513, and submitted to the
Spanish yoke by the middle of the century, no mention has been found
of the febrifuge bark with which the name of the country is connected,
earlier than the commencement of the 17th century.
Joseph de Jussieu,^ who visited Loxa in 1739, relates that the use
of the remedy was first made known to a Jesuit missionary, who being
attacked by intermittent fever, was cured by the bark administered to
him by an Indian cacique at Malaeotas, a village near Loxa. The date
of this event is not given. The same story is related of the Spanish
corregidor of Loxa, Don Juan Lopez Canizares, who is said to have
been cured of fever in 1630.
Eight years later, the wife of the viceroy of Peru, Luis Geronimo
Fernandez de Cabrera y Bobadilla, fourth count of Chinchon, having
been attacked with fever, the same corregidor of Loxa sent a packet
of powdered bark to her physician Juan de Vega, assuring him of its
efficacy in the treatment of " tertiana." The drug fully bore out its
reputation, and the countess Ana was cured.' Upon her I'ecovery, she
caused to be collected large quantities of the bark, which she used to
give away to those sick of fever, so that the medicine came to be
called Polvo de la Condesa, i.e. The Countess' Poivder. It was certainly
1 Pliil. Trans, xl. for 1737-38. 81.
2 Der Oesellsch. naturf. Freunde zii Berlin
Magaz. i. (1807) 60.
3 Reise in Cliile, Peru, etc. ii. (1836) 222.
Blue Book — East India Ghlnchona
Plant, 1863. 74. 75.
' Travels in Peru and India, 1862. 2.
^ Quoted by Weddell in his Hist, des
Quinquinas, p. 15, from De Jussieu's un-
published MS. — The town of Loxa or Loja
was founded by the Spaniards in 1546.
The circumstances are fully narrated by
La Condamine (Aldm. de VAcad. royale des
Sciences, annexe 1738). But the cure of the
countess was known in Europe much before
this, for it is mentioned by Sebastiano
Bado in his Anasta.sis, Corticis Peruvice, seu
Chinee Chinee defensio published at Genoa
in 1663. When Bado wrote, it was a de-
bated question whether the bark was intro-
duced to Europe by the count of Chinchon
or by the Jesuit Fathers.
CORTEX CINCHONiE.
343
known in Spain the following year (1639), when it was first tried at
Alcala de Henares near Madrid/
The introduction of Peruvian Bark into Europe is described by
Chifflet, physician to the archduke Leopold of Austria, viceroy of the
Netherlands and Burgundy, in his Pidvis Febrifiigus Orbis Americani
ventilatits, published at Brussels in 1633 (or 1651 1). He says that
among the wonders of the day, many reckon the tree growing in the
kingdom of Peru, which the Spaniards call Palo de Galenturas, i.e.
Lignum febrium. Its virtues reside chiefly in the bark, which is
known as China febris, and which taken in powder drives ofi* the
febrile paroxysms. He further states, that during the last few years
the bark has been imported into Spain, and thence sent to the Jesuit
Cardinal Joannes de Lugo at Rome." Chifflet adds, that it has been
carried from Italy to Belgium by the Jesuit Fathers going to the
election of a general, but that it was also brought thither direct from
Peru by Michael Belga, who had resided some years at Lima.
Chifflet, though candidly admitting the efficacy of the new drug
when properly used, was not a strong advocate for it; and his publica-
tion started an aci'imonious controversy, in which Honoratius Faber, a
Jesuit (1655), Fonseca, physician to Pope Innocent X., Sebastiano Bado^
of Genoa (1656 and 1663), and Sturm (1659) appeared in defence
of the febrifuge ; while Plempius (1655), Glantz, an imperial physician
of Ratisbon (1653), Godoy, physician to the king of Spain (1653),
Rene Moreau (1655), Arbinet and others contended in an opposite
sense.
From one of these disputants, Roland Sturm, a doctor of Louvain,
who wrote in 1659,'* we learn that four years previously, some of the
new febrifuge had been sent by the archduke Leopold to the Spanish
ambassador at the Hague, and that he (Sturm) had been required to
report upon it. He further states, that the medicine was known in
Brussels and Antwerp as Ptdvis Jesuiticus, because the Jesuit Fathers
were in the habit of administering it gratis to indigent persons
suffering from quartan fever; but that it was more commordy called
Pulvis Peruanus or Periivianam Febrifugum. At Rome it bore the
name of Pidvis eminentissimi Cardinalis de Lugo, or Pulvis patrum;
the Jesuits at Rome received it from the establishments of their order
in Peru, and used to give it away to the poor in Cardinal de Lugo's
palace. In 1658 Sturm saw 20 doses sent to Paris which cost 60
florins. He gives a copy of the handbilP of 1651 which the apothecaries
of Rome used to distribute with the costly powder.
1 Villerobel, quoted by Bado, op. cit. 202.
2 The cardinal belonged to a family of
Seville, which town had the monopoly of
the trade with America.
^ Bado in his Anastasis, lib. 3, quotes
the opinion of many persons as coinciding
with his own.
* Febrifugi Peruviani Vindiciarum pars
prior — Pulveris Historiam complectem ejus-
que vires et proprietates . . . exhihens, Del-
phis, 1659. 12°.
° It is in these words: — Modo di adoprare
la Corteccia chiamata della Febre. — Questa
Corteccia si porta dal Regno di Peru, e si
chiama China, o vero China della febre,
laquale si adopra per la febre quartana, e
terzana, che venga con freddo : s'adroj)ra in
questo modo, cio6 :
Se ne piglia dramme due, e si pista fina,
con passarla per setaccio ; e tre hore prima
incirca, che debba venir la febre si mette
in infusione in un bicchiero di vino bianco
gagliardissimo, e quando il freddo com-
mincia a venire, 6 si sente qualche minimo
principio, si prende tutta la presa preparata,
e si mette il patiente in letto.
Avertasi, si potri dare detta Corteccia nel
modo sudetto nella febre terzana, quando
344
RUBIACE^.
The drug began to be known in England about 1655.' The Mer-
curius PolUicus, one of the earliest English newspapers, contains in
several of its numbers for 1658,^ a year remarkable for the preva-
lence in England of an epidemic remittent fever, advertisements
offering for sale — " the excellent 'powder known by the name of the
Jesuits Potvder " — brought over by James Thomson, merchant of
Antwerp.
Brady, professor of physic at Cambridge, prescribed bark aboiit this
time; and in IGCO, Willis, a physician of great eminence, reported it as
coming into daily use. This is also evidenced, with regard to the
continent, by the pharmaceutical tariffs of the cities of Leipzig and Frank-
furt of the year 1669, where "China Chinee" has a place. ^ of an ounce
(a " quint ") is quoted in the latter at 50 kreuzers (about Is. 6d.), whereas
the same quantity of opium is valued at 4 kreuzers,^ camphor 2 kreuzers,
balsam of Peru 8 kreuzers.
Among those who contributed powerfully to the diffusion of the
new medicine, was Robert Talbor alias Tabor. In his "Pyretologia" (see
Appendix, T.) he by no means intimates that his method of cure depends
on the use of bark. On the contrary, he cautions his readers against
the dangerous effects of Jesuits' Powder when administered by unskil-
ful persons, yet admits that, properly given, it is a " noble and safe
medicine."
Talbor's reputation increasing, he was appointed in 1678 physician
in ordinary to Charles II., and in 1679, the king being ill of tertian
fever at Windsor, Talbor cured him by his secret remedy.* He acquired
similar favour in France, and upon Talbor's death (1681), Louis XIV.
ordered the publication of his method of cure, which accordingly
appeared by Nicolas de Blegny, surgeon to the king.' This was im-
mediately translated into English, under the title of The English
Remedy: or, Talbor's Wonderful Secret for Cureing of Agues and
Weavers. — Sold by the Author Sir Robert Talbor to the most Christian
King, and since Ms Death, ordered by his Majesty to be 'published in
French, for the benefit of his subjects, and notv translated into English
for Picblick Good (Lond. 1682).
Cinchona bark was now accepted into the domain of regular medicine,
though its efficacy was by no means universally acknowledged. It first
appeared in the London Pharmacopoeia in 1677, under the name of
Cortex Peruanus.
quella sia fermata in stato di molti gior-
ni.
L'esperienza continua, hk liberata quasi
tutti quelli, che I'hanno presa, purgato
prima bene il corpo, e per quattro giorni
doppo uon pigliar' niuna sorte di medica-
mento, ma auvertasi di non darla se non
con licenza delli Sig. Medici, acci6 giudi-
cano se sia in tempo a proposito di
pigliarla.
^ So says Sir Gr. Baker, who has traced
the introduction of Cinchona in a very
able paper published in the Medical
Transactions of the College of Physicians
of London, iii. (1785) 141-216.
" Namely No. 422. June 24-July 1 ; No.
426. .July 22-29; No. 439. Oct. 21-28.
No. 545. Dec. 9-16. — We have examined
the copy at the British Museum.
^ Ph. Journ. vi. (1876) 1022.
^ In the Reciieil for 1680, p. 275 (see
appendix, Talbor) the king is said to have
had another attack of fever at Windsor,
for which he took "du Quinquina pr6par6,"
which again cured him.
^ Le Remtde amjlois pottr la gti&rison des
fi&vres, publii par ordre du Roy, avec les
observations de Monsieur le premier MMecin
de sa Majesti, sur la composition, les vertus,
et I'usage de ce remMe, par Nicolas de
Blegny, Chirurgien ordinaire du corps de
Monsieur, et Directeur de I'Academie des
nouvelles decouvertes de Medecine, Paris,
1682. 12°.
CORTEX CINCHONA.
345
For the first accurate information on the botany of Cinchona, science
is indebted to the French.^
Charles-Marie de la Condamine, while occupied in common with
Bouguer and Godin, as an astronomer from 1736 to 1743, in measuring
the arc of a degree near Quito, availed himself of the opportunity to
investigate the origin of the famous Peruvian Bark. On the 3rd and
4th of February, 1737, he visited the Sierra de Cajanuma, 2|- leagues
from Loxa, and there collected specimens of the tree now known as
Cinchona ojjichudis var. a. Condaminea. At that period the very
large trees had already become rare, but there were still specimens
having trunks thicker thaa a man's body. Cajanuma was the home of
the first cinchona bark brought to Europe; and in early times it
enjoyed such a reputation, that certificates drawn up before a notary
were provided as proof that parcels of bark were the produce of that
favoured locality.
Joseph de Jussieu, botanist to the French expedition with which La
Condamine was connected, gathered, near Loxa in 1739, a second
Cinchona subsequently named by Vahl C. puhescens, a species of no
medicinal value.
In 1742 Linnaeus established the genus Cinchona," and in 1753
first described the species C. officinalis, recently restored and exactly
characterized by Hooker, aided by specimens supplied to him by Mr.
Howard.
The cinchona trees were believed to be confined to the region around
Loxa, until 1752 when Miguel de Santisteban, superintendent of the
mint at Santa Fe, discovered some species in the neighbourhood of
Popayan and Pasto.
In 1761 Josd Celestino Mutis, physician to the Marquis de la Vega,
viceroy of New Granada, arrived at Carthagena from (Jadiz, and
immediately set about collecting materials for writing a Flora of the
country. This undertaking he carried on with untiring energy,
especially from the year 1782 until the end of his life in 1808, —
first for seven years at Real del Sapo and Mariquita at the foot of
the Cordillera de Quindiu, and subsequently at Santa Fe de Bogota.
Mutis gave up his medical appointment in 1772, for the purpose of
entering a religious order, and ten years later was entrusted by the
Government with the establishment and direction of a large museum of
natural history, first at Mariquita, aft'^rwards at Santa F^.
A position similar to that of Mutis in New Granada had also been
conferred in 1777 on the botanists Hipolito Ruiz and Jos^ Pavon with
regard to southern Peru, whence originated the well-known Flora
Peruviana et Ghilensis'^ as well as most important direct contributions
to our knowledge on the subject of Cinchona.
About the same time (1776), Renquizo (Renquifo or Renjifo) found
cinchona trees in the neighbourhood of Huanuco, in the central tract
1 Sur I'arbre de Quinquina par M. de la
Condamine — M^m. de I'Academie royale des
Sciences pour I'annie 1738. pp. 226-243,
with two plates.
- jSIai-kham has vigorously contended
that the name Cinchona should be altered
to Chincliona as better commemorating the
countess of Chinchon. But the incon-
venience of changing so well-established
a name and its many derivatives, has out-
weighed these considerations. — See list of
works relating to Cinchona at the end of
the present article.
3 Published at Madrid, 1798-1802, in 4
volumes folio, with 425 plates.
346
RUBIACEiE.
of Peru, whereby the monopoly of the district of Loxa was soon
broken up.
Numerous and important quinological discoveries were subsequently
made by Mutis, or rather by his pupils Caldas, Zea, and Restrepo/ as
well as on the other hand by Ruiz and Pavon, and their successors
Tafalla and Manzanilla. Mutis did not bring his labours to any definite
conclusion, and his extensive botanical collections and 5,000 coloured
drawings, were sent to Madrid only in 1817, and there remained in a
lamentable state of neglect.
Some of his observations first appeared in print in 1793-94, under
the title of El Arcano de la Quiva in the Diario, a local paper of
Santa Fe, and were reprinted at Madrid in 1828 by Don Manuel
Hernandez de Gregorio. The botanical descriptions of the cinchonas of
New Granada, forming the fourth part of the Arcano, remained for-
gotten and lost to science until rescued by Markham and published in
1867.^ The drawings belonging to the descriptions were photographed
and engraved a little later, and form part of Triana's Nouvelles Etudes
sur les Quinquinas, which appeared in 1870.
The two Peruvian botanists succeeded somewhat better in securing
their results. Ruiz in 1792, in his Quinologia,^ and in 1801 conjointly
with Pavon in a supplement thereto, brought together a portion of their
important labours relating to cinchona. But an essential part called
Nueva Quinologia, written between 1821 and 1826, remained un-
published; and after an oblivion of over thirty years, it came by pur-
chase into the hands of Mr. John Eliot Howard, who published it, and
with rare liberality enriched it with 27 magnificent coloured plates,
mostly taken from the very specimens of Pavon lying in the herbarium
of Madrid.
Between the pupils of Mutis on the one hand, and those of Ruiz and
Pavon on the other, there arose an acrimonious controversy regarding
their respective discoveries, which has been equitably summarized by
Triana in the work just mentioned.
Production — The hardships of bark-collecting in the primeval
forests of South America are of the severest kind, and undergone only
by the half-civilized Indians and people of mixed race, in the pay of
speculators or companies located in the towns. Those who are engaged
in the business, especially the collectors themselves, are called Casca-
rilleros or Gascadores, from the Spanish word Cftscara, bark. A major-
domo at the head of the collectors directs the proceedings of the several
bands in the forest itself, where provisions and afterwards the produce
are stowed away in huts of slight construction.
Arrot in 1736, and Weddell and Karsten in our own day, have given
from personal observation a striking picture of these operations.
The cascarillero having found his tree, has usually to free its stem
from the luxuriant climbing and parasitic plants with which it is en-
^ ". . Mutis n'avait qii'une notion in-
exacte et confuse du genre Cinchona et de
ses vdritables caracteres ; c'est en definitive
qu'aucune de ses espfeces, dans le sens strict
du mot, n'a iti reconnue ni d^couverte par
lui." — Triana, Nouv. Etudes, p. 8.
2 Markham, Chincliona Sjiecies of New
Granada, Lond. 1867.
3 Quinologia, 6 tratado de drbol de la
Quina, 6 Cascarilla, Madrid, 1792. 4".
pp. 103.
* Sup2}lemento d la Quinologia, Madrid,
1801. 40. pp. 154.
CORTEX CINCPIONiE.
347
circled. This done, he begins in most cases at once to remove, after a
previous beating, the sapless layer of outer bark. In order to detach
the valuable inuer bark, longitudinal and transverse incisions are made as
high as can be reached on the stem. The tree is then felled, and the
peeling completed. In most cases, but especially if previously beaten,
the bark separates easily from the wood. In many localities it has to
be dried by a fire made on the floor of a hut, the bark being placed on
hurdles above, — a most imperfect arrangement. In Southern Peru and
Bolivia however, according to Weddell, even the thickest Calisaya bark
is dried in the sun without requiring the aid of the fire.
The thinner bark as it dries rolls up into tubes or quills called
canutos or canutillos, while the pieces stripped from the trunks are
made to dry flat by being placed one upon another and loaded with
weights, and are then known as planclta or tahla. The bark of the root
was formerly neglected, but is now in several instances brought into the
market.
After drying, the barks are either assorted, chiefly according to
size, or all are packed without distinction in sacks or bales. In some
places, as at Popayan, the bark is even stamped, in order to reduce its
bulk as much as possible. The dealers in the export towns enclose the
bark in serons^ of raw bullock-hide, which, contracting as it dries,
tightly compresses the contents (100 lb. or more) of the package. In
many places however wooden chests are used for the packing of bark.
Conveyance to the Coast and Commercial Statistics — The
ports to which bark is conveyed for shipment to Europe are not very
numerous.
Guayaquil on the Pacific coast is the most important for produce
of Ecuador. The quantity shipped thence in 1871 was 7,859 quintals.^
Pitayo bark is largely exported from Buenaventura in the Bay of Choco
further north.
Payta, the most northerly port of Peru, and Callao, the port of Lima,
likewise export bark, the latter being the natural outlet for the barks of
Central Peru from Huanuco to Cusco.
Islay, and more particularly Arica, receive the valuable barks of
Carabaya and of the high valleys of Bolivia. In 1877 the export of Arica
was equal to 5100 cwt.
The barks of Peru and Bolivia find an exceptional outlet also by the
Amazon and its tributaries, and are "Jiipped to Europe from port of
Brazil. Howard^ has given an interesting account of one of the first
attempts to utilize this eastern route, made by Senr. Pedro Rada in ,
1868.
There is a large export of the barks of New Granada, principally
from Santa Marta, whence the shipments* in 1871 were 3,415,149 lb. ;
and in 1872, 2,758,991 lb. From the neighbouring port of Savanilla,
which represents the city of Barranquilla, the sea-terminus of the navi-
gation of the Magdalena, the export of bark in 1871 was 1,043,835 lb.,
value £38,715 it amounted to 2 millions of kilogrammes in 1877.
All Columbia is stated, in 1877, to have shipped 3| millions of kilo-
^ From zurrdn, the Spanish name for a ^ Seemann's J^om?-». of Bot. vi. (1868) 32.3.
pouch or game-bag. * Consular Reports, August 1873. 743.
- Consular Reports, presented to Parlia- = Ibid. August 1872.
ment, July 1872.
348
KUBIACE^.
grammes of bark ; yet a good deal of the excellent barks of the
Columbian State of Santander, especially those of the neighbourhood
of Bucaramanga, find their way to Maracaibo, taking the name of
that place.
Some Cinchona bark is also shipped from Venezuela by way of
Puerto Cabello.
The quantity of bark appearing in the Annual Statement of Trade
as "Peruvian Bark" imported into the United Kingdom in 1872, was
28,451 cwt., valued £285,620; of which 11,843 cwt. was shipped from
New Granada, 4,G68 cwt. from Ecuador, and 5,829 cwt. from Peru, the
remainder being entered as from the ports of Chili, Brazil, Central
America and other countries. The imports into the United Kingdom
in 187C were 26,021 cwt., valued at £272,154.
Cultivation — The reckless system of bark-cutting in the forests of
South America, which has resulted in the utter extei'mination of the
tree from many localities, has aroused the attention of the Old World,
and has at length prompted serious efforts to cultivate the tree on a
large scale in other countries.
The idea of cultivating Cinchonas out of their native regions was
advanced by Ruiz in 1792, and by Fee of Strassburg in 1824.^ Royle"
pointed out in 1839 that suitable localities for the purpose might be
found in the Neilgherry Hills and probably in many other parts of
India, and argued indefatigably in favour of the introduction of
the tree.
The subject was also urged in reference to Java in 1837 by Fritze,
director of medical affairs in that island ; in 1846 by Miquel, and sub-
sequently by other Dutch botanists and chemists.^
Living Cinchonas had been taken to Algeria as early as 1849,
by the intervention of the Jesuits of Cusco, but their cultivation met
with no success.
Weddell in 1848 brought cinchona seeds from South America to
France, and strenuously insisted on the importance of cultivating the
plant. His seeds, especially those of G. Calisaya, germinated at the
Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and in June 1850, living seedlings were
sent to Algeria; and in April 1852, through the Dutch Government,
to J ava.
The first important attempts at cinchona-cultivation were made by
the Dutch. Under the auspices of the Colonial Minister Pahud, after-
wards Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, the botanist
Hasskarl was despatched to Peru for the purpose of obtaining seeds and
plants. His mission was so far successful, that a collection of plants
contained in 21 Wardian cases, was shipped in August 1854 from
Callao, in a frigate sent expressly to receive them. Notwithstanding
every care, the plants did not reach Java in good condition ; and when
Hasskarl resigned his appointment in 1856, he bequeathed to his suc-
cessor Junghuhn only 167 young cinchonas, though 400 specimens had
been shipped from South America.
An impulse to the project of cinchona-planting was given in 1852
^ Coitrs d'Hist. nat. pharmaceutique, ii. ^ According to K.W. van Gorkom, sugges-
(1828) 252. tions to the same end were made to the
Illustrations of the Bot. of the Himalayan Dutch Government as early as 1829 by
Mountains, i. (1839) 240. Reinwardt.
CORTEX CINCHONvE.
349
by Roj'le, in a report addressed to the East India Company, in which
he pointed out that the Government of India were then spending more
than £7,000 a year for Cinchona bark, in addition to about £25,000 for
quinine.^
After some unsatisfactory endeavours on the part of the British
Government to obtain phmts and seeds through the intervention of
H. M. Consuls in South America, Mr. Markham offered his services,
which wei-e accepted. Markham, though not a professed botanist, was
well qualitied for the task by a previous acquaintance with the country
and peo])le of Peru and Bolivia, and by a knowledge of the Spanish
and Quichua languages, — and even more so by a rare amount of zeal,
intelligence, and forethought. Being fully aware of the difficulties of
the undertaking, he earnestly insisted that nothing should be neglected
which could ensure success ; and in particular made repeated demands
for a steam-vessel to convey the young plants across the Pacific to
India, which unfortunately were not complied with. He further urged
the desirableness of not confining operations to a single district, but
of endeavouring to procure by difterent collectors all the more valuable
species.
The prudence of this latter suggestion was evident, and Markham
was enabled to engage the services of Richard Spruce, the distinguished
botanist, then resident in Ecuador, who expressed his readiness to
imdertake a search for the Red Bark ti'ees (C. succiruhra) in the
forests of Chimborazo. He also secured the co-operation of G. J.
Pritchett for the neighbourhood of Huanuco, and of two skilful
gardeners, John Weir and Robert Cross. The last-named was employed
in 1861 to procure seeds of G. oJficinaUs from the Sierra de Cajanuma
near Loxa, and in 1863-64 those of C. pitayensis from the province of
Pitayo in Ecuador.^
Markham reserved for himself the border-lands of Peru and Bolivia,
in order to obtain C. Calisaya ; and for this purpose started from Islay
in March 1860. Arriving in the middle of April by way of Arequipa
and Puno, at Curcero, the capital of the province of Carabaya, he made
his way to the village of Sandia, near which he met with the first
specimens oi Cinchona in the form of the shrubby variety of G. Calisaya,
termed Jose'phiana. He afterwards found the better variety a. vera,
and also C. ovata R. et P., C. micrantha R. et P., and G. pubescens
Vahl. Of these sorts, but chiefly of the first three, 456 plants were
shipped at Islay in June 1860.
In consequence of the hostile attitude of the people, and the
jealousy of the Bolivian Government, lest an important monopoly
should be broken up, added to the difficulties arising from insalubrious
climate and the want of roads, the obstacles encountered by Markham
were very great, and no attempt could be made to wait for the
ripening of the seeds of the Calisaya, which takes place in the month
of August.^
1 In 1870, the Indian Government pur-
chased no less than 81,600 ounces of sul-
phate of quinine, besides 8,832 ounces of
the sulphates of cinchonine, cinchonidine
and quinidine. The quantities bought in
subsequent yeai's have been much smaller
until the present year (1874).
^ Report on the Expedition to procm'e seeds
of C. Condaminea [1862]; also Report to the
Under Secretary of State for India on the
Pitayo Ghinchona, by Robt. Cross, 1865.
^ Great difficulty was at first experienced
in successfully conveying living Cinchona
plants to India, even in ^^'ardian cases ;
350
RUBIACEiE.
The expedition of Spruce was successful, but was also attended with
much difficulty and dangei', of which there are vivid pictures in the
interesting narratives by himself and by Cross, published in the Par-
liamentary Returns of 1863 and 1860/
The service entrusted to Pritchett was also efficiently performed ;
and he succeeded in bringing to Southampton six cases containing
plants of G. micrantha and G. nitida, besides a large supply of seeds.
Some important supplies of plants and seed for British India have
likewise been obtained from -the Dutch plantations in Java. Seeds of
G. lancifolia, the tree affording the valuable bark of New Granada,
were procured through Dr. Karsten.
Pi'eviously to the arrival in India of the first consignment of plants,
careful inquiries were instituted from a meteorological and geological
point of view, as to the localities most adapted for the cultivation. This
resulted in the selection for the first trial of certain spots among the
Neilgherry (or Nilgiri) Hills on the south-west coast of India and in the
Madras Presidency. Of this district, the chief town is Ootocamund (or
Utakamand), situated about 60 miles south of Mysore and the same
distance from the Indian Ocean. Here the fii'st plantation was esta-
blished in a woody ravine, 7,000 feet above the sea-level, a spot pro-
nounced by Mr. Markham to be exceedingly analogous, as respects
vegetation and climate, to the Cinchona valleys of Carabaya. Other
plantations were formed in the same neighbourhood, and so rapid was
the propagation, that in September 1866, there were more than IJ
millions of Cinchona plants on the Neilgherry Hills alone.^ The species
that grows best there is G. officinalis.
The number was stated to be in 1872, 2,639,285, not counting the
trees of private planters. The largest are about SO feet high, with
trunks over 3 feet in girth. The area of the Government plantations
on the Neilgherry Hills is 950 acres.^
Plantations have also been made in the coffee-producing districts of
Wynaad, and in Coorg, Travancore and Tinnevelly, in all instances, we
believe, as private speculations.
Cinchona plantations have been established by the Government of
India in the valleys of the Himalaya in British Sikkim,* and some have
been started in the same region by private enterprise. In the former
there were on the 31st March 1870, more than 1| millions of plants
permanentlj^ placed, the species growing best being G. siiccirubra and
G. Galisaya. The Cinchona plantation of Rungbi near Darjiling (British
Sikkim) covered in 1872 2,000 acres. In the Kangra valley of the
Western Himalaya, plantations have been commenced, as well as in the
Bombay Presidency, and in British Burma.
and the collections formed by Hasskarl,
Markham, and Pritchett almost all perished
after reaching their destination (Markham's
letter, 26 Feb. 1861). But the jwopaga-
tion by seed has proved very rapid.
1 Correspondence relaiinr/ to the introduc-
tion of the Chinchoiia Plant into India,
ordered by the House of Commons to be
printed 20 March 186.3 and 18 June 1866.
- Blue Book {Chinchona Cultivation,
1870. p. 30). — A name that must always be
remembered in connection with the Neil-
gherry jilantations, is that of William
Graham Mclvor, who by his rare practical
skill and sagacity in the cultivation and
management of the tree, has rendered
most signal services in its propagation in
India.
^ Moral and material progress and condi-
tion of India driving 1871-72, presented to
Parliament 1873. p. 33.
* The first annual Report dates from
1862 to 1863 ; I am indebted to Dr. King
for that of 1876-1877.— F. A. F.
CORTEX CINCHONiE.
351
Ceylon offers favourable spots for the cultivation of Cinchona, in the
mountain region which occupies the centre of the island, as at Hak-
galle, near Neuera-EUia, 5,000 feet above the sea, where a plantation
was formed by Government in 1861. The production of bark has been
taken up with spirit by the coffee-planters of Ceylon.
The Government of India has acted with the greatest liberality in
distributing plants and seeds of Cinchona, and in promoting the cultiva-
tion of the tree among the people of India ; and it has freely granted
supplies of seed to other countries.
The plantations of Java commenced by Hasskarl, increased under
Junghuhn's management to such an extent, that in December 18G2
there were 1,360,000 seedlings and young trees, among which however
the more valuable species, as C. Calisaya, C. lancifolia, G. micrantha and
C. succiruhm, were by far the least numerous, whereas G. Pahudiana,
of which the utility was by no means well established, amounted to
over a million. The disproportionate multiplication of this last was
chiefly due to its quickly yielding an abundance of seeds, and to its
rapid and vigorous grt)wth. Another defect in the early Dutch system
of cultivation arose from the notion that the Cinchona requires to be
grown in the shade of other trees, and to a less successful plan of
multiplying by cuttings and layers.
These and other matters were the source of animated and often
bitter discussions, which terminated on the one hand by the death of
Junghuhn in 1864, and on the other by the skilful investigations of De
Vry. This eminent chemist was despatched by the Government of
Holland in 1857 to Java, that he might devote his chemical knowledge
to the investigation of the natural productions of the island, including
the then newly introduced Cinchona. It was March 16th, 1859, when
Dr. de Vry laid before the governor-general, Mr. Pahud, the first crystals
of sulphate of quinine he had prepared from bark grown in that island.
Under K. W. van Gorkom, who was appointed superintendent in
1864, the Dutch plantations have assumed a very prosperous state.
J. C. Bernelot Moens,^ the present director, stated that at the end of
1878 the leading species was Calisaya in its various forms, including
more than 400,000 plants of Ledger's Calisaya. Numerous analyses of
Bernelot Moens show a percentage of from 41 to 10'6 of quinine in the
latter variety. Some of them, however, in December 1878, afforded
not more than 0 64 per cent, of quinine and 1"26 of cinchonidine.
The regular shipments of the barks from Java to the Amsterdam
market are going on, and the barks are sold there with regard to the
results of the government chemist's analyses.
Cinchona Bark from the Indian plantations began to be brought into
the London market in 1867," and now arrives in constantly increasing-
quantities.
The history of the transplantation of the Cinchona down to the
year 1867 has been made the subject of the report of Soubeiran and
Delondre mentioned at the end of the present article.
1 1 am indebted to the Dutch administra- there also Mr. Howard, who presented
tion for their interesting statistical docu- Mr. S. and myself with market samples
ments relating to Cinchona. — F. A. F. of the first importation of C. succirubra,
^ ^Vhen I was in London, in August from Denison plantation, Ootacamiind. —
1867, I went to Finsbury Place, to meet F. A. F.
Mr. Spruce, and was happy enough to find
:352 RUBIACEtE.
Description — (A.) Of Cinchona Barks generally — In the develop-
ment of their bark, the various species of Cinchona exhibit considerable
diversity. Many are distinguished from an early stage by an abundant
exfoliation of the outer surface, while in others this takes place to a
smaller degi'ee, or only as the bark becomes old. The external appear-
ance of the bark varies therefore very much, by reason of the greater
or less development of the suberous coat. The barks of young stems
and branches have a greyish tint more or less intense, while the outer
bark of old wood displays the more characteristic shades of brown or
red, especially after removal of the corky layers.
In the living bark, these colours are very pale, and only acquire their
final hue by exposure to the air, and drying. Some of them however are
characteristic of individual species, or at least of certain groups, so that
the distinctions originated by the bark-collectors of i^le, yelloiv, red,
etc.^ and adopted by druggists, are not without reason.
In texture, the barks vary in an important manner by reason of
diversity in anatomical structure. Their fracture especially depends
upon the number, size, and arrangement of the liber fibres, as will be
shown in our description of their microscopic characters.
The taste in all species is bitter and disagreeable, and in some there
is in addition a decided astringency. Most species have no marked
odoui', at least in the dried state. But this is not the case in that of C.
officinalis, the smell of which is characteristic.
(B.) Of the Barks used in pharmacy — For pharmaceutical pre-
])arations as distinguished from the pure alkaloids and their salts, the
Cinchona barks employed are chiefly of three kinds.
1. Pale Ginchona Bark, Loxa Bark, Crotun Bark^ — This bark, which
previous to the use of Quinine and for long afterwards, was the ordinary
Peruvian Bark of English medicine, is only found in the form of quills,
which are occasionally as much as a foot in length, but are more often
only a few inches or are reduced to still smaller fragments. The quills
are from | down to an \ of an inch in diameter, often double, and
variously twisted and shrunken. The thinnest bark is scarcely stouter
than writing paper ; the thickest may be xV of an inch or more.^ The
pieces have a blackish brown or dark greyish external surface, variously
blotched with silver-grey, and often beset with large and beautiful
lichens. The surface of some of the quills is longitudinally wrinkled
and moderately smooth ; but in the majority it is distinctly marked by
transverse cracks, and is rough and harsh to the touch. The inner side
is closely striated and of a bright yellowish brown.
The bark breaks easily with a fracture which exhibits very short
fibres on the inner side. It has a well-marked odour sui generis, and
an astringent bitter taste. Though chiefly afforded by G. officinalis,
some other species occasionally contribute to furnish the Loxa Bark of
commerce as shown in the conspectus at p. 355.
^ The following are common terms in re-
ference to the barks of Peru : — AmariUa
(yellow), blanca (white), Colorado or raja
(red), naranjada (orange), negrilla
(broum).
- Cortex CincJionce pallidce ; F. Quinquina
Loxa; G. Loxachina. The term Crown
Bark was originally restricted to a superior
sort of Loxa Bark, shipped for the use of
the royal family of Spain.
' In the old collections of the Royal Col-
lege of Physicians, there are specimens of
very thick Loxa Bark, of a quality quite
unknown there at the present day. They
are doubtless the produce of ancient trees,
such as were noticed by La Condamine.
CORTEX CINCHONtE.
353
2. Calisaya Bark, Yello%v Chichona Bavl:}- — This bavk, which is the
most important of those commonly used in medicine, is found in flat
pieces (a.), and in quills {j3.), both afforded by C. Calisaya Wedd.,
tiiough usuall}^ imported separated.
a. Flat Calisaya — is in irregular flat pieces, a foot or more in length
by S to 4) inches wide, but usually smaller, and to of an inch in
thickness; devoid of suberous layers and consisting almost solely of
liber, of uniform texture, compact and ponderous. Its colour is a rusty
orange-brown, with darker stains on the outei* surface. The latter is
roughened with shallow longitudinal depressions, sometimes called
digital furrows.^ The inner side has a wavy, close, fibrous texture.
The bark breaks transversely with a fibrous fractui'e; the fibres of the
broken ends are very short, easily detached, and with a lens are seen
to be many of them faintly j^ellowish and translucent.
A well-mai"ked variety, known as Bolivian Calisaya, is distinguished
for its greater thinness, closer texture, and for containing numerous
laticiferous ducts which are wanting in common flat Calisaya bark.
/3. Qmll Calisaya — is found in tubes | to 1^^ inch thick, often
rolled up at both edges, thus forming double quills. They are always
coated with a thick, rugged, corky layer, marked with deep longitudinal
and transverse cracks, the edges of which ai'e somewhat elevated. This
suberous coat, which is silvery white or gTeyish, is easily detached,
leaving its impression on the cinnamon -brown middle layer. The inner
side is dark brown and finely fibrous. The transverse fracture is fibrous
but very short. The same bark also occurs in quills of very small
size, and is then not distinguishable with certainty from Loxa Ijark.
3. Red Cinchona Bark. — Though still retaining a place in the British
Pharmacopoeia, this is by far the least important of the Cinchona barks
employed in pharmacy. But as the tree yielding it (C. succirabm) is
now being cultivated on a large scale in India, the bark may probably
come more freely into use.
Red Bark of large stems, which is the most esteemed kind, occurs in
the form of flat or channelled pieces, sometimes as much as | an inch in
thickness, coated with their suberous envelope which is rugged and
warty. Its outermost layer in the young bark has a silvery appearance.
The inner surface is close and fibrous and of a brick-red hue. The bark
breaks with a short fibrous fracture.^
(C.) Of the Barks not tised in 'pharr)iacy — Among the non-officinal
barks, the most important are afforded by Cinchona laneifolia Mutis
and C. pitayensis Wedd., natives of the Cordilleras of Columbia.
These barks are largely imported and used for making quinine, the
former under the name of Columbian, Ca rtluajtna, or Caqueta, harh.
It varies much in appearance, but is generally of an orange-brown ;
the corky coat, which scales off easily, is shining and whitish. The
barks of C. laneifolia often occur in fine large quills or thick flattish
pieces. Their anatomical structure agrees in all varieties which we
have examined, in the remarkable number of thick-walled and
' Cortex Cinrhonce flavor, Cortex Chinee marks left by drawing the fingers over wet
regius ; F. Qninepdna Calisaya; G. Konirjt- clay.
china. ^ Thick Eed Bark that happens to have a
2 From the notion that they resemble tlie very deep and brilliant tint is eagerly
bought at a high price for the Paris market.
354
RUBIACEiE..
taugentially extended cells of the middle cortical layer and the
medullary rays. In percentage of alkaloids, Carthagena barks are
liable to great variation.
The Pitayo Boris are restricted to the south-western districts of
Columbia/ and are usually imported in short flattish fragments, or
broken quills, of brownish rather than orange colour, mostly covered
with a dull greyish or internally reddish cork. The middle cortical
layer exhibits but few thick-walled cells ; the liber is traversed by very
wide medullary rays, and is provided with but a small number of
widely scattered liber fibres, which are rather thinner than in most
other Cinchona barks. The Pitayo barks are usually rich in alkaloids,
quinine prevailing. Cinchona pitayensis is one of the hardiest species
of the valuable Cinchonas, and is therefore particularly suitable for
cultivation, which however has not yet been carried out as largely as
that of either C. officinalis or C. succiruhra.
In the Conspectus on the next page, we have arranged the principal
species of Cinchona, with short indications of the barks which some of
them afford.^
Microscopic Structure — The first examination of the minute
structui'e of Cinchona barks is due to Weddell, whose observations have
been recorded in one of his beautiful plates published in 1849.^ Since
that time numerous other observers have laboured in the same field of
research.
General Characters. — These barks, as contrasted with those of
other trees, do not exhibit any great peculiarities of structure ; and
their features may be comprehended in the following statements. The
epidermis, in the anatomical sense, occurs only in the youngest barks,
which are not found in commerce. The corky layer, which replaces the
epidermis, is constructed of the usual tabular cells. In some species as
C. Ccdisaya, it separates easily, at least in the older bark, whereas in
others as C. succiruhra, the bark even of trunks is always coated with
it. In several species the corky tissue is not only found on the surface,
but strips of it occur also in the inner substance of the bark. In this case
the portions of tissue external to the inner corky layers or bands are
thrown off as bork-scales {2)eriderm of Weddell). This peculiar form of
suberous tissue* was first examined (not in cinchona) in 1845 by H. von
Mohl, who called it rhytidoma {Borke of the Germans). In C. Ccdisaya
it is of constant occurrence, but not so usually in C. succiruhra and
some others ; the rhytidoma therefore afibrds a good means of distin-
guishing several barks.
The inner portion of the bark exhibits a middle or primary layer
(mesophloBum),^ made up of parenchyme ; and a second inner layer or
liber {endophkeivmY displaying a much more complicated structure.
The primary layer disappears if rhytidoma is formed : barks in which
' Pitayo is an Indian village eastward of
Popayan; see map of the country btween
Pasto and Bogota in Blue Book (East India
Chinchona Plant) 1866. 257.
^ Two species included by Weddell in
his Notes sur les Quinquinas, namely C.
Chomeliana Wedd. and C. harhacoemis
Karst., have been omitted, as not in our
opinion belonging to the genus.
Hist. nat. dcs Quinquinas, tab. ii.
•1 FlUckiger, Grundlagen, Berlin, 1872. 61.
fig. 48.
5 Bhiveloppe ou tunujue cellulaire of
Weddell ; Mittelrinde of the Germans.
^ In German Bast, or Phloem of modern
German botany.
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CQ
00 CS O rH
1-4 iH T— rH <M (M
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o ;2 i3 -Q -a
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03
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OS O r-l
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356
RUBIACEiE.
this is the case are therefore at last exclusively composed of liber, of
which Flat Calisaya Bark is a good example.
The liber is traversed by medullary rays, which in cinchona are
mostly very obvious, and project more or less distinctly into the middle
cortical tissue. The liber is separated by the medullary rays into
wedges,^ which are constituted of a parenchymatous part and of yellow
or orange fibres. The number, colour, shape, and size, but chiefly the
arrangement of these fibres, confer a certain character common to all the
barks of the group under consideration.
The liber-fibres ^ are elongated and bluntly pointed at their ends, but
never branched, mostly spindle-shaped, straight or slightly curved, and
not exceeding in length 3 millimetres. They are consequently of a
simpler structure than the analogous cells of most other officinal barks.
They are about ^ to mm. thick, their transverse section exhibiting a
quadrangular rather than a circular outline. Their walls are strongly
thickened by numerous secondary deposits, the cavity being reduced to
a narrow cleft, a structure which explains the brittleness of the fibres.
The liber-fibres are either irregularly scattered in the liber-rays, or the)'
form radial lines transversely intersected by narrow strips of paren-
chyme, or they are densely packed in short bundles. It is a peculiarity
of cinchona barks that these bundles consist always of a few fibres (3
to 5 or 7), whereas in many other barks (as cinnamon) analogous
bundles are made up of a large number of fibres. Barks provided with
long bundles of the latter kind acquire thei'efrom a very fibrous fracture,
v/hilst cinchona barks from their short and simple fibres exhibit a short
fracture. It is rather granular in Calisaya bark, in which the fibres are
almost isolated by parenchymatous tissue. In the bark of C. scro-
hiculata, a somewhat short fibrous fracture ^ is due to the arrangement
of the fibres in radial rows. In C. pubescens, the fibres are in short
bundles and produce a rather woody fracture.
Besides the liber-fibres, there are some other cells conti-ibuting to
the peculiarity of individual cinchona barks. This applies chiefly
to the laticiferous ducts or vessels^ which are found in many sorts ;
they are scattered through the tissue intervening between the middle
cortical layer and the liber, and consist of soft, elongated, unbranched
cells, mostly exceeding in diameter the neighbouring parenchymatous
cells.
As to the contents of the tissue of cinchona barks, crystallized
alkaloids are not visible. Howard has published figures representing
minute rounded aggregations of crystalline matter in the cells, which
he supposes to be kinovates of the alkaloids ; and also distinct acicular
crystals which he holds to be of the same nature. These remarkable
appearances are easily observable, yet only after sections of the bark
have been boiled for a minute in weak caustic alkali and then washed
with water ; it may well be doubted whether they are strictly natural.
The liquids which are capable of dissolving the alkaloids in the free
state do not afibrd any if they are applied to the barks. The alkaloids
being contained in the bark in the form of salts, the latter are decom-
1 Baststralden or PhloiimfitraJden of the ' Fracture filandre.use, Weddel ; fddiger
Germans. Bruch of the Germans.
^ Fibres cortkalesoiySfeAikeW; Ba.itruhren VaisseanxlaticiferesoiWeddeU; Milcli-
or BastzeUcn in German. saftsclduvche in German.
CORTEX CINCHONJi:.
357
posed by caustic lye, and the alkaloids set at liberty assume the
crystallized state. This is in our opinion the origin of the ciystals
under notice.
The greater number of the parenchymatous cells are loaded with
small starch granules, or in young and fresh barks with chlorophyll.
In several barks, as in that of C. lancifolia Mutis, numerous cells of
the middle cortical layer and even of the medullary rays, are provided
with somewhat thick walls, and contain either a soft brown mass
or crystalline oxalate of calcium. These cells have therefore been
called resin-celh and crystal-cells ; they are mostly isolated, not forming-
extensive groups or zones, and their walls are not strongly thickened as
in true sclerenchymatous tissue. If thin sections of the barks are
moistened with dilute alcoholic perchloride of iron, the walls of the cells,
except the fibi'es and the cork, assume a blackish-green due to cincho-
tannic acid ; this applies even to the starch granules.
Characters of particular sorts. — The modifications of genei'al struc-
ture just described, ai'e sufiicient to impart a special character to the
bark of many species of Cinchona, provided the bark is examined at
its full development, the structural peculiarities being far from well-
marked in young bai'ks.
Thus it is not possible to point out any distinctive features for the
Loxa Bark of commerce, because it is mostly taken from young wood.
We may say of it, that neither resin-cells nor crystal-cells occur in its
middle layer, that its laticiferous vessels become soon obliterated, and
have indeed disappeared in the older quills ; and that the liber-fibres
form interrupted, not very regular, radial rows.
The quills of C. Calisaya display large laticiferous ducts, which are
wanting in the flat bai'k. There is a peculiar sort of the latter called
Bolivian Calisaya. (already mentioned at p. 353), the flat pieces of which
still possess very obvious laticiferous vessels. As to the liber-fibres of
Calisaya bark, they are, as before stated (p. 356), scattered throughout
the parenchymatous tissue or endophloeum. In the bark of C. scrohicxL-
lata, which might at first sight be confounded with Calisaya bark, the
liber-fibres form radial, less interrupted rows. The microscope aftbrds
therefore the means of distinguishing these two barks.
The barks of G. succivubra are particularly rich in laticiferous ducts,
mostly of considerable diameter, in which the formation of new paren-
chyme may not unfrequently be observed. The orange liber-fibres oc-
curring in this bark are less numerous, more scattered, and of smaller
size than in Calisaya. The fracture of Red Bark, especially the flat sort,
is therefore more finely granular and not so coarse as that of Calisaya.
The structural characters of Cinchona barks may lastly be full}' ap-
]->reciated by examining barks of the allied genera Buena, Cascarilla and
Lctclenhergia, which were formerly known under the name of False
Cinchona Barks. The microscope shows that the liber-fibres of the
latter are soft, branched and long, densely packed into large bundles,
imparting therefore a well-marked fibrous structure. The external
appeai'ance of these barks is widely different from that of true cinchona
barks ; none of them it would appear is now collected for the purpose
of adulteration.
Chemical Composition — Themost important and a,t the same time
858
RUBIACEi^l.
jjeculiar principles of Cinchona bark are the Alkaloids, — enumerated in
the following table : — '
Oinchonine C'"H=^N=0.
or, as proposed by Skraup (1878) O'-'PI^^N'O
Cinchonidine {Quinidine of many writers) . same formula.
Quinine C^oH^^N^^O'.
Quinidine (Gonqidnine of Hesse) . . . same formula.
Quinamine Ci^H^^N^O'^.
Conquinamine {ConcJdnamine) . . . same formula.
B. A. Gomes ^ of Lisbon (1810) first succeeded in obtaining active
principles of cinchona, by treating an alcoholic extract of the bark with
water, adding to the solution caustic potash, and crystallizing the precip-
itate from alcohol. The basic properties of the substance thus obtained,
which Gomes called Ginchonino, were observed in the laboratory of
Thenard by Houtou-Labillardiere, and communicated to Pelletier and
Caventou.' Shortly before that time, Sertllrner had asserted the
existence of organic alkalis : and the French chemists, guided by that
brilliant discovery, wex"e enabled to show that the Ginchonino of Gomes
belonged to the same class of substances. Pelletier and Caventou,
however, speedily pointed out that it consisted of two distinct alkaloids,
one of which they named Quinine, the other Cinchonine. In 1827 the
Institut de France awarded to the two chemists for their discovery the
Montyon prize of 10,000 francs (see page 57, note 4).
Ginchonidine (thus called by Pasteur in 1853) was first obtained
and characterized under the name of Quinidine in 1847, by F. L.
Winckler of Darmstadt, from Maracaibo Bark (C. tucujensis Karst.) ;
and in 1852 it was more closely studied by Leers, still under the name
of qidnidine.
Ginchovatine, formerly stated to be a peculiar alkaloid, has been
shown by Hesse in 1876 to agree with cinchonidine.
Quinidine is the name applied by Henry and Delondre to an alkaloid
they obtained in 1833 ; its peculiar nature was not clearly proved until
1853, when Pasteur examined it, and 1857 when De Vry showed its
identity with the Beta-quinine extracted in 1849 by Van Heijningnen
from commercial quinoidin. The name quinidine having been since
applied to different basic substances more or less pure, Hesse (1865)
has proposed to replace it by that of Gonquinine (Conchinin in Ger-
man). The alkaloid is especially characteristic of the Pitayo barks, and
also occurs in the Calisaya barks from Java.
Quinamine was discovered in 1872 by Hesse, in bai'k of G. suc-
cirubra cultivated at Darjiling in British Sikkim ; it is also of common
occurrence in the barks collected in Java. GonquAnamine was ex-
tracted in 1873 by Hesse from old barks from British India.
Paricine is another basic substance discovered in 1845 by Winckler,
in the bark of Buena hexandra Pohl. Hesse detected it along with
^ Hesse, in 1877, pointed out the ex-
istence of a series of new alkaloids existing
in Cinchona. We refrain from repeating
his statements, which will be found ab-
stracted in the Yearbook of Pharm.
1878. 63.
- En.saio sobre o Ginchonino, e sobre sua
influencia na virtude da quina e d'outras
cascas. — Mem. da Acad. R. da.'s Sciencias
de Lishoa, iii. (1812) 202-217.
■* Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. xv. (1820)
292.
CORTEX CINCHONiE.
359
quinamine in the bark of C. succirubra ; its composition is not yet
known.
Aricine, (J'^-'WO', and Gusconine, C''ff'N-0' + 2 OH^ occur in
the so-called false Cinchona barks of not ascertained botanic origin.
These alkaloids differ in many respects from those of true Cinchona
barks.^
Pitoyine was pointed out by Peretti (1837), but Hesse has shown
(1873) that the bark called China bicolorata Tecamez- or Pltoya Bark
from which it was obtained, is altogether destitute of alkaloid.
Lastly may be mentioned Paytine, C^^H^^N-O + OH-, a crystalliz-
able alkaloid discovered in 1870 by Hesse in a white bark of uncertain
origin.^ It is allied to quinamine and quinidine, but has not been met
witli in any known cinchona bark.
By heating for a length of time solutions of the cinchona alkaloids
witli an excess of some mineral acid, Pasteur (1753) obtained amorphous
modifications of the natural bases. Quinine thus affoi-ded Quinicine,
liaving the same composition ; cinchonine and cinchonidine furnished
Clvchonicive, likewise agreeing in composition with the alkaloids from
which it originates. These amorphous products may also be obtained
by heating the natural bases in glycerin at 200° C, when a red sub-
stance is also formed. In quinine manufactories, amorphous alkaloids
are constantly met with, being partly produced in the course of the
manipulations to which the materials are subjected. Yet cinchona
barks also afford amorphoas alhaloids at the very outset of analysis,
whence we must infer their existence in the living plant.
The name Quhioidhic (or rather " Chhdo'idin") was applied by
Sertiirner (1829) to an uncrystallizable basic substance, which he pre-
pared from cinchona barks, and found to be a peculiar alkaloid. The
term has subsequently been bestowed upon a preparation which has
found its way into commerce and medical practice, in the form of a dark
brown brittle extractiform mass, softening below 100° C, and having
usually a sliglit alkaline reaction. It is obtained in quinine factories
by precipitating the brown mother-liquors with ammonia, and contains
the amorphous alkaloids naturally occurring in the barks. Quinoidin
should not be used unless, when previously dried at 100°, it proves to
afford at least 70 per cent, of alkaloids soluble in ether.
Quinine and the allied alkaloids have not been met with in any
appreciable amount in other parts of the cinchonas than the bark, nor
has their presence been ascertained in other plants than those of the
tribe Cinchonece.
Characters of the Cinchona Alkaloids.
1. Quinine. — It is obtained from alcoholic solutions, in prisms of the
composition C^m^^l^^O^+S OW, fusing at 57° C. The crystals may be
deprived of water by warming or exposure over oil of vitriol, and they
1 Yearbook of Pharm. 1878. 59.
^ So called from Tecamez or Tacaraes, a
small port of Ecuador in about lat. 1 ° N.
The bark wliicli was first noticed in Lam-
bert's Description of the Genus Cinchona,
1797. 30. tab. ii., is of unknown botanical
origin. In its external appearance, as well
as in its structure, this bark is widely dif-
ferent from any Cinchona bark. — See also
Vogl, in the second pamphlet quoted at
page 391. 10 ; Oberlin and Schlagden-
hauifen, Journ. de Pharm. 28. (1878) 252.
' Fliickiger in Wiggers and Husemann,
Jahresbericht for 1872. 132.
360
KUBIACE^.
J!
fuse at 177° C. The anhydrous alkaloid is likewise crystallizable ; it
requires about 21 parts of ether for solution, but dissolves more readily
in chloroform or absolute alcohol. These solutions deviate the ray of
polarized light to the left, and so do likewise solutions of the salts of
quinine. Yet one and the same quantity of alkaloid exhibits a very
different rotatory power according to the solvent used, though the
volume of the solution remain the same. Even the common sulphate
differs in this respect from the two other sulphates of quinine. The
same remark applies to the optical power of the other alkaloids.
If ten volumes of a solution of quinine, or of one of its salts, are
mixed in a test tube with one volume of chlorine water, and a drop of
ammonia is added, a brilliant green colour makes its appearance. In
solutions rich in quinine, a green precipitate, Thcdleioquin or Dalleio-
chine is produced ; in solutions containing less than ywjfo of quinine, no
precipitate is formed, but the fluid assumes a green even more beautiful
than in a stronger solution. The test succeeds with a solution containing
only one part of quinine in 5,000, and in a solution containing not
more than oqooo of quinine, if bromine is used instead of chlorine.^
The bitter taste of quinine is not appreciable in solutions containing
less than one part in 100,000. The blue fluorescence displayed by a
solution of quinine in dilute sulphuric acid is observable in solutions
containing much less than one part in 200,000 of water ; yet it is not
apparent in ver}'' strong solutions.
Besides the coimnon medicinal sulphate, 2 C^^HWO^ + SO*H^ +
8 OH^, quinine forms two other crystallizable sulphates, namely the
sulphate, C-oH^^NzQ^ + SO'il^ + 7 0H-, and a third having the composi-
tion C^-H^NsQ^ + 2 S0^H2 + 7 OH^.
Herapath, at Bristol, showed in 1852 that quinine forms with
sulphuric acid and iodine a peculiar compound, lodo-sidphate of
Quin ine, having the composition (C^oH^N^O^)' + 3 (SO^H-) + 2 HI + 4 I
+ 3 OH^. As this substance possesses optical properties analogous to
those of tourmaline, it was called by Haidinger, Herapathite. It may
be easily obtained by dissolving sulphate of quinine in 10 parts of weak
spirit of wine containing 5 per cent, of sulphuric acid, and adding an
alcoholic solution of iodine until a black precipitate is no longer formed.
This precipitate is collected on a filter and washed with alcohol ; then
dissolved in boiling spirit of wine and allowed to crystallize. The
tabular crystals thus obtained are extremely remarkable on account of
their dichroism and polarizing power, as well as for the sparing solu-
bility, since they require 1000 parts of boiling water for solution; their
sparing solubility in cold alcohol may be utilized for separating quinine
from the other cinchona alkaloids and estimating its quantity.
2. Quinidine or Gonquinine — forms crystals having the composi-
tion, C2«H'^4N202 + 2 0H2 ; the anhydrous alkaloid melts at 168° C, and
requires about 30 parts of ether for solution. Its solutions are strongly
dextrogyre ; it agrees with quinine as regards bitterness, fluorescence
and the thalleioquin test, and forms a neutral and an acid sulphate.
The most striking character of quinidine is afforded by its hydriodate,
the crystals of which require for solution at 15° C, 1250 parts of water
or 110 parts of alcohol sp. gr. '834. Quinidine may therefore be sepa-
1 Pharm. Journ., May 11, 1872. 901.
CORTEX CINCHONA.
361
rated from the other alkaloids of bark by a solution of iodide of
potassium which will precipitate the hydriodate. According to Hesse
(1873), quinidine is further characterized by the fact that its sulphate
is soluble in 20 parts of chloroform at 15° C, the sulphates of the other
cinchona-alkaloids being far less soluble in that liquid. The common
medicinal sulphate of quinine, e.g., requires for solution 1000 parts of
chloroform.
3. Cinchonine. — This alkaloid forms crystals which are always
anhydrous ; they fuse at 257^ C, and require about 400 parts of ether
and 120 of spirit of wine for solution. Cinchonine further differs from
quinine by its dextrogyre power, its want of fluorescence, and its non-
susceptibility to the thalleioquin test. Its hydriodate is readily soluble
in water, and stiU more so in alcohol whether dilute or strong.
4. Cinchonidine — forms anhydrous crystals melting at 206° C,
soluble in 76 parts of ether, or 20 of spirit of wine, then aftbrding
levogyre liquids, devoid of fluorescence, and not acquiring a green
colour (thalleioquin) by means of chlorine water and ammonia. Hydro-
chlorate of cinchonidine forms pyramidal crystals of the monoclinic
system, very different from the hydrochlorates of the allied alkaloids.
5. Quinamine. — The crystals are anhydrous, fuse at 172° C, and
form at a temp, of 20°, with 32 parts of ether or 100 parts of spirit of
wine, a dextrogyre solution. Quinamine is even to some extent soluble
in boiling water, and abundantly in boiling ether, benzol, or petroleum
ether. The solutions of quinamine do not stand the thalleioquin test,
nor do they display fluorescence ; in acid solution, the alkaloid is liable
to be transformed into an amorphous state. Quinamine moistened
with concentrated nitric acid, assumes like paytine a yellow coloration.
Its hydriodate is I'eadily soluble in boiling water, but very sparingly
in cold water, especially in presence of iodide of potassium, in which
respect it is allied to quinidine as well as to paytine.
The more important properties of the Cinchona-alkaloids may be
summarized as follows : —
a. Hi/draled crystals are formed by . . . Quinine, Quinidine, (or Conqninine).
No hydrated crystals by Cinchonine, Cinchonidine, Quinamine.
b. Ahumlantly soluble in ether . . . . j ^'f^^oTphSs aS^ ''"'^
Sparingly soluble in ether Cinchonidine.
Almost insoluble in ether Cinchonine.
c. Levogyre solutions afforded by ... Quinine, Cinchonidine.
7-, , 1 I.- I, \ Cinchonine, Quinidme, Quinamine, Cou-
Dextrogi/re solutions by ] • • 1 4.1 1. n 1 • i
■'■^ •' / qumamine, and the amorphous alkaloids.
d. Thalleioquin is formed by Quinine, Quinidine, and also by Quinicine.
Thalleioquin cannot be obtained from j Cinchonine, Cinchonidine, Quinamine, nor
from Cinchonicine
e. Fluorescence is displayed by solutions of Quinine, Quinidine.
No fluorescence in solutions of pure . . Cinchonine, Cinchonidine, Quinamine.
Proportion of Alkaloids in Cinchona Barks — This is liable to
very great variation. We know from the experiments of Hesse (1871),
that the bark of C. pubescens Vahl is sometimes devoid of alkaloid.^
Similar observations made near Bogota upon G. pitai/ensis Wedd., G.
BericMe der Dculscheii Chem. Gesellsdiaft zu Berlin, 1871. SIS.
:m RUBIACE^. '
corymbosa Karst., and 0. lancifolia Mutis, are due to Karsten. He
ascertained' that barks of one district were sometimes devoid of quinine,
while those of the same species from a neighbouring locality yielded
3 J to 4^ per cent, of sulphate of quinine.
Another striking example is furnished by De Vry" in his examina-
tion of quills of C. officinalis grown at Ootacamund, which he found to
vary in percentage of alkaloids, from 11"96 (of which 9'1 per cent, was
quinine) down to less than 1 per cent. An extremely remarkable
variation has also been displayed, as already alluded to at p. 351, by
Ledger's Calisaya.
Among the innumerable published anal^^ses of cinchona bark, there
are a great number showing but a very small percentage of the useful
principles, of which quinine, the most valuable of all, is not seldom
altogether wanting. The highest yield on the other hand hitherto
observed, was obtained by Broughton^ from a bark grown at Ootacamund.
This bai'k afforded not less than 13 J per cent, of alkaloids, among which
quinine was predominant. In Java too. Cinchona Ledgeriana (see
pp. 341, 351) has proved since to afford much more alkaloid than any
American barks ; as much as 18"25 per cent, of quinine have been
observed in its bark.
The few facts just mentioned show that it is impossible to state
even approximately any constant percentage of alkaloids in any given
bark. We may however say that good Flat Calisaya Bark, as offered
in the drug trade for pharmaceutical preparations, contains at least 5
to 6 per cent, of quinine.
As to Cnnvn or Loxa Bark, the Cortex Cinchonce jxillidce of phar-
macy, its merits are, to say the least, very uncertain. On its first
introduction in the I7th century, when it was taken from the trunks
and large branches of full-grown trees, it was doubtless an excellent
medicinal bark ; but the same cannot be said of much of that now
found in commerce, which is to a large extent collected from very
young wood.'* Some of the Crown Bark produced in India is however
of extraordinary excellence, as shown by the recent experiments of
De Viy.'
As to Red Bark, the thick flat sort contains only 3 to 4 per cent, of
alkaloids, but a large amount of colouring matter. The quill Red Bark
of the Indian plantations is a much better drug, some of it 3'ielding 5
to 10 per cent, of alkaloids, less than a third of which is quinine and a
fourth cinchonidine, the remainder being cinchonine and sometimes
also traces of quinidine (conquinine).
The variations in the amount of alkaloids relates not merely to their
total percentage, but also to the proportion which one bears to another.
Quinine and cinchonine are of the most frequent occurrence ; cinchoni-
dine is less usual, while quinidine is still less frequently met with and
never in large amount. The experiments performed in India*^ have
already shown that external influences contribute in an important
^Dte medicbmchm Chinarinden Keu-
Granada's, 17. 20. 39.
'^Pharw, Joiirn. Sept. 6, 1873. 181.
^ Blue Book- — "East India Cldnchona
Plant," 1870. 282; Yearbook of Pharmacy,
1871.85.
^ See HowaiTl's analyses and observa-
tions, Pharni. Journ. xiv. (1855) 61-G3.
5 Pharm. Journ. Sept. 6, 1873. 184.
"Blue Book, 1870. 116. 188. 205.
CORTEX CINCHON.E.
363
manner to the formation of this or that alkaloid; and it may even be
hoped that the cultivators of cinchona will discover methods of pro-
moting the formation of quinine and of reducing, if not of excluding,
that of the less valuable alkaloids.
Most salts of the alkaloids of cinchona afford a beautiful purple tar
when they are heated in a test tube, and the same is also produced
with the powdered bark, provided alkaloids be present. No other
bark, as far as we know, yields a similar product of the dry distillation.
It is not observed even in using true Cinchona barks, which are devoid
of alkaloids. This method foi' ascertaining the presence of alkaloids in
Cinchona barks has been pi'oposed in 1858 by Grahe of Kasan. Hesse
has improved Grahe's test in the following way : he extracts the
powdered bark with slightly acidulated water and dries up the liquid
with a little of the powder. G rakes test at once shows whether a
given bark contains Cinchona alkaloids or not.
Acid principles of Cinchona Barks — -Count Claude de la Garaye '
observed (1746) a crystalline salt deposited in extract of cinchona bark,
which salt was known for some time in France as Sel essential de la
Garaye. Hermbstiidt at Berlin (1785) showed it to be a salt of calcium,
the peculiarity of whose acid was pointed out in 1790 by C. A. Hoffmann,"
an apothecary of Leer in Hanover, who termed it Chinasdure. The
composition of this substance, which is the Kinic Acid of English
cliemists, was ascertained by Liebig in 1830 to be C"H''0'', or now
C"H'(OH)^COOH. The acid forms large monoclinic prisms, fusible at
162° C, of a strong and pui'e acid taste, soluble in two parts of water, also
in spirit of wine, but hardly in ether. The solutions are levogyre.
Kinic acid appears to be present in every species, and also to occur in
barks of allied genera ; and in f;xct to be of somewhat wide distribution
in the vegetable kingdom. By heating it or a kinate, interesting-
derivatives are obtained ; thus, by means of peroxide of manganese and
sulphuric acid, we get yellow crystals of Kinotie or Qiiinone, C'H^G^, —
a reaction which may be used for ascertaining the presence of kinic
acid. Kinic acid is devoid of any noteworthy physiological action.
Cinclw-tanmc Acid — is precipitated from a decoction of bark by
acetate of lead, after the decoction has been freed from cinchona-red by
means of magnesia. Dr. de Vry informed us that the Indian barks are
usually richer in cincho-tannic acid ; their cold infusion becomes turbid
on addition of hydrochloric acid, which forms an insoluble compound
with the former.
The cincho-tannate of lead decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen,
and the solution cautiously evaporated in vacuo, yields the acid as an
amorphous, hygroscopic substance, readily soluble in water, alcohol, or
ether. The solutions, especially in presence of an alkali, are quickly
decomposed, a red Hocculent matter, Cinchona-red, being produced.
■Solutions of cincho-tannic acid assume a greenish colour on addition of
a ferric salt. By destructive distillation, cincho-tannic acid affords
pyrocatechin.
Quinovic (or Chinovic) Acid, C^H^^O'', crystallizes in hexagonal
scales which are sparingly soluble in cold alcohol, more readily in
boiling alcohol, but not dissolved by water, ether, or chloroform. It
' Chimic hi/draidiqiie, Paris, 1746. 114.
'- Crell's Ckem. Annalen, 1790, ii. 314-317.
364
RUBIACEiE.
occurs in cinchona barks, and has been met with by Rembold (1868)
in the rhizome of Potevtilla TormentiUa Sibth.
Other Constituents of Cinchona Barks— Quinovic acid is ac-
companied by Quinovin (or GItinovm), QfW^O^, an amorphous bitter
substance, first obtained (1821) by Pelletier and Caventou under the
name of Kinovic Acid, from China nova^ in which it occurs combined
with lime. Quinovin in alcoholic solution was shown in 1859 by
Hlasiwetz to be resolved by means of hydrochloric gas into quinovic
acid, C^H^'0^ and an uncrystallizable sugar, Mannitcm, C^H^^O^ with
subtraction of H'O. The formation of quinovic acid takes place more
easily, if quinovin is placed in contact with sodium amalgam and spirit
of wine, when, after 12 hours, mannitan and quinovate of sodium are
formed (Rochleder, 1867).
Quinovin, although an indifferent substance, may be removed from
cinchona barks by weak caustic soda, from which it is precipitable by
hydrochloric acid, together with quinovic acid and cinchona-red. Milk
of lime then dissolves quinovin and quinovic acid, but not the red
substance. Quinovic acid and quinovin again precipitated by an acid,
may be separated by chloroform in which the latter only is soluble, or
also by cold dilute alcohol sp. gr. about 0"926, quinovin being readily
removed by this liquid.
Quinovin dissolves in boiling water; its solutions, as well as those of
quinovic acid, are dextrogyre. Quinovin seems to be a constituent of
almost every part of the cinchonas and the allied Cinclionect}, although
the amount of it in barks does not apparently exceed 2 per cent. It is
accompanied by quinovic acid : both substances are stated to have tonic
properties.
Cinchona-red, an amorphous substance to which the red hue of
cinchona barks is due, is produced as shown by Rembold (1867), when
cincho-tannic acid is boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, sugar being
formed at the same time. By fusing cinchona-red with potash, proto-
catechuic acid, C^H^O*, is produced. Cinchona-red is sparingly soluble
in alcohol, abundantly in alkaline solutions, but neither in water nor in
ether. Thick Red Bark in which it is abundant, affords it to the extent
of over 10 per cent.
The Cinchona barks yield but a scanty percentage of ash, not
exceeding 3 per cent., a fact well according with the small amount they
contain of oxalate and kinate of calcium.
Estimation of the Alkaloids in Cinchona Bark — The microscope
will enable us, as already shown, to ascertain whether a given bark
is derived from Cinchona, but it can furnish no exact information as to
the actual value of such bark as a drug.
Yet there is a very simple test by which the presence of a cinchona-
alkaloid may be demonstrated. These alkaloids heated in a glass tube
in the presence of a volatile acid or of substances capable of producing
a volatile acid, evolve heavy vapours of a beautiful crimson colour,
as mentioned p. 863.
^ The bark of Bucna magnifoTia Wedd. ,
a tree with fragrant flowers and magnifi-
cent foliage, figured in Howard's " Nueva
Qidnologia of Pamii " as Cinchona magni-
folia. Its hark is destitute of alkaloids ;
it also used to appear occasionally in the
London market since about the year 1820.
— See also our article on Cortex Cmcar'dhv.
CORTEX CINCHONiE.
365
But to ascertain the real value of a cinchona bark, a quantitative
estimation of the alkaloids is necessary. A good process for this opera-
tion has been given by De Vry/ It is as follows : — Mix 20 grammes of
powdered bark, dried at 100° C, with milk of lime (5 grm. slaked lime
to 50 grm. water), dry the mixture slowly ; by stirring it frequently,
the cincho-tannic acid loses its solubility, being gradually transformed
into cinchona-red. Then boil the dry powder with 200 cubic centimetres
of alcohol 0"830 sp. gr. Pour the liquid on to a small filter, and after-
wards the residual bark and lime mixed with 100 cub. cent, more
alcohol. Wash the powder on the filter with 100 cub. cent, of spirit.
From the mixed liquids, about 370 cub. cent., separate the cal-
cium by a few drops of weak sulphuric acid. Filter, distill off the
spirit and pour into a capsule the residual liquid, — to which add a
small quantity of spirit and water with which the distilling apparatus
has been rinsed out. Let the capsule be now heated on a water-bath
until all the spirit shall have been expelled ; and let the remaining
liquor which contains all the alkaloids in the form of acid sulphates be
filtered. There will remain on the filter quinovic acid and fatty sub-
stances, which must be washed with slightly acidulated water. The
filtrate and washings reduced to about 50 cub. cent., should be treated
while still warm with caustic soda in excess. After cooling, this is decanted
oft" from the precipitate, and then water added to it before throwing it on
to a filter. It is then to be washed with the smallest quantity of water
pressed between folds of blotting paper, removed therefrom and dried.
The weight multiplied by 5 will indicate the percentage of mixed
alkaloids in the bark.
To separate the alkaloids from each other, treat the powdered mass
with ten times its weight of ethei\ This will resolve it into two por-
tions— (a) insoluble in ether, (b) soluble in ether.
(a.) This should be converted into neutral acetates, and to
the solution there should be added iodide of potassium, which
will possibly separate a little -quinidine. After removal of the
latter (if present), add solution of tartrate of potassium and sodium,
which will throw down in a crystalline form tai-trate of cinchoni-
dine; from the mother-liquor, cinchonine may be precipitated by
caustic soda.
(b.) The ether having been evaporated, the residue is to be dried at
100" C. and weighed. It may in many cases practically be considered
as consisting of quinine only. If however the estimation of quinidine
(conquinine) and quinamine is required, the residue, or a determined
portion of it, should be dissolved in acetic acid just as much as will be
necessary for afibrding a neutral solution. From this the hydroiodate
of quinidine is precipitated by means of an alcoholic solution of
iodide of potassium. In the filtrate quinine may be precipitated
by adding a few drops of dilute sulphuric acid and an alcoholic
tincture of iodine. The herapathite thus formed (see p. 3G0) is col-
lected after a day, dried at 100° and weighed; it then contains 55 per
cent, of quinine.
After adding a few drops of sulphurous acid, the alcohol should now
be evaporated from the fluid from which the crystals of herapathite have
1 Pharm. Jonrn. iv. (1873) 241, and Dr. tlie present article, p. 3G9 ; also private
de Vry's papers mentioned at the end of communications.
36G
RTJBIACEiE.
been removed, and caustic lye added, by which the amorphous alkaloids
will be precipitated, including quinamine if present.
Uses — Cinchona bark enjoys the reputation ofbeingamost valuable
remedy in fevers. But the uncertainty of its composition and its in-
convenient bulk render it a far less eligible form of medicine than the
alkaloids themselves. It is nevertheless much used as a general tonic
in various pharmaceutical preparations.
As to the alkaloids, the only one which is in general use is quinine.
The neglect of the others is a regrettable waste, which the result of
recent investigations ought to obviate. In the year 1866 the Madras
Government appointed a Medical Commission to test the respective
efficacy in the treatment of fever, of Quinine, Quinidine, Cinchonine and
Cinchonidine. Of the sulphates of these alkaloids, a due supply,
specially prepared under Mr. Howard's superintendence, was placed at
the disposal of the Commission. From the report^ it appears that the
number of cases of paroxysmal malarious fevers treated was 2472,—
namely 846 with Quinine, 664 with Quinidine, 569 with Cinchonine,
and 403 with Cinchonidine. Of these 2472 cases, 2445 were cured, and
27 failed. The difference in remedial value of the four alkaloids, as
deduced from these experiments, may be thus stated : —
Quinidine — ratio of failure jser 1000 cases treated 6
Quinine ,, ,, 7
Cinchonidine ,, ,, 10
Cinchonine ,, ,, 23
The Indian Government, acting on the recommendation of Mr.
Howard, has officially advised (Dec. 16. 1873) the more free use in India
of cinchona alkaloids other than quinine, and especially of sulphate of
cinchonidine. which is procurable in abundance from Red Bark. 2 Qui-
nidine on the other hand, Avhich has proved the most valuable of all, is
only obtainable from a few barks and in very limited amount.
Dr. de Vry since 1876 advocates the use of what he calls Quinetum.
This preparation is obtained by exhausting the barks with slightly
acidulated water, and precipitating the whole amount of alkaloids by
caustic soda. In India the remedy is known as "the Febrifuge."'*
Adulteration — There is not now any frequent importation of
spurious cinchona barks, but the substitution of bad varieties for good
is sufficiently common. To discriminate these in a positive manner by
ascertaining the percentage of quinine, which is the chief criterion of
value, recourse must be had to chemical analysis, a method of perform-
ing which has been described. Entirely worthless barks may be easily
recognized by means of Grahe's test (p. 363).
Modern Works relating to Cinchona.
The following enumei'ation has been drawn up for the sake of those
desiring more ample information than is contained in the foregoing
1 Blue Book — East India Cinchona Cul-
tivation, 1870. pp. 156-172.— The report
contains very interesting and important
medical details. See also Dougal in Edin.
Med. Journ. Sept. 1873.
^ We heard that the Government has
purchased (Ajjril 1874) by tender between
300 and 400 lb. of cinchonidine.
3 Pliarm. Journ. viii. (1878) 1060.
CORTEX CINCHON/E.
3(57
pages, but it has uo pretension to be a complete list of all publications
that have lately appeared on the subject.
Berg (Otto) Chinarhiden der iiiliarmahognostlsclien Sammlung zu
Berlhi. Berlin, 1865, 4°. 48 pages and 10 plates showing the micro-
scopic structure of barks.
Bergen (Heinrich von), Monographie der China. Hamburg, 1826, 4°.
348 pages and 7 coloured plates representing the following barks: —
China rubra, Huanuco, Calisaya, flava, Huamalies, Loxa, Jaen. An
exhaustive work for its period in every direction.
Blue-books — East India (Chinchona Plant). Folio.
a. Copj/ of Correspondence relating to the introduction of the Chinchona
Plantinto Indi a,and to proceedings connected^vith its cultivation
from March 1852 to March 1863. Ordered by the House of
Commons to be printed, 20 March 1863. 272 pages.
Contains Correspondence of Royle, Markham, Spruce, Pritchett,
Cross, Mclvor, Anderson and others, illustrated by 5 maps.
b. Co'py of further Correspondence relating to the introduction of
the Chinchona Plant into India, and to proceedings connected
with its cultivation, from April 18GS to April 1866. Ordered
by the House of Commons to be printed, 18 June 1866. 379
pages.
Contains Monthly Reports of the plantations on the Neilgherry
Hills; Annual Reports for 1863-64, 1864-65, with details of method
of propagation and cultivation, barking, mossing, attacks of insects,
illustrated by woodcuts and 4 plates ; report of Cross's journey to
Pitayo, with map; Cinchona cultivation in Wynaad, Coorg, the Pulney
Hills and Travancore, with map ; in British Sikkim, the Kangra,
Valley (Punjab), the Bombay Presidency, and Ceylon.
c. Copy of all Correspondence hetiveen the Secretary of Stcdefor India
and the Governor-General, and the Governors of Madras and
Bombay, relating to the cultivation of Chinchona Plants, from
April 1866 to April 1870. Ordered by the House of Commons
to be printed, 9 August 1870. 285 pages.
Contains reports on the Neilgherry and other plantations, with
map ; appointment of Mr. Broughton as analytical chemist, his reports
and analj'ses ; reports on the relati^ e efficacy of the several cinchona
alkaloids, on cinchona cultivation at Darjiling and in British Burma.
d. Copies of the Chinchona Correspondence ( in continuation of return
of 1870 from August 1870 to July 1875. Ordered by the
House of Commons to be printed, 21 June 1877. 190 pages.
Contain also reports on the alkaloid manufactory in India, collection
and shipment of barks, and analyses of barks.
Delondre (Augustin Pierre) et Bouchardat (Apollinaire), Quinologie,
Paris, 1854, 4°. 48 pages, and 23 good coloured plates exhibiting all
the barks then met with in commerce.
Delondre (Augustin), see Soubeiran.
Gorkom (K. W. van). Die Chinacultur auf Java, Leipzig, 1869, 61
pages. An account of the management of the Dutch plantation.
3G8
RUBIACEiE.
Hesse (Oswald). This chemist has summarized his elaborate researches
on Cinchona in the German Dictionary of Chemistry, articles
Chinin, Cinchonin, etc. 1870-1877.
Howard (John Eliot), lU'iistratiotis of the Nueva Quinologia of Pavon.
London, 1862, folio, 1G3 pages and 30 beautiful coloured plates. —
Figures of Cinchona mostly taken from Pavon's specimens in the
herbarium of Madrid, and three plates representing the structure
of several barks.
Howard (J. E.), Quinology of the East India Plantations. London, 1869,
folio X. and 43 pages, with 3 coloured plates exhibiting structural
peculiarities of the barks of cultivated Cinchona}.
Howard (J. E.) The same, parts ii. and iii., Lond. 1876, folio xiv. and
74 p., with 2 views, 2 black plates and 13 coloured figures of Cin-
chona Calisaya (Leclgeriana), C. officinalis, G. pitayensis, and others.
Karsten (Hermann), Pie medicinischen Chinarinden Neu-Granada' s.
Berlin, 1858, 8°. 71 pages, and 2 plates showing microscopic structure
of a few barks. An English translation prepared under the super-
vision of Mr. Markham, has been printed by the India Office under
the title of Notes on the Medicinal Cinchona Barks of New Granada
by H. Karsten, 1861. The plates have not been reproduced.
Karsten (Hermann), Florce Columhice terrarumque adjacentium speci-
mina selecta. Berolini, 1858, folio. Beautiful coloured figui'es of
various plants including Cinchona, under which name are several
species usually referred to other genera. Only three parts have been
published.
King (George), A Manual of Cinchona cultivation in India. Calcutta,
1876, 80 pages, small folio.
Kuntze (Otto), Cinchona. Arten, Hyhriden and Cultur der Chinin-
hdume. Leipzig, 1878. 124 pages and 3 plates. A review of this
book will be found in the A rchi v der Pharmacie, 213, (1878) 473-480.
Mclvor (W. G.) Notes on the pro2oag(dion and cidtivation of the medi-
cinal Cinchonas or Peruvian hark trees. Madras, 1867, 33 pages, 9
plates. The author explains the "motsing system" alluded to p. 362.
Mclvor (William Graham), A letter on the cultivation of Chinchona on
the Nilgiris. Ootacamund, 1S76, 27 pages.
Markham (Clements Robert), The Chinchona Species of New Granada,
containing the botanical descriptions of the species examined by
Drs. Muiis and Karsten; with some account of those botanists, and
of the results of their labours. London, 1867, 8°. 139 pages and
5 plates. The plates are not coloured, yet are good reduced copies of
those contained in Karsten's Florce Columbia; ; they represent the
following: — Cinchona corymbosa, C. Triance, C. lancifolia, C. cordi-
folia, C. tucujensis.
Markham. A Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, Countess of Chin-
chon, vice-queen of Peru (a.d. 1629-1639), ivith a plea for the correct
spelling of the Chinchona genus. London, 1874, 4°. 99 pages, with a
map, heraldic figures and views.
See also Hanbury, Science Papers, 1876, p. 475.
Miquel (Friedrich Anton Wilhelm), Be Cinchonca speciebus quibusdam,
adjectis iis qtia; in Java coluntur. Ccmmentatio ex Anncdilus
Musei Botanici Lugduno-Batavi exscripta. Amstelodami, 1869, 4°.
20 pages.
CORTEX CINCHONiE.
369
Oudemans (Authony Cornelis), Sur le pouvoiv rotatoire specijique des
'principaux alcalo'ides du quinquina. Archives neerlandaises, x.
(1875), 193-2G8, and xii. (1877/
Phoebus (^h\\v^'^),DieDelondre-Boiichavdnfsclien China-Rinden. Gies-
sien, 18G4, 8^ 75 pages and a table. The author gives a description
without figures, of the microscopic structure of the type-specimens
figured in Delondre and Bouchardat's Qiunologie.
Planchon (Gustavo), Des Qivinqivinas. Paris et Montpellier, 1864, 8°
150 pages. A description of the cinchonas and their barks. An
English translation has been issued under the superintendence of
Mr. Markham by the India Office, under the title of Peruvian
Buries by Giistave Planchon. London, printed by Eyre and Spottis-
woode, 1866.
Soubeiran (J. Leon) et Delondre (Augustin), Be V introduction et de
r acclimation des Cinchonas dans les Indes neerlandaises et dans les
Ind.es britanniques. Paris, 1868, 8°. 165 pages.
Triana (Jos^) Nouvelles etudes sur les Quinquinas. Paris, 1870, folio,
80 pages, and 33 plates. An interesting account of the labours of
Mutis, illustrated by uncoloured copies of some of the drawings
prepared by him in illustration of his unpublished Quinologia de
Bogota, especially of the several varieties of Cinchona iancifolia ;
also an enumeration and short descriptions of all the species of
Ciiichoncc, and of New Granadian plants (chiefly Cascarilla) formerly
placed in that genus.
An abstract of the book will be found in Just's Botanischer
Jahresbericht fllr 1873, 484-494.
Vogl (August), Chinarinden des Wiener Grosshandels und der Wiener
Sammlungen. Wien, 1867, 8°. 134 pages, no figures. A very
exhaustive descrijjtion of the microscopic structure of the barks
occurring in the Vienna market, or preserved in the museums of
that city.
Vogl (A.), Beitrdge zur Kenntniss der sogenannten falschen Ghi/narin-
den. Wien, 1876, 4°. 26 pages, 7 microscopic sections.
Vi-ij (John Eliza de) Kinologische studien. More than 30 papers pub-
lished since 1868 in the Nieuiv Tijdschrift voor de Pharmacie in
Nedcrland. They are chiefly devoted to the chemistry of the barks
from Java and British India.
Weddell (Hugh Algernon), Histoire naturelle des Quinquinas, ou mono-
graphic du genre Cinchona, suivie d'une description du genre Cas-
carilla et de quelques autres p>lantes de la meme tribu. Paris, 1849,
folio, 108 pages, 33 plates, and map. Excellent uncoloured figures
of Cinchona and some allied genera, and beautiful coloured drawings
of the officinal barks. Plate I. exhibits the anatomical structure of
the plant ; Plate II. that of the bark.
Weddell (H. A.), Notes sur les Quinquinas, Extrait des Annales
des Sciences naturelles, 5" serie, tomes xi. et xii. Paris, 1870, 8°.
75 pages. A systematic arrangement of the genus Cinchona, and
description of its (33) species, accompanied by useful remarks on
their barks. An English translation has been printed by the India
Office with the title — Notes on the Quinquinas by H. A. Weddell,
London, 1871, 8°. 64 pages. A German edition by Dr. F. A. Fltic-
2 A
870
RUBIACEiE.
s
kiger has also appeared under the title Uebersicht cler Cinchonen
von H. A. Weddell. Schaffhausen and Berlin, 1871, 8°. 43 pages,
with additions and indexes.
RADIX IPECACUANHA.
Ipecacuanha Root, fyecacuan ; F. Racine cV Lpecacuanha annelee ;
G. Breclnvurzel.
Botanical Orgin — Cepliaelis ^ Ipecacuanha A. Richard — This is a
small shrub, 8 to 16 inches high, with an ascending, afterwards erect,
simple stem, and somewhat creeping root, growing socially in moist
and shady forests of South America, lying between 8° and 22° S. lat.,
especially in the Brazilian provinces of Para, Maranhao, Pernam-
buco, Bahia, Espiritu Santo, Minas, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo.
Within the last half century, it has been discovered in the vast interior
province of Matto Grosso, chiefly in that part of it which forms the
valley of the Rio Paraguay. From information given to Weddell,^ it
would seem probable that the plant extends beyond the frontiers of
Brazil to the Bolivian province of Chiquitos.
The root which is brought into commerce is furnished chiefly by
the region lying between the towns of Cuyaba, Villa Bella, Villa Maria,
and Diamantina in the province of Matto Grosso ; but to some extent
also by the woods in the neighbourhood of the German colony of Phila-
delphia on the Rio Todos os Santos, a tributary of the Mucury, north
of Rio de J aneiro.
Prof Balfour of Edinburgh, who has paid much attention to the
propagation of ipecacuanha, finds that the plant exists under two
varieties, of which he has published figures ; ^ they may be thus dis-
tinguished :
a. Stem woody, leaves of firm texture, elliptic or oval, wavy at the
edges, with but few hairs on surface and margin. Long in cultivation :
origin unknown.
h. Stem herbaceous, leaves less firm in texture, more hairy on
margin, not wavy. Grows in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro.
The plant cultivated in India seems disposed to run into several
varieties, but according to the experience gained in Edinburgh, the
diversity of form apparent in young plants tends to disappear
with age.
History — In an account of Brazil, written by a Portuguese friar,
who, it would seem, had resided in that country from about 1570 to
1600, and published by Purchas,* mention is made of three remedies for
the bloody flux, one of which is called Igpecaya or Pigaya; the drug
here spoken of is probably that under notice.
^ I am informed by my friend Professor
Muller of Geneva that in describing the
Rubiaceffi for the Flora Brasiliensis he will
include Cephaelis Ipecacuanha in the genus
Mapouria.—F.A.Y. March 1879.
- Ann. des Sciences nat. Bot. xi. (184:9)
193-202.
3 Trans, of Roy. Soc. of Edlnh. xxvi.
(1872) 781. plates 31-32.— Fig. in Bentley
and Trimen, Med. Plants, part 15 (1876).
* Purchas, His Pihjrimes, Lond. iv.
(1625), — a treatise of Brasill, written by a
Portugall which had long lived there, p.
1311.
RADIX IPECACUANHiE.
371
Piso and Mavcgraf^ in their scientific exploration of Brazil met
with two kinds of ipecacuanha; the one provided with a brown
root is Cephaelis Ipecacuanha, which they figured. The root of
the other variety, which they called TpecacuavJia hicmca, is that
3f Richardsonia scabra (see page 376 below). Piso and Marcgraf
iescribed the virtues of these roots, apparently supposing them to be
much the same as to their action. Although in common use in Brazil,
ipecacuanha was not employed in Europe prior to the year 1G72. At
that date, a traveller named Legras brought from South America a
^[uantity of the root to Paris, some of which came into the possession of
;he " maitre appoticaire " Claquenelle.- It would appear that the root
kvas prescribed from the latter by Legras (said to have been himself
icquainted with the practice of medicine'), and also by Jean Adrien
Eelvetius, a young Dutch physician, then living in Paris. Yet no
success at first was obtained, the drug being administered in too large
loses. In 1680, a merchant of Paris named Garnier became possessed
)f 150 lb. of ipecacuanha, the valuable properties of which in dysentery
le vaunted to his medical attendant Afforty, and to Helvetius. Gar-
lier on his convalescence made a present of some of the new drug to
(Vfforty, who attached to it but little importance. Helvetius, on the
)ther hand, was induced to prescribe the root in cases of dysentery,
,vhich he did with the utmost success. It is stated by Eloy that
Selvetius even caused placards to be affixed to the corners of the
itreets (about the year 1GS6), announcing his successful treatment with
:he new drug, supplies of which he obtained through Garnier from
5pain, and sold as a secret medicine. The fame of the cures effected
jy Helvetius reached the French Court, and caused some trials of
,he drug to be made at the Hotel Dieu. These having been fully suc-
;essful, Louis XIV. accorded to Helvetius the sole right of vending his
■emedy.^ Subsequently several great personages, including the Dauphm
)f France, having experienced its benefit, the king consulted his physi-
;ian, Antoine d'Aquin, and the well-known Jesuit Pere Francois de
Lachaise, who had become the King's confessor in 1G75. Through them
vas chiefly negotiated the purchase from Helvetius of his secret, for
LOGO louis-d'or, and made public in 1688. The right of Helvetius to
,his payment was disputed in law by Garnier, but maintained by a
lecision of the Chatelet of Paris."
The botanical source of ipecacuanha Wc.s the subject of much dispute
mtil finally settled by Antonio Bernardino Gomez, a physician of the
I'ortuguese navy, who brought authentic specimens from Brazil to
liisbon in the year 1800.''
1 Hist. nat. Brasil. 1648. Piso, p. 101,
►larcgraf, p. 17.
- Pomet, Histoire qinh-ale des Drogues, i.
1694) 47.
^ Merat and De Lens, Diet, de Mat. Mid.
ii. (1831) 644, call Legras a physician, and
ay that Garnier brought himself the 150
b. from abroad,
^ Eloy, Hhtoire gindrale de la MMeeine.
Vions. ii. (1778) 485, mentions a sich drtig-
list, who presented Helvetius with the
pecacuanha. Gamier, according to Eloy,
vas a "Marchand chapelier." — Leibnitz,
in Ephemerid. Academ. Ccesareo- Leopold,
1696, Appendix, p. 6, miscalled the mer-
chant Grenier.
' An abstract of the royal patent is
given by Leibnitz, I. c. 20 (date not added).
^ On tlie history of ipecacuanha, consult
also Sprengel, Geschichte der Arzneykiinde,
iv. (1827) 542. — We have not seen the
pamphlet quoted by Haller, Bihl. hot. ii.
17 : Helvetius, Usage de V Hipecacoanha.
4° (no date).
' Tram, of Linn. Soc. vi. (1801) 137.
372
RUBIACE^.
Collection ' — The ipecacuanha plant, Poaya of the Brazilians, grows
in valleys, yet prefers spots which are rather too much i-aised to be
inundated or swampy. Here it is found under the thick shade of ancient
trees growing mostly in clumps. In collecting the root, \h.Q poayero, for
so the collector of poaya is called, grasps in one handful if he can, all
the stems of a clump, pushing under it obliquely into the soil a pointed
stick to which he gives a see-saw motion. A lump of earth enclosing
the roots is thus raised ; and, if the operation has been well performed,
those of the wliole clump are got up almost unbroken. The j^oayero
shakes off adhering soil, places the roots in a large bag which he carries
with him, and goes on to seek other clumps. A good collector may
thus get as much as 30 lb. of roots in the day ; but generally a daily
gathering does not exceed 10 or 12 lb., and there are many who scarcely
get 6 or 8 lb. In the rainy season, the ground being lighter, the roots
are removed more easily than in dry weather. The poayevos, who
work in a sort of partnership, assemble in the evening, unite their
gatherings, which having been weighed, are spread out to dry. Rapid
drying is advantageous ; the root is therefore exposed to sunshine as
much as possible, and if the weather is favourable, it becomes dry in
two or three days. But it has always to be placed vmder cover at
night on account of the dew. When quite dry, it is broken into frag-
ments, and shaken in a sieve in order to separate adherent sand and
earth, and finally it is packed in bales for transport.
The harvest goes on all the year round, but is relaxed a little during
the rains, on account of the difficulty of drying the produce. As frag-
ments of the root grow most readily, complete extirpation of the plant
in any one locality does not seem probable. The more intelligent
2Joayeros of Matto CSrrosso are indeed wise enough intentionally to leave
small bits of root in the place whence a clump has been dug, and even
to close over the opening in the soil.
Cultivation — The importance in India of ipecacuanha as a remedy
for dysentery, and the increasing costliness of the drug,^ have occasioned
active measures to be taken for attempting its cultivation in that coun-
try. Though known for several years as a denizen of botanical gardens,
the ipecacuanha plant has always been rare, owing to its slow growth
and the difficulty attending its propagation.
It was discovei'cd in 1869 by M'Nab, curator of the Botanical
Garden of Edinburgh, that if the annulated part of the root of a
growing ipecacuanha plant be cut into short pieces even only of an
inch thick, and placed in suitable soil, each piece will throw out a leaf-
bud and become a separate plant. Lindsay, a gai'dener of the same
establishment, further proved that the petiole of the leaf is capable of
producing roots and buds, a discovery which has been utilized in the
propagation of the plant at the Rungbi Cinchona plantation in Sikkim.
In 1871, well-formed fruits were obtained from the ipecacuanha
plants growing in the Edinburgh Botanical Garden : this was promoted
^ Abstracted from the interesting eye-witness account of Weddell, I.e.
2 The following are the average prices at which the drug was purchased wholesale, in
London during three periods of ten years each : —
10 years ending 18.50, averarfc price 2s. 9^d. per lb.
10 „ 1860, „ 6s. Uid. „
10 ,, 1870, Ss. 8id. „
RADIX IPECACUANH/E.
373
by artificial fertilization, especially when the flowers of a plant produc-
ing long styles were fertilized with the pollen of one having short
styles, — for Cejjhaelis like Cinchona has dimorphic flowers.
With regard to the acclimatization of the plant in India, much difli-
culty has been encountered, and successful results are still problematical.
The first plant was taken to Calcutta by Dr. King in 186(3, and by 1868
had been increased to nine ; but in 1870-71, it was reported that, not-
withstanding every care, the plants could not be made to thi-ive. Three
plants which had been sent to the Rungbi plantation in 1868, grew
rather better ; and by adopting the method of root propagation, they
were increased by August 1871, to 300. Three consignments of plants,
numbering in all 370, were received from Scotland in 1871-72, besides
a smaller number from the Royal Gardens, Kew. From these various
collections, the propagation has been so extensive, that on 31 March
1873, there were 6,719 young plants in Sikkim, in addition to about
500 in Calcutta, and much more in 1874.
The ipecacuanha plant in India has been tried under a variety of
conditions as regards sun and shade, but thus far with only a mode-
rate amount of success. The best results are those that have been
obtained at Rungbi, 3000 feet above the sea, where the plants, placed
in glazed frames, were reported in May 1873 as in the most healthy
condition.^
Description — The stem creeps a little below the surface of the
soil, emitting a small number of slightly branching contorted roots, a
few inches long. These roots when young are very slender and thread-
like, but grow gradually knotty and become by degrees invested with
a very thick bark, transversely corrugated or ringed. Close examina-
tion of the dry root shows that the bark is raised in narrow warty
ridges, which sometimes run entirely round the root, sometimes encircle
only half its circumference. The whole surface is moreover minutely
wrinkled longitudinally. The rings or corrugations of a full sized root
number about 20 in an inch ; not unfrequently they are deep enough
to penetrate to the wood.
The root attains a maximum diameter of about -f^ of an inch ; but
as imported, a large proportion of it is much smaller. The woody cen-
tral part is scarcely ttV of an inch in diarneter, sub-cylindrical, sometimes
striated, and devoid of pith.
Ipecacuanha is of a dusky grey h le, occasionally of a dull ferru-
ginous brown. The root is hard, breaks short and granular (not
fibrous), exhibiting a resinous, waxy, or farinaceous interior, white or
greyish. The bark, which constitutes 75 to 80 per cent, of the entire
root, may be easily separated from the less brittle wood. It has a
bitterish taste and faint, musty smell ; when freshly dried it is probably
much more odorous. The wood is almost tasteless. In the drug of
commerce the roots are always much broken, and there is often a con-
siderable separation of bark from wood ; portions of the non-annulated,
woody, subterraneous stem are always present.
During the last few yeai's there has been imported into London a
variety of ipecacuanha, distinguished as Garthagena or New Granada
1 Annual Report of the Royal Botanical foregoing particulars. The report for
Oardens, Calcutta, 31 May 1873 — from 187^1-1877 is by no means favourable to
which we have abstracted many of the the prospects of Cephaelis in India.
374
RUBIACEiE.
Ipecacuanha, and differing from the Brazilian drug chiefly in being of
larger size. Thus, while the maximum diameter of the annulated roots
of Brazilian ipecacuanha is about -f^ of an inch, corresponding roots of
the New Granada variety attain nearly -f^j. The latter, moreover, has
a distinct radiate arrangement of the wood, due to a greater develope-
ment of the medullary rays, and is rather less conspicuously annulated.
Lefort (1869) has shown that the New Granada drug is a little less rich
in emetine than the ipecacuanha of Brazil.
Mr. R. B. White, of Medellin in the valley of the Cauca, New
Granada, near which place the drug has been collected, has been good
enough to send us herbarium specimens of the plant with roots at-
tached; they agree entirely with Cephaelis Ipccaciianlta.
Microscopic Structure — The root is coated with a thin layer of
brown cork cells ; the interior cortical tissue is made up of a uniform
parenchyme, in which medullary rays cannot be distinguished. In the
woody column they are obvious ; the prevailing tissue consists of short
pitted vessels. The cortical parenchyme and the medullary rays are
loaded with small starch granules. Some cells of the interior part of
the bark contain however only bundles of acicular crystals of oxalate
of calcium.
Chemical Composition — The peculiar principles of ipecacuanha
are Emetine and Ipecaciumhic Acid, together with a minute propor-
tion of a foetid volatile oil. The activity of the drug appears to be due
solely to the alkaloid, which taken internally is a potent emetic.
Emetine, discovered in 1817 by Pelletier and Magendie, is a bitter
substance with distinct alkaline reaction, amorphous in the free state
as well as in most of its salts ; we have succeeded in prepaiing a
crystallized hydrochlorate.
The root yields of the alkaloid less than 1 per cent. ; the numerous
higher estimates that have been given relate to impure emetine, or
have been arx'ived at by some defective methods of analysis.^
The formula assigned to emetine by Reich (1863) was G^''H^*'N^O®,
that given by Gldnard (1875) C^'H^^NO^, and lastly that found in 1877
by Lefort and F. Wurtz, C='ff°N^O^
The alkaloid may be obtained by drying the powdered bark of the
root with a little milk of lime, and exhausting the mixture with boiling
chloroform, petroleum-benzin or ether. It is a white powder turning
brown on exposure to light and softening at 70° C. Emetine assumes
an intense and permanent yellow colour with solution of chlorinated
lime and a little acetic acid, as shown by Power (1877). A solution
containing but e-gVo of emetine still displays that reaction. We found
the alkaloid to be destitute of rotatory power, at least in the chloroform
solution.
The above reactions may be easily shown thus : — Take 10 grains of
powdered ipecacuanha, and mix them with 3 grains of quick-lime and
a few drops of water. Dry the mixture in the water bath and transfer
it to a vial containing 2 fluid di-achms of chloroform : agitate frequently,
then filter into a capsule containing a minute quantity of acetic acid,
^ See the results obtained by Richard and
Barruel, by Magendie and Pelletier, and by
Attfield, as recorded by the last-named
chemist in Proceedings of the British Phar-
maceutical Conference for 1869. 37-39.
RADIX IPECACUANHA.
375
and allow the chloroform to evaporate. Two drops of water now added
will aftbrd a nearly colourless solution of emetine, which, placed in a
watch-glass, will readily give amorphous precipitates upon addition of
a saturated solution of nitrate of potassium, or of tannic acid, or of a
solution of mercuric iodide in iodide of potassium. To the nitrate
Power's test may be further applied.
If the xvood separated as exactly as possible from the bark is used,
and the experiment performed in the same way, the solution will reveal
only traces of emetine. By addition of nitrate of potassium, no preci-
pitate is then produced, but tannic acid or the potassico-mercuric iodate
aflbrd a slight turbidity. This experiment confirms the observation
that the bark is the seat of the alkaloid, as might indeed be inferred
from the fact that the wood is nearly tasteless.
Ipecacuanhic Acid, regarded by Pelletier as gallic acid, but recog-
nised in 1850 as a peculiar substance by Willigk,^ is reddish-brown,
amorphous, bitter, and very hygroscopic. It is related to caffetannic
and kinic acids ; Reich has shown it to be a glucoside.
Ipecacuanha contains also, according to Reich, small proportions of
resin, fat, albumin, and fermentable and crystallizable sugar ; also gum
and a large quantity of pectin. The bark yielded about 30 per cent.,
and the wood more than 7 per cent, of starch.
Commerce — The imports of ipecacuanha into the United Kingdom
in 1870 amounted to G2,952 lb., valued at £1G,639.2
Uses — Ipecacuanha is given as an emetic, but much more often in
small doses as an expectorant and diaphoretic. In India it has proved
of late a most important remedy for dysentery. Since the year 1858
when the administration of ipecacuanha in large (30 grains) doses began
to be adopted, the mortality in the cases treated for this complaint has
greatly diminished.^
Adulteration and Substitutes — It can hardly be said that ipeca-
cuanha as at present imported is ever adulterated. Although it may
contain an undue proportion of the woody stems of the plant, it is not
fraudulently admixed with other roots. But it very often arrives much
deteriorated by damp : we have the authority of an experienced drug-
gist for saying that at least three packages out of every four offered in
the London drug sales, have either been damaged by sea-water or by
damp during their transit to the coast.
Several I'oots have been described as False Tpecacuanha, but we
know not one that would not be readily distinguished at first sight by
any druggist of average knowledge and experience.
In Brazil the word Poaya is applied to emetic roots of plants of at
least six genera, belonging to the orders Itubiacece, Violar'iece, and Poly-
(jalece ; while in the same country, the name Ipecacuanha is used for
various species of lonidium* as well as for Cepliaelis.
'Gmelin, Chemistry, xv. (1862) 523.
-Annual Statement of the Trade and
Navigation of the U.K.for 1870. — The more
recent issues of this return have been sim-
plified to such an extent that drugs are for
the greater part included under one head.
^ In the Madras Presidency, the death-
rate from dysentery was 71 per 1000 cases
treated : under the new method of treat-
ment, it has been reduced to 13 '5. In
Bengal it has fallen from 88 "2 to 28 '8 per
1000. — Supplement to the Gazette of India,
January 23, 1869.
••As lonidium Ipecacuanha Vent., /.
rcnija St. Hil., /. parviflorum Vent., the
first of which affords the Poaya branca or
376
RUBIACE^.
Some of these roots, which are occasionally brought to Europe under
the notion that they may find a market, have been described and figured
by pharmacologists. We shall notice only the following : —
1. Large Striated Ipecacuanha — This is the root of Psychotria
emetica Mutis {Riihiaceoi), a native of New Granada. It is considerably
stouter than true ipecacuanha, but consists like the latter of a woody
column covered with a thick brownish bark. The latter, though marked
here and there with constrictions and fissures, is not annidated like
ipecacuanha, but has very evident longitudinal furrows. But its most
remarkable character is that it remains soft and moist, tough to the knife,
even after many years ; and the cut surface has a dull violet hue.
The root has a sweetish taste and abounds in sugar ;i its decoction
is not rendered blue by iodine, nor is any starch to be detected by
means of the microscope. The drug occasionally appears in the
London market.
2. Small Striated Ipecacuanha — This drug in outward appearance
closely resembles the preceding, but is usually of smaller size, — some-
times much smaller and in short pieces tapering towards either end. It
also differs in being brittle, abounding in starch, and having its woody
column provided with numerous pores, easily visible under a lens.
Prof. Planchon ' of Paris, who has particularly examined both varieties
of Striated Ipecacuanha, is of opinion that the drug under notice may
be derived from sOme species oi' Richardsonia.
3. Undulated Iptecacuanha — The root thus called is that of
Richardia scabra L. (Richardsonia scabra St. Hilaire), a plant of the
same order as Cephaelis, very common in Brazil, where it grows in
cultivated ground and sandy places, or by roadsides, and even in the less
frequented streets of Rio de Janeiro. Authentic specimens have been
forwarded to us by Mr. Glaziou of Rio de Janeiro, and Mr. J. Correa de
Mello of Campinas ; and we have also had ample supplies of the plant
cultivated by us near London and at Strassburg, where Richardsonia
succeeds in the open air.
The root in the fresh state is pure white, but by drying becomes of a
deep iron-grey. In the Brazilian specimens, there is a short crown
emitting as many as a dozen prostrate stems ; below this there is
generally, as in true ipecacuanha, a naked woody portion, which
extends downwards into a thicker root, ^ of an inch in diameter, and
six or more inches long. This part of the root is marked by deep
fissures on alternate sides, which give it a knotty, sinuous, or undulating
outline. It has a brittle, very thick bark, white and farinaceous within,
surrounding a strong flexible slender woody column. The root has an
earthy odour not altogether unlike that of ipecacuanha, and a slightly
sweet taste. It affords no evidence of emetine when tested in the
manners described at p. 37-i, and can therefore easily be distinguished
from the true drug.
TF/«;^e /pecof«aK/ta of tlie Brazilians. — See ' Attfield in Pharm. Joimi. xi. (1870)
C.¥.F. yonMa.rtms, Specirneti Mat. Med. 140.
Bras. 1824; A. de St. Hilaire, Plantes ^ /o«<r». cZe /"/iarm. xvi. (1872) 405: xvii.
usuelles des Bridliem, 1827-28. 19.
RADIX VALERIANiE.
377
VALERIANACE^.
RADIX VALERIANA.
Valerian Root; F. Racine de Valeriane ; G. Baldriamviirzel.
Botanical Origin — Valeriana ojjicinalis L., an herbaceous peren-
nial plant, growing throughout Europe from Spain to Iceland, the
North Gape and the Crimea, and extending over Northern Asia to the
coasts of Manchuria. The plant is found in plains and uplands,
ascending even in Sweden to 1 200 feet above the sea-level.
In England, valerian is cultivated in many villages ^ near Chester-
field in Derbyshire, the wild plant which occurs in the neighbourhood
not being sufficiently plentiful to sup})ly the demand.
In Vermont, New Hampshire and New York, as well as in Holland,
the plant is grown to some extent, but by far the largest supply
would appear to be grown in the environs of the German town
Colleda, not far from Leipzig.
Valerian is propagated by separating the young plants which
are developed at the end of runners emitted from the rootstock.
The wild plant, according to the situation it inhabits, exhibits
several divergent forms. Among eight or more varieties noticed by
botanists,' we may especially distinguish «. major with a compar-
atively tall stem and all the leaves toothed, ^. minor {V. aiigustifolia
Tausch) with entire or slightly dentate leaves, and also V. samhuc{folia
Mikan, having only -i or 5 pairs of leaflets.
History — The plant which the Greeks and Romans called ^oii or
Phu, and which Dioscorides and Pliny describe as a sort of wild nard,
is usually held to be some species of valerian.^
The word Valeriana is not found in the classical authors. We first
meet with it in the Oth or 10th century, at which period and for long
afterwards, it was used as synonymous with Plm or Fu.
Thus in the writing-s of Isaac J udoius * occurs the following : — " Fu
id est Valeriana, melior rubea et tenuis et quoi venit de Armenia et est
diversa in sua complexione. . . ."
Constantinus Africanus ' — " Fu, id est Valeriana. Naturam habet
sicut spica nardi. . . ."
The word Valeriane occurs in the recipes of the Anglo-Saxon
leeches written as early as the 11th century.'' Valeriana, Amantilla
and Fih are used as synonymous in the Alphita, a mediaeval vocabulary
of the school of Salernum.''
Saladinus ^ of Ascoli directs (circa A.d. 1450) the collection in the
month of August of " radices fu id est Valerianae."
^ Namely Ashover, Woolley Moor, Mor-
ton, Stretton, Higham, Shirland, Pilsley,
North and South Wingfield, and Bracken-
tield. From the produce of these villages,
one wholesale dealer in Chesterfield ob-
tained in 1872 about C tons (13,440 lb.) of
root.
^ Regel, Tentamen Florce Ussuriensis, 1862
(Mim. de I'Acctdimie de St. Petersbou7-g).
' V. officinalis L. and nine other species
occur in Asia Minor (Tchihatcheff).
^ Opera Omnia, Lugd. 1515, cap. 45. —
It must be remembered that this is a tran-
slation from the Arabic. How the word in
question stands in the original we have no
means of knowing.
^ De omnibus medico coynitu necessariis,
Basil. 1539. 348.
° Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft
of early England, iii. (1866) 6. 136.
' S. de Renzi, Collectio Salernitana, iii.
(1854) 271-322.
^ Compendium Aromatariorum, Bonon.
1488.
378
VALERIANACE^.
Valerian was anciently called in English Setwcdl, a name properly
applied to Zedoavy; and the root was so much valued for its medicinal
virtues, that as Gerarde ^ (1567) remarks, the poorer classes in the north
of England esteemed " no broths, jwttage, or pkysiccdl meats " to be
worth anything without it. Its odour, now considered intolerable, was
not so regarded in the 16th century, when it was absolutely the custom
to lay the root among clothes as a perfume - in the same way as those
of Valeriana celtica L. and the Himalayan valerians are still used
in the East.
Some of the names applied to valerian in Northern and Central
Europe are remarkable. Thus in Scandinavia we find Velandsrot,
Velamsrot, Vandclrot (Swedisli); Vendelrod, Venderod, Vendingsrod
(Norwegian) ; and Velandsurt (Danish)— names all signifying Vandels'
root.^ Valerian is also called in Danish Danmarhs grws. Among the
German-speaking population of Switzerland, a similar word to the last,
namely Tanmnark, is applied to valerian. The Denemarcha mentioned
by St. Hildegard,* about A.D. 1160, is the same. These names seem to
point to some connexion with Northern Europe which we ai'e wholly
unable to explain.
Pentz, a pharmaceutical assistant at Pyrmont, was the first, in 1829,
to draw attention to the acid reaction of the distilled water of valerian.
Another German assistant, Grote, at Verden, showed in 1831 that the
acidity was by no means due to acetic acid, but to a peculiar kind of
acid. The latter was identified in 1843 by Dumas with the acid arti-
ficially obtained from amylic alcohol and that extracted in 1817 by
Chevreul from the fat of dolphins.
Description — The valerian root of the shops consists of an upright
rhizome of the thickness of the little finger, emitting a few short hori-
zontal branches, besides numerous slender rootlets.^ The rhizome is
naturally very short, and is rendered still more so by the practice of
cutting it in order to facilitate drying. The rootlets, which are gene-
rally 3 to 4 inches long, attain -^^ of an inch in diameter, tapering
and dividing into slender fibres towards their extremities. They are
shrivelled, very brittle, and, as well as the rhizome, of a dull, earthy
brown. When broken transversely, they display a dark epidermis,
forming part of a thick white bark which surrounds a slender woody
column. The interior of the rhizome is compact, firm and horny, but
when old becomes hollow, a portion of the tissue remaining however in
the form of transverse septa.
The drug has a peculiar, somewhat terebinthinous and camphor-like
odour, and a bitterish, aromatic taste. The root when just taken from
the ground has no distinctive smell, but acquires its characteristic odour
as it dries.
Microscopic Structure'' — In the rhizome as well as in the rootlets,
the cortical part is separated from the central column by a dark cambial
1 HerhaJl, 1636. 1078.
2 Turner's Herhall, part 3 (1568) 76;
Langham, Garden of Health, 1633. 598.
•* H. Jenssen - Tusch, Nordiskc Plan-
tenavne, Kjobenhavn, 1867. 258.
■» Physica, Argent. 1533. 62.
" The morphological peculiarities of val-
erian root are well explained in Irmisch,
Be'dray zur Natimjeschiehte der einheimi-
sche.n Valeriana- Arten, Halle, 1854, 44
pages, 4°, 4 plates.
The structure of the rhizomes and root
of the different species of valerian has been
discussed by Joannes Chatin in his Etudes
RADIX VALERIANAE.
379
zone ; the medullary rays are not distinctly obvious. In old rootstocks,
sclerenchyniatous cells are met with in the cortical tissue.
The parenchyme of the drug is loaded with small starch granules,
brownish grains of tannic matter and drops of essential oil. Numerous
oil ducts are met with in the outer layer of the tissue.
Chemical Composition — Volatile oil is contained in the dry root
to the extent of h to 2 per cent., yet on an average appears scarcely to
exceed i per cent. This variation in qviantity is partly explained by
the influence of locality, a dry, stony soil yielding a root richer in oil
than one that is moist and fertile. In the latter the plant may be dis-
tinguished as the variety sambucifolia, which has a less vigorous root,
devoid of I'unners.
Schoonbioodt^ has shown that the most important influence is the
recent condition of the root. He states that if the root is submitted to
distillation when perfectly fresh, it yields a neutral water and a large
quantity of essential oil. The latter has but a very faint odour, but by
exposure to the air it slowly acidifies, especially if a little alkali is
added, and acquires a strong smell. Valerianic Acid which is thus
formed amounts to 6 per mille of the fresh root. The dried root yields
a distillate of decided valerian odour, containing valerianic acid, but in
proportion not exceeding 4 per mille of the root calculated as fresh.
The oil of valerian is of a very peculiar yellowish or brownish, some-
times even almost a little greenish hue, and possessing the characteristic
odour of the drug. We found it to deviate the plane of polarization
from 11° to 13° to the left when examined by Wild's Polaristrobometer
in a column of oO millimetres. By submitting it to fractional distilla-
tion we noticed" that it affords a magnificent blue fraction. A superb
violet or blue colour is produced if one drop of the crude oil dissolved
in about 20 drops of bisulphide of carbon is mixed with 1 drop of nitric
acid 1'20 sp. gr. Other colorations are produced if bromine or concen-
trated sulphuric acid are used ; ^ even the tincture of valerian displays
similar reactions.
Bruylants (1878) has isolated from oil of valerian — 1st. A hydro-
carbon, C^"H'*, boiling at 157° C, yielding a crystallized compound with
HCl. 2nd. The liquid compound C'''H^''0, v/hich by means of chromic
acid affords common camphor and formic, acetic and valerianic acids,
which are met with in old valerian root, owing no doubt to the slow
oxidation of the compound C^"ff''0. 3rd. There is also present a
crystallizable compound of the same composition, which is probably
identical with the camphor of Dryobalanops aromatica (see our article
on Camphora). It would appear that this substance is of alcoholic
nature, being combined in the root with the 3 organic acids mentioned
under 2nd. On distilling, these compound ethers are resolved partly
into the alcohol C^H^^O (borneol) and the acids. This decomposition
is fully performed, if the root is macerated with alkaline water, and
then, on distilling, a slight excess of sulphuric acid is added. 4th. At
sur les Valerian^es, Paris, 1872, illustrated
by 14 beautiful plates.
^ Journ. de Midecine de Bruxelles, 1867
and 1868 ; Jahresherkht of Wiggers and
Husemann, 1869. 17.
'- Archiv der Fharmac'ie, 209 (1876).
^ Jahresbericht of Wiggersand Husemann,
1871. 462.
380
COMPOSITiE.
about 300° a greenish portion is coming over, whicli can be obtained
colourless by again rectifying it. This oil assumes intense colorations
if it is shaken with concentrated mineral acids ; it becomes blue by
distilling it over potash.
Valerianic acid as afforded by the root is not agreeing with normal
valerianic acid. It is, more exactly, isovalerianic acid, or isopropyl-
acetic acid : (CH^)2CH.CH^C00H, which is produced by Valeriana as
well as by Ai'changelica officinalis and Viburnum Opulus. The same
acid also may be obtained from the fat of Dolphinus globiceps.
After the root has been submitted to the distillation of the oil, there
is found a strongly acid residue containing malic acid, resin, and sugar, —
the last capable, according to Schoonbroodt, of reducing cupric oxide.
Uses — Valerian is employed as a stimulant and antispasmodic.
Substitutes — In the London market there has been offered "Kesso,"
the root of Patrinia scabiosaefolia Link,^ a Japanese herb of the order
Valerianaccce. This drug consists of a very short rootstock giving off
a large number of rootlets about 5 inches long and of an inch in
diameter. By the absence of a well-marked upright rhizome in this
Japanese Valerian it is widely differing from our Valerian, although
at first sight it agrees to some extent with it. As to the odour and
taste we find Kesso almost identical with true Valerian.
The less aromatic and now disused root of V tderioAia Plm L. consists
of a thicker rhizome which lies in the earth obliquely; it is less closely
annulated and rooted at the bottom only. It resembles by no means
true Valerian.
COMPOSITvE.
RADIX INULiE.
Radix Enuloi, Radix Helen ii; Elecampane;'^ F. Racine d'Aune'e;
G. Alanhvurzel.
Botanical Origin — Inula Helenium L. — This stately perennial
plant is very widely distributed, occun'ing scattered throughout the
whole of central and southern Europe, and extending eastward to the
Caucasus, Southern Siberia and the Himalaya. It is found here and
there apparently wild in the south of England and Ireland, as well as
in Southern Norway and in Finland (Schiibeler).
Elecampane was formerly cultivated in gardens as a medicinal and
culinary plant, and in this manner has wandered to North America. In
Holland and some parts of England and Switzerland, it is cultivated on a
somewhat larger scale, most largely probably near Colleda (see p. 377).
History — The plant was known to the ancient writers on agri-
culture and natural history, and even the Roman poets were acquainted
with it, and mention Inula as affording a root used both as a medicine
and a condiment. Vegetius Renatus, about the beginning of the oth
century, calls it Inula Campana, and St. Isidore in the beginning of
the 7th names it as Imda, adding — " quam Alam rustic! vocant." It
is frequently mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon writings on medicine cur-
rent in England prior to the Norman Conquest; it is also the "marchalan"
^ According to Holmes, PA. x. (1879)22. latter word referring to the growth of the
A corruption of Enula Campana, the plant in Campania (Italy).
RADIX INUL^.
381
of the Welsh Physicians^ of the 13th century and was generally well
known during the middle ages. Not only was its root much employed
as a medicine, but it was also candied and eaten as a sweetmeat.
Description — For pharmaceutical use, the root is taken from plants
two or three years old ; when more advanced, it becomes too woody.
The principle mass of the root is a very thick short crown, dividing
below into several fleshy branches of which the larger are an inch or
two in diameter, covered with a pale yellow bark, intei'nally whitish,
and juicy. The smaller roots are di'ied entire; the larger are variously
sliced, which occasions them to curl up irregularly. When dried, they
are of a light grey, brittle, horny, smooth-fractured. Cut transversely
the young root exhibits an indistinct radiate structure, with a somewhat
darker cambial zone separating the thick bark from the woody nucleus.
The pith is not sharply defined, and is often porous and hollow. In the
older roots the bark is relatively much thinner, and the internal sub-
stance is nearly uniform. Elecampane root has a weak aromatic odour
suggestive of orris and camphor, and a slightly bitter, not unpleasant,
aromatic taste.
Microscopic Structure — The medullary rays, both of the woody
column and the inner part of the bark {cndo'phloeum), exhibit large
balsam-ducts. In the fresh root they contain an aromatic liquid, which
as it dries deposits crystals of helenin, probably derived from the essential
oil. The parenchymatous cells of the drug are loaded with inulin in
the form of splinter-like fragments, devoid of any peculiar structure.
Chemical Composition — It was observed by Le Febvre, as early
as 1660, that when the root of elecampane is subjected to distillation
with water a crystallizable substance collects in the head of the receiver
from which it speedily passes on as the operation proceeds. Similar
crystals may also be observed after carefully heating a thin slice of the
root, and are even found as a natural efflorescence on the surface of root
that has been long kept. They can be extracted from the root by
means of alcohol and precipitated with water. Kallen (1874, 1876)
showed that the crystals chiefly consist of the anhydride, C^^H^^'O^, of
alantic acid, melting at 66° C. The anhydride, which is very little
aromatic, can easily be sublimed, although it begins to boil onl}^ at 275°,
yet not without decomposition. Alantic anhydride dissolves in caustic
lye, but on saturating the solution with an acid, alantic acid,
separates. It is not present in the root.
The anhydride is accompanied by a small quantity of Helenin,
CffO, and Alcmtcaniphor (i.e. Elecampane-camphor). The crystals
of helenin have a slightly (?) bitterish taste, but no odour, and melt at 110°.
The camphor", occurring in but very small amount, has not yet been
analyzed ; it agrees probably with the formula C'"H^"0 ; it melts at
64° C, and in taste and smell is suggestive of peppermint. It is very
difficult entirely to remove helenin from alantcamphor, these substances
being soluble to nearly the same extent in alcohol or ether. By distil-
ling the second of them with pentasulphide of phosphorus, Cymene,
C"H", was obtained.
By distilling the root under notice with water, the alantic anhydride
is chiefly obtained, but impregnated with Alantol, C^ff^O (probably).
1 Meddyrjon Myddfai, p. 61. 284. .Ill (see Appendix).
382
COMPOSITiE.
The latter can be removed from the crystals by pressing them between
folds of bibulous paper. On siibmitting this again to distillation,
alantol is obtained as an aromatic liquid, boiling at 200°,
The substance most abundantly contained in elecampane root is
Inulin, discovered in it by Valentine Rose at Berlin in 1804. It has the
same composition as starch, CH^'O^ but stands to a certain extent in
opposition to that substance, which it replaces in the root-system of
Com2')ositce. In living plants, inulin is dissolved in the watery juice, and
on drying is deposited within the cells in amorphous masses, wliich in
polarized light are inactive, and are not coloured by iodine. There are
various other characters, by which inulin differs from starch. Thus for
instance, inulin readily dissolves in about 3 parts of boiling water ; the
solution is perfectly clear and fluid, not paste-like; but on cooling
deposits nearly all the inulin. The solution is levogyre and is easily
transformed into uncrystallizable sugar. With nitric acid, inulin affords
no explosive compound as starch does.
Sachs showed in 1864 that by immersing the roots of elecampane, or
Dahlia variabilis or of many other perennial Compositce, in alcohol
or glycerin, inulin may be precipitated in a crystalline form. Its
globular aggregates of needle-shaped crystals (" spheero-crystals") then
exhibit under the polarizing microscope a cross similar to that displayed
by starch grains.
The amount of inulin varies according to the season, but is most
abundant in the autumu. Of the various sources for it, the richest
appears to be elecampane. Dragendorff, who has made it the subject of
a very exhaustive treatise,' obtained from the root in October not less
than 44 per cent., but in spring only 19 per cent.
In the roots of the Comjwsitoi inulin is accompanied, according to
Popp," by two closely allied substances, Synanthrose, C'-ff ^0" -f- 0,
and Inulo'id, C''ff"0'^-|-H"0. Synanthrose is soluble in dilute alcohol,
devoid of any rotatory power, and deliquescent. Inuloid is much more
readily soluble in water than inulin. Both these substances are probably
present in elecampane.
Inulin is widel}'' distributed in the perennial roots of composite©, and
has also been met with in the natural orders Campanulacete, Goodenovieaj
(or Goodeuiaceje), Lobeliacece, Stylidiepe, and lastly by Kraus (1879) in
the root of lonidium Ipecacuanha St. Hilaire, Violacete ; the formerly
so-called Ipecacuanha alba lignosa (see p. 375, note 4).
Uses — Elecampane is an aromatic tonic, but as a medicine is now
obsolete. It is chiefly sold for veterinary practice. In France and
Switzerland (Neuchatel), it is employed in the distillation of Absinthe.
Substitutes — Dioscorides in speaking of Costus root states that it is
often mixed with that of elecampane of Kommagene (north-western
Syria). The former, derived from Aplotaxis^ auriculata DC. {A. Lappia
Decaisne, AucMandia Costus Falconer), is remarkably similar to elecam-
pane both in external appearance and structure. Costus is an important
spice, incense and medicine in the east from the antiquity down to
' Materialien zu einer Monographie den ^ Wiggers and Husemann, Jahresberkld
InuUns, St. Petersburg, 1870. 141 pages— for 1870. 68.
See also Pmnti's paper on Inulin, as ab- ^ Bentham and Hooker unite this plant
stracted in P/i«rm. /o2(r». Sept. 1871. 262. with. Scnatxiirea.
KADIX PYRETHRI.
388
the present day;' it would be of great interest to examine it chemically
with regard to elecampane.
RADIX PYRETHRI.
Pi'Uitory Root, Pellitory of Spain; F. Pyrethre salivaire; G. Bertmm-
wurzel.
Botanical Origin — Anacylus Pyrethrum DC. (Anthemls Pyre-
thrum L.), a low perennial plant with small, much divided leaves, and a
radiate flower resembling a large daisy. It is a native of northern
Africa, especially Algeria, growing on the high plateaux that intervene
between the fertile coast regions and the desert.
History — The -wvpeBpov of Dioscorides was an umbelliferous plant,
the determination of which must be left to conjecture. The pellitory
of modern times was familiar to the Arabian writers on medicine,
one of whom, Ibn Baytar, describes it very correctly from specimens
gathered by himself near the city of Constantine in Algeria.
The plant, says he, called by the Berbers sandasah, is found nowhere
but in Western Africa, from which region it is carried to other
countries."
Pellitory root is a favourite remedy in the East, and has long been
an article of export by way of Egypt to India. An Arabic name for it
is Adqarqarhd or AkulJiara \ a. word which, under slight variations, is
found in the principal languages of India. In Germany, pellitory was
known as early as the 12th century ; it is named in the oldest printed
works on materia medica. In the 13th century " pellitory of Spain "
(Pelydr ysbain) was a proved " remedy for the toothache" with the
Welsh physicians."*
Description — The root as found in the shops is simple, 3 to 4
inches long by f to f of an inch thick, cylindrical, or tapering, some-
times terminated at top by the bristly remains of leaves, and having
only a few hair-like rootlets. It has a l)rown, rough, shi-iveUed surface,
is compact and brittle, the fractured surface being radiate and destitute
of pith. The bark, at most t.V of an inch thick, adheres closely to the
wood, a narrow zone of cambium intervening. The woody column is
traversed by large medullary rays in which, as in the bark, numerous
dark resin-ducts are scattered. The root has a slight aromatic smell,
and a persistent, pungent taste, exciting a singular tingling sensation,
and a remarkable flow of saliva. The drug is very liable to the attacks
of insects.
Microscopic Structure — The cortical part of this root is remark-
able on account of its suberous layer, which is partly made up of scleren-
chyme (thick-walled cells). Balsam-ducts (oil-cells) occur as well in the
middle cortical layer as in the medullary rays. Most of the parenchy-
matous cells are loaded with lumps of inulin ; pellitory in fact is one of
those roots most abounding in that substance.
Chemical Composition — Pellitory has been analysed by several
' See Cooke, Pharm. Journ. viii. (1877)
41 ; Fluckiger, ibkl. 121.
- Sontheimer's translation, ii. (1842) 179.
3 Haq'rcarclia ; see Steinschneider, in
Eolilfa' Archiv f tir Geschichte der Medicin
(1879) 342.
* Meddygon Myddfai (see Appendix) 184.
292. 374.
384
COMPOSITE.
chemists, whose labours have shown that its pungent taste is due in
great part to a resin, not yet fully examined. The root also contains a
little volatile oil besides, sugar, gum, and a trace of tannic acid. The
so-called Pyrethrin is a mixed substance.
Commerce — The root is collected chiefly in Algeria and is exported
from Oran and to a smaller extent from Algiers. But from the informa-
tion we have received from Colonel Playfair, British Consul-General for
Algeria, and from Mr. Wood, British Consul at Tunis, it appears that
the greater part is shipped from Tunis to Leghorn and Egypt. Mr.
Wood was informed that the drug is imported from the frontier town
of Tebessa in Algeria into the regency of Tunis, to the extent of 500
cantars (50,000 lb.) per annum.
Bombay imported in the year 1871-72, 740 cwt. of this drug, of
which more than half was shipped to other ports of India.^
Uses — Chiefly employed as a sialogogue for the relief of toothache,
occasionally in the form of tincture as a stimulant and rubefacient.
Substitute — In Germany, Russia and Scandinavia, African pellitory
is replaced by the root of Anaeyclus oficinarum Hayne, an annual
herb long cultivated in Prussia and Saxony.^ Its root of a light grey is
only half as thick as that of A. Fyrethrum, and is always abundantly
provided with adherent remains of stalks and leaves. It is quite as
pungent as that of the perennial species.
FLORES ANTHEMIDIS.
Chamomile Flowers; F. Fleurs de Camomille Romaine ; G. Eomische
Kamillen.
Botanical Origin — Anthemis oiohilis L., the Common or Roman
Chamomile, a small creeping perennial plant, throwing up in the latter
part of the summer solitary flower-heads.
It is abundant on the commons in the neighbourhood of London,
and generally throughout the south of England ; and extends to Ireland,
but is not a native of Scotland, except the islands of Bute and Cumbrae,
where Anthemis is stated to grow wild. It is plentiful in the west and
centre of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Dalmatia ; and occurs as a
doubtful native in Southern and Central Russia.
History ^ — The identification of the chamomile in the classical and
other ancient authors seems to be impossible, on account of the large
number of allied plants having similar inflorescence.
The chamomile has been cultivated for centuries in English gardens,
the flowers being a common domestic medicine. The double variety
was well known in the 16th century.
The plant was introduced, according to Gesner, into Germany from
Spain about the close of the middle ages. Tragus first designated it
Chamomilla nohilis,^ and Joachim Camerarius (1598), who had ob-
- Statement of the Trade and Navkiation
of the Presidency of Bovibay in 1871-72,
pt. ii. 19. 98.
^ For further information on the medi-
cinal species of A nacyclus, see a paper by
Dr. P. Ascherson in Bonplandia, 15 April
1858.
^ De Stirpium . . ., 1552. 149. — In Ger-
many the epithet edel (= nobilis) is fre-
quently used in popular botany to desig-
nate useful or remarkable plants. Tragus
may have been induced to bestow it on the
species under notice, on account of its
superiority to Matricaria Camomilla, the
so-called Common Chamomile of the Ger-
mans.
FLORES ANTHEMIDIS.
385
served its abundance near Rome, gave it the name of Roman Chamo-
mile.
Porta, about the year 1G04/ states that 100 pounds of Flores
Chamoemeli yielded 2 drachnise of a green volatile oil : we suppose he
distilled the flowers under notice.
Production — The camomile is cultivated at Mitcham, near London,
the land applied to this purpose being in 18G4 about 55 acres, and the
yield reckoned at about 4 cwt. per acre. The flowers are carefully
gathered, and dried by artificial heat ; and fetch a high price in the
market.^
The plant is grown on a large scale at Kieritzsch, between Leipzig
and Altenburg, and near Zeiz and Borna, all in Saxony ; and likewise
to some extent in Belgium and France.
Description — The chamomile flowers found in commerce are never
those of the wild plant, but are produced by a variety in which the
tubular florets have all, or for the greater part been converted into ligu-
late florets. In the flowers of some localities this conversion has been
less complete, and such flowers having a somewhat yellow centre, are
called by druggists Single Chamomiles ; while those in which all the
florets are ligulate and white, are known as Double Chamomiles.
Chamomile flowers have the general structure found in the order
Compositce. They are | to l of an inch across, and consist of a hemi-
spherical involucre about f of an inch in diameter, composed of a num-
ber of nearly equal bracts, scarious at the margin. The receptacle is
3olid, conical, about | of an inch in height, beset with thin, concave,
blunt, narrow, chafty scales, from the bases of which grow the numerous
lorets. In the wild plant, the outer of these, to the number of 12 or
more, are white, narrow, strap-shaped, and slightly toothed at the apex,
rhe central or disc flox-ets are yellow and tubular, with a somewhat
bell-shaped summit from which project the two reflexed stigmas. In
:he cultivated plant, the ligulate florets predominate, or replace entirely
:he tubular. The florets which are wholly destitute of pappus are
reflexed, so that the capitulum when dried has the aspect of a little
white ball. Minute oil-glands are sparingly scattered over the tubular
Dortion of the florets of either kind. The flowers of chamomile, as well
IS the green parts of the plant, have a strong aroma, and a very bitter
;aste.
In trade, dried chamomile flowers are esteemed in proportion as they
ire of large size, very double, and of a good white — the last named
quality being due in great measure to fine dry weather during the
lowering period. Flowers that are buff" or brownish, or only partially
louble, command a lower price.
Chemical Composition — Chamomile flowers yield from 0 6 to 0 8
)er cent, of essential oiV which is at first of a pale blue, but becomes
yellowish-brown in the course of a few months.
At Mitcham, oil of chamomile is usually distilled from the entire
olant, after the best flowers have been gathei-ed. The oil has a shade
^ De distiUatione, Eomae, 1G08. 83. ^ Information obligingly given by Messrs.
-About £9 per cwt., Foreign Chamo- Schimmel & Co., Leipzig. The oil distilled
niles being worth from £3 to £4. by them was examined in Prof. Fittig's
laboratory, Strassburg.
2 B
386
OuMPOSITiE.
1
of green, to remove which it is exposed to sunlight ; it thus acquires a
brownish-yellow colour, at the same time throwing down a considerable
deposit.
The investigations of several chemists, performed in 1878-79 in
Fittig's laboratory, have shown the oil to contain the following con-
stituents : — At l-i7-14!8° C. isohutylic ethers and hydrocarbons are
distilling, at 177° angelicate of isohutyl, at 200°-201° angelicate of
isamyl, at 204<°-205° tiglinaie of isamyl (both these compound ethers
answering to the formula CH'O.OC'H"). In the residual portion
hexylic alcohol, CH'^OH, and an alcohol of the formula C^"Hi''0, are met
with, both probably occurring in the form of compound ethers. By de-
composing the angelicates and the tiglinate above named with potash,
angelic acid, C'H^O^, and tiglinic (or methylcrotonic) acid, isomeric to the
former, are obtained to the extent of about 30 or more per cent, of the
crude oil. In the oil examined by Fittig, angelic acid was prevailing ;
from another specimen E. Schmidt (1879) obtained but very little
of it, tiglinic acid was by far prevailing (see also article Oleum
Crotonis).
We have performed some experiments in order to isolate the bitter
principle, but have not succeeded in obtaining it in a satisfactory state
of purity ; it forms a brown extract, apparently a glucoside. We can
also confirm the statement that no alkaloid is present.
Uses — An infusion or an extract of chamomile is often used as a
bitter stomachic and tonic.
Adulteration and Substitution — The flower-heads of Matricaria
Chamomilla L., designated in Germany Common Chamomiles (gemeine
Kamillen), are sometimes asked for in this country. In aspect as well
as in odour, they are very different from the chamomiles of English
pharmacy ; they are quite single, not bitter, and have the receptacle
devoid of scales and hollow.
A cultivated variety of Chrysanthemurii Parthenium, Per.s., or
Feverfew, with the florets all ligulate, and some scales on the receptacle
(not having the receptacle naked, as in the wild form), common in
gardens,^ has flower-heads exceedingly like double chamomiles. But
they may be distinguished from the latter by their convex or nearly
fiat receptacle, with the scales lanceolate and acute, and less membran-
ous.
The chamomiles of the Indian bazaars which are brought from
Persia and known as Bdbunah, are (as we infer from the statement of
Royle) the flowers of Matricaria suaveolens L., a slender form of M.
Chamomilla, growing in Southern Russia, Persia, Southern Siberia, also
in North America.
The fresh wild plant of Aiithemis nobilis L., pulled uj) from the
ground, is sold in London for making extract, a proceeding highly re-
prehensible supposing the extract to be sold for medicinal use.
^ Is not tbis plant the Anilienus ? parthe-
nioides Bernh., of wliich De Candolle says
{Prod. vi. 7) — ". . . simillima il/ai. Par-
thenio, sed paleis inter flores instructa. Fere
semper plena in hortis occurrit, et forte ideo
palea? receptaculi ex luxuriante statu ortasut
in Ghrysanthemi indico et s'memi . . . " ?
SANTONICA.
3S7
SANTONICA.
Flores Gince, Semen Clnce,^ Semen Santonicce, Semen Zedoarice, Semen
Contra, Semen Sanctum ; Wormseed ; F. Semen-contra, Semencine,
Barhotinc ; G. Wurmsamen, Zitiuersamen.
Botanical Origin — Artemisia maritima, var. a. Stechmanniana
Besser^ {A. Lercheana Karel. et Kiril, in Herbb. Kew, et Mus. Brit. ;
^1. maritima var. a. 'pauciflora Weber, quoad Ledebour, Flor. Ross. ii.
570).
Artemisioi of the section SeripUidium assume great diversity of
form:' they have been the object of attentive study on the part of the
Russian botanists Besser (1834-35) and Ledebour (1844-4G), whose
researches have resulted in the union of many supposed species, under
the head of the Linnfean A rtemisia maritima. This plant has an
extremely wide distribution in the northern hemisphere of the old
world, occurring mostly in saltish soils. It is found in the salt marshes
of the British Islands, on the coasts of the Baltic, of France and the
Mediterranean, and on saline soils in Hungary and Podolia ; thence it
extends eastward, covering immense tracts in Southern Russia, the
regions of the Caspian, and Central Siberia, to Chinese Mongolia.
The particular variety which furnishes at least the chief part of the
drug, is a low, shrubby, aromatic plant, distinguished by its very small,
erect, ovoid flowerheads, having oblong, obtuse, involucral scales, the
interior scales being scarious. The stem in its upper half is a fastigiate,
thyrsoid panicle, crowned with flowerheads. The localities for the plant
are the neisfhbourhood of the Don, the i-esfions of the lower Volga near
Sarepta and Zaritzyn, and the Kirghiz deserts.
The drug, which consists of the minute, unopened flowerheads, is
collected in large quantities, as we are informed by Bjorklund (1867), on
the vast plains or steppes of the Kirghiz, in the northern part of Tur-
kesta.n. It was formerly gathered about Sarepta, a German colony in
the Government of Saratov, but from direct information we have (1872)
received, it appears to be obtained there no longer.
The em])orium for worm-seed is the great fair of Nishnei-Novgoi'od
(July 15th to Aug. 27th), whence the drug is conveyed to Moscow, St.
Petersburg, and Western Europe.
Wormseed is found in the Indian bazaars. A specimen received by
us from Bombay does not materially difl'er in foi-m from the Russian
drug, but is slightly shaggy and mixed with tomentose stalks. It is
probably brought from Afghanistan and Cabul.''
Wilkomm" has described, as mother-plant of wormseed, an
1 From the Italian semenzina, the dimiau-
tive of semoiza (seed).
^ W. S. Besser in Biilleiin de la Soc. imp.
des Naturalistesde 31oscou, vii. (ISSi) 31. —
A specimen of the plant in question labelled
in Besser's handwriting, with a memoran-
dum that it is collected for medicinal use,
is in the Herbai-ium of the Royal Gardens,
Kew. It completely agrees with the Se-
mrn Cbup of Russian and German com-
merce. This remark also applies to a
specimen of A. Lercheana Karel. et Kiril.
in the same herbarium.
•'"Si alice Artemisise multiim variant,
Seriphidia inconstantia formarum omnes
superant. . . ." — Besser.
^Artemiiia No. 3201, Herb. Griffith,
Afghanistan, in the Kew Herbarium has
capitules precisely agreeing with this Bom-
bay drug.
^Bot. Zeiiiing, 1 Marzl872. 130; Pharm.
Jouni. 23 March 1872. 772 (abstract).
388
COMPOSITE.
Artemisia which he calls A. Gina. It was obtained in Turkestan by
Prof. Petzholdt, who received it from the people gathering the drug.
The specimen kindly communicated to us by Prof Willkomm has
flowerheads which do not entirely resemble the wormseed of ti-ade, in
that they have fewer scales, but their number may be somewhat
varying.
History — Several species of Absinthium are mentioned byDiosco-
rides, one of which called 'A\p-lv9iov OaXdcra-iov or Hepicpov, having very
small seeds (capitules), and growing in Cappadocia, he states to be taken
in honey as a remedy for ascarides and lumbrici : one can hardly doubt
but that this is the modern wormseed. Another species is described
by the same author as being called liavToviov, from its growing in the
country of the Santones in Gaul (the modern Saintonge) ; he asserts it
to resemble trepitpov in its properties.
In an epistle on intestinal worms attributed to Alexander Tralli-
anus/ who practised medicine with great success at Rome in the 6th
century, the use is recommended of a decoction ofAbsintJdummarinum
(OaXaa-a-la a-^lvOrj) as a cure for ascarides and round worms.
Semen sanctum vel Alexandrinum is mentioned as a vermifuge for
children by Saladinus about A.D. 1450, and by Ruellius, Dodonseus, the
Bauhins, and other naturalists of the IGth century. Tragus '^ mentions
that it is imported by way of Genoa Its ancient reputation has been
fully maintained in modern times, and in the form partly of Santonin,
the drug is still extensively employed.
Description — Good samples of the drug consist almost exclusively
of entire, vinopened flowerheads or capitules, which are so minute that
it requires about 90 to make up the weight of one grain. In samples
less pure, there is an admixture of stalks, and portions of a small pinnate
leaf The flowerheads are of an elliptic or oblong form, about of an
inch long, greenish yellow when new, brown if long kept ; they grow
singly, less frequently in pairs, on short stalks, and are formed of about
18 oblong, obtuse, concave scales, closely imbricated. This involucre is
much narrowed at the base in consequence of the lowermost scales
being considerably shorter than the rest. The capitule is sometimes
associated with a few of the upper leaves of the stem, which are short,
narrow, and simple. Notwithstanding its compactness, the capitule is
somewhat ridged and angular,' from the involuclar scales having a
strong, central nerve or keel. The middle portion of each scale is
covered with minute, yellow, sessile glands, which are wanting on the
transparent scarious edge. The latter is marked with extremely fine
strijB and is quite glabrous ; in the young state the keel bears a few
woolly colourless hairs, but at maturity the whole flowerhead is shining
and nearly glabrous.* The florets number from 3 to 5 ; they have (in
the bud) an ovoid corolla, glandular in its lower portion, a little longer
than the ovary, which is destitude of pappus.
^Contained in a work by Hieronymus natural shape of the flowerheads, shows
Mercurialis, entitled Variarum Lcctionuvi that this shrunken, angular form is not
lihri quatuor, Venet. 1570; also in Pusch- found in the growing plant,
mann's edition of .4Zca;awdcr(seeAppendix), * Yet too much stress must not be laid on
i. 238. 240. this character, for as Besser remarks —
^\n&r\xnle\s(Devcraherbarumcogmtione), "pei-idinii squammin wioloco tomento hrevi
Argentorati, 1531. 196. />i«.s minuave cana-, in aliis niuhv, imo
■* Maceration in water, which restores the nitidai."
SANTONICA.
389
Wormseecl when rubbed in the hand exhales a powerful and agree-
able odour, resembling cajuput oil and camphor; it has a bitter
aromatic taste.
Chemical Composition — Wormseed yields from 1 to 2 per cent,
of essential oil, having its characteristic smell and taste. The oil is
slightly levogyrate and chiefly consists of the liquid C'"H'*0, accom-
panied by a small amount of hydrocarbon. The former has the odour
of the drug, yet rather more agreeable ; sp. gr. 0'913 at 20° C. It boils
without decomposition at 173°-174<°, but in presence of P-C or P'S*
abundantly yields cymol (see p. 333). The latter had already been
observed by Volckel (1854) under the name of cinene ov cynene, yet he
assigned to it the formula C^^H" ; Hirzel (1854) called it cinfebene.
The water which distills over carries with it volatile acids of the
fatty series, also angelic acid (see pp. 313, 386).
The substance to which the remarkable action of wormseed on the
human body^ is due is Santonin, C"H''0^ It was discovered in 1830
by Kahler, an apothecary of Dusseldorf, who gave a very brief notice
of it in the Archiv der Pharmacie of Brandes (xxxiv. 318). Immed-
iately afterwards Augustus Alms, a druggist's assistant at Penzlin in
the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, knowing nothing of
Kahler's discovery, obtained the same substance and named it Santonin.
Alms recommended it to the medical profession, pointing out that it is
the anthelmiuthic principle of wormseed.^ Santonin constitutes from 1 J
to 2 per cent, of the drug, but appears to diminish in quantity very
considerably as the flowei's open. It is easily extracted by milk of
lime, for, though not an acid and but sparingly soluble in water even
at a boiling heat, it is capable of combining with bases. With lime it
forms then santoninate of calcium, which is readily soluble in water.
On addition of hydrochloric acid, santoninic acid, C'^H-'^O*, separates, but
parts with OH^, .santonin being thus immediately reproduced. Similar
facts have been recorded with regaid to alantic acid (see p. 381).
Santonin forms crystals of the orthorhombic system, melting at 170°,
which are inodorous, but have a bitter taste, especially when dissolved
in chloroform or alcohol.-^ They are colourless, but when exposed
to daylight, or to the blue or violet rays, but not to the other
colours of the spectrum, they assume a yellow hue, and split into
irregular fragments. This change, which takes place even under
water, alcohol or ether, is not accompanied by any chemical
alteration. This behaviour of santonin when exposed to light,
resembles that of erythrocentaurin, C'"H''"'0*. The latter has been
obtained by means of ether, from the alcoholic extract of Erytlircea
Centauritim, and of some other Gentianacece. Mehu (1866) has
shown that the colourless crystals of that substance when exposed
to sunlight, assume a brilliant red colour, tvithout undergoing any
chemical alteration. The colourless solutions of this body in chloro-
^ As the affected vision, so that objects
appear as if seen tlnrough a yellow medium.
Other effects are recorded by Stille {Thera-
2'evtics and Mat. Med. ii. 641).
- The paper of Alms being contained in
the very same periodical (p. 319) as that of
Kahler (and further in vol. xxxix. 190),
affords additional evidence of the inde-
pendence of the discovery.
^ Its ready solubility in 3 or 4 parts of
chloroform renders its estimation easy
when mixed with sugar, as in a santonin
lozenge.
390
COMPOSITiE.
form or alcohol yield the original substance. Yet as to santonin,
Sestini and Cannizzaro (187G) have shown, that its dilute alcoholic
solution, on long exposure to sunlight, affords a compound ether of
photosantonic acid, namely C'H^OXC'ff)-.
Wormseed contains, in addition to the above described bodies,
resin, sugar, waxy fat, salts of calcium and potassium, and malic
acid ; when carefully selected and dried, it yielded us 6"5 per cent,
of ash, rich in silica.
Commerce — Ludwig of St. Petersburg has stated that the imports
of wormseed into that city were about as follows: — In 1862, 7400
cwt.; in 1863, 10,500 cwt.; in 1864, 11,400 cwt. The drug was brought
from the Kirghiz steppes by Semipalatinsk and by Orenburg.
Uses — The drug is employed exclusively for its anthelminthic pro-
perties, partly in the form of santonin. It proves of special efficacy for
the dislodgement of Ascaris lumbricoides.
RADIX ARNICvE.
Rhizoma Arnicce, Arnica Moot; F. Racine d' Arnica; G. Arnicawurzcl.
Botanical Origin — Arnica montanct L., a perennial plant growing
in meadows throughout the northern and central regions of the
northern hemisphere, but not reaching the British Islands. In western
and central Europe it is an inhabitant of the mountains, but in colder
countries it grows in the plains.
In high latitudes, as in Arctic Asia and America, a peculiar form of
the plant distinguished by narrow, almost linear leaves has been named
A. angustifolia Vahl; but numerous transitional forms prove its
identity with the ordinary A. montana, of Europe.
History — The older botanists as Matthiolus, Gesner, Camerarius,
Taberna3montanus, and Clusius were acquainted with Arnica and had
some knowledge of its medicinal powers, which appear to have been
expressly recommended, towards the end of the 16th century, by Franz
Joel, professor of Greifswald, Germany.^ All parts of the plant were
no doubt popular remedies in Germany at an early period, but Arnica
was only introduced into regular medicine on the recommendation of
Johann Michael Fehr of Schweinfurt and of several other physicians.^
But for enthusiastic laudation of the new remedy, all these writers fall
far short of Collin of Vienna, who imagined that in Arnica he had
found a European plant possessing all the virtues of Peruvian Bark.^
In his hands fevers and agues gave way under its use, and more than
1000 patients in the Pazman Hospital were alleged to have been cured
of intermittents by an electuary of the flowers, between 1771 and 1774!
Such happy results were not obtained by other physicians.
Arnica (Jierha, flos, radix) had a place in the London Pharmacopoeia
^ Sprengel, Geschichte der Arzneijhunde,
iv. (1827) 546,
- Fehr, De Arnica lapsorum panacea,
in Ephemeral, nat. cur. Dec. 1, (1678. 1679)
No. 2. p. 22 ("usus est in radice, foliis et
Horihtix"). — Ci. A. de la Marche, Dksertatio,
Halae Magdeburg, 1744.
^ Heinricli Joseph Collin, Heilhrdfte
des Wolverley, Breslau, 1777 (translation);
also Arnicce, in fehribus el aliis morbis
puiridis vires, — in the Anni Medici of
Storck and Collin, ed. uov., Amstel., iii.
(1779) 133.
RADIX ARNIC.E.
391
of 1788, but it soon fell out of notice, so that Woodville writing in
1790, remarks that he had been unable to procure the plant from any
of the London druggists. Of late yeai's it has gained some popular
notoriety as an application in the form of tincture, for preventing
the blackness of iDruises, but in England it is rarely prescribed
internally.
Description — The arnic root of pharmacy consists of a slender,
contorted, dark-brown rootstock, an inch or two long, emitting from its
under side an abundance of wiry simple roots, 3, 4 or more inches in
length ; it usually bears the remains of the rosette of characteristic,
ovate, coriaceous leaves, which are 3- to 5-nerved, ciliated at the margin,
and slightly pubescent on their upper surface. It has a faintly
aromatic, herby smell, and a rather acrid taste.
Microscopic Structure — On a transverse section, the rootstock
exhibits a large pith surrounded by a strong woody ring. In the
innermost part of the cortical layer, large oil-ducts are found corre-
sponding to the fibro-vaseular bundles. Neither starch granules, inulin,
or oxalate of calcium are visible in the tissue. The rootlets are of a
different structural character, but also contain oil-ducts.
Chemical Composition — Sevei-al chemists have occupied them-
selves in endeavouring to isolate the active principle of arnica.
Bastick described (1851) a substance which he obtained in minute
quantity from the flowers and named Arnicine. He states it to possess
alkaline properties, to be non-volatile, slightly soluble in water, more so
in alcohol or ether ; when neutralized with hydrochloric acid, it forms
a crystalline salt.
The Arnicin extracted by Walz (1861) both from the root and flowers
of arnica is a diflferent substance ; it is an amorphous yellow mass of
acrid taste, slightly soluble in water, freely in alcohol or ether, and dis-
solving also in alkaline solutions. It is precipitable from its alcoholic
solution by tannic acid or by water. Walz assigns to arnicin the for-
mula C'"H'"0' ; other chemists that of C'EL'^O". Arnicin has not yet
been proved a glucoside, although it is decomposed by dilute acids.
Sigel (1873) obtained from dried arnica root about | per cent, of
essential oil, and 1 per cent, from the fresh ; the oil of the latter had a
sp. gr. of 0'999 at 18° C. The oil was found to be a mixture of various
bodies, the principle being dimethylio ether of thymohydroqitinone
separates contains isohutyric acid, probably also a little angelic and
formic acid ; but neither capronic nor caprylic acid, which had been
pointed out by Walz.
Arnica root contains inulin, which Dragendorff extracted from it to
the extent of about 10 per cent.
Uses — Arnica is used chiefly in the form of tincture as a popular
application to bruises and chilblains ; internally it is occasionally pre-
scribed as a stimulant and diaphoretic.
Adulteration — Arnica root has been met with^ adulterated with
the root of Geum urhanum L., a common herbaceous plant of the order
The water from which the oil
1 Holmes in Pkarm. Journ., April 11, 1874. 810.
392
COMPOSITiE.
Rosacew. The latter is thicker than the rhizome of arnica, being ^% to
of an inch in diameter ; it is a true root, furnished on all sides with
rootlets, and has an astringent taste. The leaves of Geum are pinnate
and quite unlike those of arnica.
FLORES ARNICA.
Botanical Origin — See preceding article.
History — The flowers probably in the first line attracted the atten-
tion of popular medicine in Germany, as we pointed out, page 390.
Description — Arnica montana produces large, handsome, orange-
yellow flowers, solitary at the summit of the stem or branches. The
involucral scales of the capitulum (20 to 24) are of equal length, but
are imbricated, forming a double row. They are very hairy, the shorter
hairs being tipped with viscid glands. The receptacle is chaffy, ^ of an
inch in diameter, with about 20 ligulate florets, and of tubular a much
larger number. The ligulate florets, an inch in length, are oblong,
toothed at the apex, and traversed by about 10 parallel veins. The
achenes are brown and hairy, crowned by pappus consisting of a single
row of whitish barbed hairs.
The receptacle is usually inhabited by a fly, Trypeta arnicivora
Low ^ ; the Pharmacopoeia Germania (1872) therefore ordered the florets
to be deprived of the involucre and receptacle — " flosculi a peranthodio
liberati." From a chemical point of view the usefulness of this direc-
tion may be doubted.
Arnica flowers have a weak, not unpleasant odour ; they were for-
merly used in making the tincture, but as the British Pharmacopoeia
now directs that preparation to be made with the root, they have almost
gone out of use in Great Britain.
Chemical Composition — The flowers appear to be rather richer
in arnicin than the root, and are said to be equal if not superior to it
in medicinal powers ; yet the essential oil they contain is not the same.
It is obtained in but extremely small amount and has a greenish or
blue coloration. Hesse (1864) has proved that the flowers are devoid
of a peculiar volatile alkaloid which had been supposed to be present
in them.
RADIX TARAXACI.
Dandelion Root, Taraxacum Root ; F. Pissenlit ; G. Ldwenzahnwurzel.
Botanical Origin — Taraxacum officinale Wiggers (T. Dens-leonis
Desf , Leontoclon Taraxacum L.), a plant of the northern hemisphere,
found over the whole of Europe, Central and Northern Asia, and North
America, extending to the Arctic regions. It varies under a consider-
able number of forms, several of which have been regarded as distinct
species. In many districts it is a troublesome weed.
History — Though the common Dandelion is a plant which must
have been well known to the ancients, no indubitable reference to it
can be traced in the classical authors of Greece and Italy ; it is thought
' Figured in Nees von Esenbeck's Plantce mecUcinales, Dusseldorf, ii. (1833) fol. 39.
RADIX TARAXACI.
393
that aOaKij of Theophrast and others means it. The word Taraxacum
is however usually regarded as of Greek origin ; ^ we have first met
with as Tarakhshagun in the works of the Arabian physicians, who
speak of it as a sort of Wild Endive. It is thus mentioned by Rhazes
in the 10th, and by Avicenna in the 11th century.
The name Dens Leonis, an equivalent of which is found in nearly all
the languages of Europe, is stated in the herbal of J ohann von Cube ^
to have been bestowed on this plant by one Wilhelra, a surgeon, who
held it in great esteem ; but of this personage and of the period during
which he lived we have sought information in vain, and we may re-
member that Dens Leonis (" Dant y Llew ") is already met with in the
Welsh medicine of the 13th century.^
Dandelion was also much valued as medicine in the time of Gerarde
and Parkinson, and is still extensively employed.
Collection — In England, taraxacum root is considered to be in per-
fection for extract in the month of November, the juice at that period
affording an ampler and better product than at any other. Bentley
contends that it is more bitter in March, and most of all in July, and
that at the former period at least it should be preferred.
Description — The root is perennial, and tapering, simple, or slightly
branched, attaining in a good soil a length of a foot or more, and half
an inch to an inch in diameter. Old roots divide at the crown into
several heads. The root is fleshy and brittle ; externally of a pale
brown, internally white, and abounding in an inodorous milky juice
of bitter taste. It shrinks very much in drying, losing in weight about
76 per cent.'*
Dried dandelion root is half an inch or less in thickness, dark brown,
shrivelled with wrinkles running lengthwise often in a spiral direction ;
when quite dry, it breaks easily with a short corky fracture, showing a
very thick white bark, surrounding a woody column. The latter is
yellowish, very porous, without pith or rays. A rather broad but in-
distinct cambium-zone separates the wood from the bark, which latter
exhibits numerous well-defined concentric layers. The root has a
bitterish taste.
Microscopic Structure — On the longitudinal section, especially
in a tangential direction, the brownish zones are seen to contain latici-
ferous vessels, only about 2 mkm. in diameter. These traverse their
zones in a vertical direction, giving off numerous lateral branches, which
however remain always confined to their zone. Within each of these
zones, the lacticiferous vessels form consequently an anastomosing net.
We may say that the root is thus vertically traversed by about 10 to 20
concentric rings of lacticiferous vessels.^ They may be made beautifully
evident by means of anilin-blue, with which a thin longitudinal section
1 Perhaps from TpaX,vvov or Tpo^wov sig-
nifying Wild Lettuce ; according to some,
from Ta/Da Ji9, a disease of the eye which the
plant was used to cure, or from the verb
T-apnaaw, I disturb.
2 Herharius zu teutsch und von aller handt
Jcreuteren, Augspurg, 1488. cap. clii.
^ The Physicians of M ijddvai, 284 (see
Appendix).
^Thus 5496 lb. of the washed root
afforded of dry only 1277 lb., or 23 '2 per
cent. — Information communicated by
Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London.
^ For further particulars about them, see
Vogl, Sitzungsher. der Wiener Akademie,
vi. (1863) 668 with plate ; Hanstein, MiM-
mftge/dsse unci verwandte Organe der Kinde,
Berlin, 1864. 72. 73. pi. ix.
394
COMPOSITE.
of the fresh root may be moistened. The root must be allowed to par-
tially dry, but only till the milky juice coagulates ; the thin slice then
energetically absorbs the colouring matter.i
The tissue of the dried root is loaded with inulin, which does not
occur in the solid form in the living plant. The woody part of taraxa-
cum root is made up of large scalariform vessels accompanied by
parenchymatous tissue, the former much prevailing.
Chemical Composition — The fresh milky juice of dandelion is
bitter and neutral, but it soon acquires an acid reaction and reddish
brown tint, at the same time coagulating with separation of masses of
what has been called by Kromayer (1861), Leontodonium. This chemist,
by treating this substance with hot water, obtained a bitter solution
yielding an active (?) principle to animal charcoal, from which it was
removed by means of boiling spirit of wine. After the evaporation of
the alcohol, Kromayer purified the liquid by addition of basic acetate of
lead, saturation of the filtered solution with sulphuretted hydrogen
and evaporation to dryness. The residue then yielded to ether an
acrid resin, and left a colourless amorphous mass of intensely bitter
taste, named by Kromayer Taraxacin. Polex (1839) obtained apparently
the same principle in warty crystals ; he simply boiled the milky juice
with water and allowed the concentrated decoction to evaporate.
The portion of the " Leontodov i um," not dissolved by water, yields to
alcohol a crystalline substance, Kromayer's Taraxacerin, C^H'^O. It
resembles lactucerin and has in alcoholic solution an acrid taste. How
far the medicinal value of dandelion is dependent on the substances thus
extracted, is not yet known.
Dragendorff (1870) obtained from the root gathered near Dorpat in
October and dried at 100° C, 24 per cent, of Inidin and some sugar.
The root collected in March from the same place yielded only 1'74 per
cent, of inulin, 17 of uncrystallizable sugar and 18'7 of Levulin. The
last-named substance, discovered by Dragendorff, has the same composition
as inulin, but dissolves in cold water ; the solution tastes sweetish, and
is devoid of any rotatory power. Inulin is often to be seen as a glisten-
ing powder when extract of taraxacum is dissolved in water.
T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh (1849) have shown that the juice of
the root by a short exposure to the air undergoes a sort of fermentation
which results in the abundant formation of Mannite, not a trace of
which is obtainable from the perfectly fresh root. Sugar which readily
underwent the vinous fermentation was found by the same chemists in
considerable quantity.
The leaves and stalks of dandelion (but not the roots) were found b}'
Marme (1864) to afford the Inosite, OT^'0''-f-2 OH".
The root collected in the meadows near Bern immediately before
flowering, carefully washed and dried at 100° C, yielded us o"24 per cent,
of ash, which we found to consist of carbonates, phosphates, sulphates,
and in smaller quantity also of chlorides.
Uses — Taraxacum is much employed as a mild laxative and tonic,
especially in hepatic disorders.
Adulteration — The roots of Leontodon hispidus L. (Common Hawk-
' The reader -vrho is not familiar with lington in Pharm. Joitrn. April 13, 1872.
this process may refer to a paper by Pock- 822.
HERBA LACTUC^ VIROS^.
395
bit) have occasionally been supplied by fraudulent herb-gatherers in
place of dandelion. Both plants have runcinate leaves, but those of
hawkbit are hairy, while those of dandelion are smooth. The (fresh)
root of the former is tough, breaking with difficulty and rarely exuding
any milky juice.^
The dried root of dandelion is exceedingly liable to the attacks of
maggots, and should not be kept beyond one season.
HERBA LACTUCyE VIROSiE.
Prickly Lettuce; F. Laitue vi reuse; G. Giftlattich.
Botanical Origin — Lactuca virosa L.,^ a tall herb occurring on
stony ground, banks and roadsides, throughout Western, Central and
Southern Europe. It is abundant in the Spanish Peninsula and in
France, but in Britain is oidy thinly scattered, reaching its northern
limit in the south-eastern Highlands of Scotland.
History — The introduction of this lettuce into modern medicine is
due to Collin (the celebrated physician of Vienna, mentioned in our
article on Bad. Arnicfe, p. 890), who about the year 1771 recommended
the inspissated juice in the treatment of dropsy. In long-standing cases,
this extract was given to the extent of half an ounce a day.
The College of Physicians of Edinburgh inserted Lactuca virosa L.
in their pharmacopoeia of 1792, while in England its place was taken by
the Garden Lettuce, L. sativa L. The Authors of the British Pharma-
copoeia of 18G7 have discarded the latter, and directed that Extractum
Lactucce shall be prepared by inspissating the juice of L. virosa.
Description — The plant is biennial, producing in its first year
depressed obovate undivided leaves, and in its second a solitary upright
stem, 3 to 5 feet high, bearing a pinacle of small, pale yellow flowers,
resembling those of the Garden Lettuce. The stem, which is cylindrical
and a little prickly below, has scattered leaves growing horizontally ; they
are of a glaucous green, ovate-oblong, often somewhat lobed, auricled,
clasping, with the margin provided with irregular spinescent teeth, and
midrib white and prickly. The whole plant abounds in a bittei', milky
juice of strong, unpleasant, opiate smeM.
Chemical Composition — We are not aware of any modern chemical
examination having been made of Lactuca virosa. The more important
constituents of the plant are those found in Lactucarium, to the article
on which the reader is referred.
Uses — The inspissated expressed juice of the fresh plant is reputed
narcotic and diuretic, but is probably nearly inert.
1 Giles, Phnrm. Journ. xi. (1851) 107.
- Beiitham unites this plant with L.
Scarlola L., but in most works on botany
they are maintained as distinct species.
396
COMPOSITE.
LACTUCARIUM.
Lactucarium, Lettuce Opium, Thridace ;^ F. and G. Lactucarium.
Botanical Origin — The species of Lactuca from which lactucarium
is obtained, are three or four in number, namely —
1. Lactuca virosa L., described in the foregoing article.
2. L. Scariola L., a plant very nearly allied to the preceding and
perhaps a variety of it, but having the foliage less abundant, more glau-
cous, leaves more sharply lobed, much more erect and almost parallel
with the stem. It has the same geographical range as L. virosa.
3. L. altisshna Bieb., a native of the Caucasus, now cultivated in
Auvergne in France for yielding lactucarium. It is a gigantic herb,
having when cultivated a height of 9 feet and a stem 1^ inches in
diameter. Prof G. Planchon believes it to be a mere variety of L.
Scariola L.
4. L. sativa L., the common Garden Lettuce.'^
History — Dr. Coxe of Philadelphia was the first to suggest that the
juice of the lettuce, collected in the same manner as opium is collected
from the poppy, might be usefully employed in medicine. The result of
his experiments on the juice which he thus obtained from the gai'den
lettuce (L. sativa L.), and called Lettuce Opium, was published in 1799.^
The experiments of Coxe were continued some years later by Duncan,
Young, Anderson, Scudamore and others in Scotland, and by Bidault de
Villiers and numerous observers in France. The production of lactu-
carium in Auvergne was commenced'' by Aubergier, pharmacien of
Clermont-Ferrand, about 1841.
Secretion — All the green parts of the plant are traversed b}- a
system of vessels, which when wounded, especially during the period of
flowering, instantly exude a white milky juice. The stem, at first solid
and fleshy but subsequently hollow, owes its rigidity to a circle of about
30 fibro-vascular bundles, each of which includes a cylinder of cambium.
At the boundary between this tissue and the primary cortical paren-
chyme, is situated the system of milk-vessels, exhibiting on transverse
section a single or double circle of thin-walled tubes, the cavities of
which contain dark brown masses of coagulated juice. In longitudinal
section, they appear branched and transversely bound together, as in the
milk-vessels of taraxacum. The larger of these tubes, 35 mkm. in dia-
meter, correspond pretty regularly in position with the vascular bundles.
Each of the latter is also separated from the pith by a band or arch of
cambium, in the circumference of which isolated smaller milk- vessels
occur.
The system of milk- vessels'^ is therefore double, belonging to the
1 The term Thridace is also applied to the Opium officinarum, extracted from the
Extract of Lettuce. Papaver somniferum or White Poppy of
2 The authors of the French Oodex of Linnaeus.andthatprocuredfromtheiarfwfa
1866 name as the source of lactucarium sativa or Common cultivated Lettuce of the
that form of the garden lettuce which has same author. — Transact, of the American
beencalled by DeCandolIe -La( ;«oac«jjito<a. Philosophical Society, iv. (1799) 387.
Maisch has obtained lactucarium from L. * Comptes Eendus, xv. (1842) 923.
elongata Muhl. (Avi. Journ. of Pharm. ^ Beautifully delineated by Hanstein in
1869. 148). the work referred to at p. 352, note 2 ; see
3 Inquiry into the comparative effects of also Tr^cul, Ann. des Sciences nai. Bot. v.
LACTUCARIUM.
397
pith on the one side, and to the bark on the other, the two being sepa-
rated by juiceless wood. The milk vessels of the bai'k are covered by
only 2 to 6 rows of parenchyme cells of the middle bark, rapidly de-
creasing in size from within outwards, and these are protected by a not
very thick-walled epidermis. Hence it is easy to understand how the
slightest puncture or incision may reach the very richest milk-cells.
The drops of milky juice, when exposed to the air, quickly harden to
small yellowish-brown masses, whitish within.
Collection and Description — Lactucarium has been especially
collected since about the year 1845, in the neighbourhood of the small
town of Zell on the Mosel between Coblenz and Treves in Rhenish
Prussia. The introduction of this industry is due to Mr. Goeris, apothe-
cary of that place, to whom we are indebted for the following informa-
tion, and foi-'some further particulars, to Mr. Meurer of Zell.
The plant is grown in gardens, where it produces a stem only in its
second year. In May just before it flowers, its stem is cut off at about
a foot below the top, after which a transverse slice is taken off daily
until September. The juice, which is pure white but readily becomes
brown on the surface, is collected from the wounded top by the finger,
and transferred to hemispherical earthen cups, in which it quickly
hardens so that it can be turned out. It is then dried in the sunshine
until it can be cut into four pieces, when the drying is completed by
exposure to the air for some weeks on frames.
At Zell, 300 to 400 kilogrammes (6G1 to 882 lb.) of lactucarium are
annually produced ; the whole district furnishes at best but 20 quintals
annually. The price the drug fetches on the spot varies from 4 to 10
thalers per kilogramme (about 6s. to 14s. per lb.) In the Eifel district,
where lactucarium was formerly collected, none is now produced.
As found in trade, German lactucarium consists of angular pieces
formed as already described, but rendered more or less shrunken and
irregular by loss of moisture and by fracture. Externally they are of a
dull reddish brown, internally opaque and wax-like, and when recent, of
a creamy white. By exposure to the air, this white becomes yellow and
then brown. Lactucarium has a strong unpleasant odour, suggestive of
opium, and a very bitter taste.
The lactucarium produced by Aubergier of Clermont-Ferrand is of
excellent quality, but does not appear to differ from that obtained on the
Mosel, except that it is in circular cakes about 1^ inches in diameter,
instead of in angular lumps.
Scotch lactucarium, which was formerly the only sort found in the
market, is still (1872) met with. Mr. Fairgrieve, who produces it in the
neighbourhood of Ediubui-gh, collects the juice into little tin vessels, in
which it quickly thickens ; it is then turned out and dried with a gentle
heat, the drug being broken up as the process of drying goes on. It is
thus obtained in irregular earthy-looking lumps of a deep brown hue,
of which the larger may be about an inch in length. In smell, it exactly
resembles the drug collected on the Continent.'
We have also before us Austrian lactucarium, prepared at Waidhofen
(1866) 69; Dijopel, Entsteliung der Milch-
saftgefdsse, Rotterdam, 1865. tab. 1. tig.
17.
' We are indebted to Mr. H. C. Baildon
for a specimen of Scotch lactucarium col-
lected about the year 1844, and to Messrs.
T. and H. Smith for a sample of Mr. Fair-
grieve's article.
398
GOMPOSITtE.
on the Thaya, where about 35 kilogrammes are annually produced. It
is in fine tears of vigorous smell.
We are unacquainted with Russian lactucarium, which has been
quoted at a very high price in some continental lists.
Chemical Composition — Lactucarium is a mixtui-e of very different
organic substances, together with 8 to 10 per cent, of inorganic matter.
It is not completely taken up by any solvent, and when heated merely
softens but does not melt. Nearly half the weight of lactucarium con-
sists of a substance called Lactucerin or Lactucon, which in our opinion
is closely allied to if not identical with similar substances occurring in
numerous milky juices. Lactucerin as afforded by the drug under ex-
amination is probably a mixture of several bodies. It may be obtained
by exhausting lactucarium with boiling alcohol sp. gr. 0'830 ; it is
deposited in crystals, which when duly purified have the form of slender
colouiiess, microscopic needles. Lactucerin is an inodorous, tasteless
substance, insoluble in water, but dissolving in ether and in oils both
fixed and volatile, not quite so readily either in benzol, or in bisulphide
of carbon. We found it to melt at 232° C. and to agree with the
formula C^"H'"0 ; Franchimont (1879) assigns to it the formula C"H^O,
melting point 296°.
Euphorbon (see Euphorbium), echicerin (see Cortex Alstonise),
taraxacerin (p. 394), the cynanchol, C"H^'*0, extracted in 1875 by
Buttleroff from Cijnanchiim acutum L., are remarkably analogous to
lactucerin.
In the lactucarium of Zell, we further met with a large amount of a
substance which is readily soluble in bisulphide of carbon. It is an
amorphous mass, melting below 100°, separating from alcohol as a
syrupy mass.
Cold alcohol, as well as boiling water, takes out of lactucarium about
0"3 per cent, of a cry stall! zable bitter substance, Lactucin, C"ff^O'H'0,
which although it reduces alkaline cupric tartrate, is not a glucoside.
It may be best obtained by means of dialyse. Lactucin forms white
pearly scales, readily soluble in acetic acid, but insoluble in ether. It
loses its bitterness when treated with an alkali.
From the mother-liquors that have yielded lactucin, Ludwig, in
1847, obtained Lactucic Acid, as an amorphous light yellow mas.s,
becoming crystalline after long standing. Lastly lactucarium has
further afforded in small quantity an amorphous substance named
Lactucopicrin, C^^H^O'*', appai'ently produced from lactuciu by oxida-
tion ; it is stated by Kromayer (1862) to be soluble in water or alcohol,
and to be very bitter.
Of the widely diffused constituents of plants, lactucarium contains
caoutchouc (40-50 per cent.), gum, oxalic, citric, malic and succinic acids,
sugar, mannite, and asparagin, together with potassium, calcium and
magnesium salts of nitric and phosphoric acids. We obtained crystals
of nitrate of potassium by concentrating the aqueoiis decoction of
lactucarium. On distillation with water, a volatile oil having the odour
of lactucarium passes over in very small quantity.
Uses — The soporific powers universally ascribed in ancient times
to the lettuce are supposed to exist in a concentrated form in lactu-
carium. Yet numerous experiments have failed to show that this
HERBA LOBELItE.
399
substance possesses more than very slight sedative properties, if indeed
it is not absolutely inert.^
LOBELIACE^.
HERBA LOBELIiE.
Lobelia, Indian Tobacco ; F. Lobelie enfiee ; G. Lobcliakmut.
Botanical Origin — Lobelia inflata L., an annual herb, 9 to 18
inches high, with an angular upright stem, simple or more frequentl}'^
branching near the top, widely diffused throughout the eastern part of
North America from Canada to the Mississippi, growing in neglected
fields, along roadsides, and on the edges of woods, and thriving well in
European gardens.
History — Lobelia mflata was described and figured by Linnjeus
from specimens cultivated by him at Upsala about 17-il, but he does
not attribute to the plant any medicinal virtues.
The aborigines of North America made use of the herb, which from
this circumstance and its acrid taste, came to be called Indian Tobacco.
In Europe it was noticed by Schopf, ^ but with little appreciation of its
powers. In America it has long been in the hands of quack doctors,
but its value in asthma was set forth by Cutler in 1S13. It was not
employed in England until about 1829, when, with several other
remedies, it was introduced to the medical profession by Reece.^
Description — The leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, scattered, sessile,
ovate-lanceolate, rather acute, obscurely toothed, somewhat pubescent.
The edge of the leaf bears small whitish glands, and between them
isolated hairs which are more frequent on the under than on the upper
surface. They are usually in greater abundance on the lower and
middle portions of the stem.
The stem of the growing plant exudes when wounded a small quan-
tity of acrid milky juice, contained in laticiferous vessels running also
into the leaves. The inconspicuous blossoms are arranged in a many-
flowered, terminal, leafy raceme. The five-cleft, bilabiate corolla is
bluish with a yellow spot on the under lip, its tube being as long as
the somewhat divergent limb of the calyx.
The capsule is ovoid, inflated, ten-ribbed, crowned by five elongated
sepals which are half as long as the ripe fruit. The latter is two-celled,
and contains a large number of ovate-oblong seeds about of an inch
in length, having a reticulated, pitted surface.
The herb found in commerce is in the form of rectangular cakes,
1 to 1-| inches thick, consisting of the yellowish-green chopped herb,
compressed as it would seem while still moist, and afterwards neatly
' Stille, Therapeutics and Mat. Med. i.
(1808) 756. Garrod (JfecZ. Times and
Gazette, 26 March, 1864), gave lactucarium
in drachm doses, repeated 3 or 4 times a
day, without being able to perceive that it
had any effect either as an anodyne or
hypnotic.
Acta Soc. Beg. Scienf. Upsal. 1746.
•23.
Mat. Med. Americana, Erlangse, 1787.
128.
* Treatise on the Bladder-podded Lobelia,
Lond. 1829.
400
LOBELIACEiE.
trimmed. The cakes arrive wrapped in paper, sealed up and bearing
the label of some American druggist or herb-grower.
Lobelia has a herby smell and, after being chewed, a burning acrid
taste resembling that of tobacco.
Chemical Composition — Lobelia has been examined by Procter,
Pereira (1842), Reinsch^ (1843), Bastick (1851), also by F. F. Mayer.'
The first-named chemist^ traced the activity of the plant to an alkaloid
which he termed Lohelina, and his observations were confirmed by the
independent experiments of Bastick.' Lewis (1878) obtained it by
mixing the drug with charcoal and exhausting the powder with water
containing a little acetic acid. The liquid is cautiously evaporated to
the consistency of an extract and triturated with magnesia, from the
excess of which the aqueous solution of lobeline is separated by filtra-
tion._ It is agitated with amylic alcohol (or ether), which by spontane-
ous evaporation affords the alkaloid. The latter is again dissolved in
water and filtered through animal charcoal; from the dried powder
lobeline is to be removed by ether.
Lobeline is an oily, yellowish fluid with a strong alkaline reaction,
especially when in solution. In the pure state it smells slightly of the
plant, but more strongly when mixed with ammonia. Its taste is
pungent and tobacco-like, and when taken in minute doses, it exercises
in a potent manner the poisonous action of the drug. Lobeline is to
some extent volatile, but its decomposition begins when it is heated to
100° C. either pure or in presence of dilute acids or caustic alkalis.
Lobeline dissolves in water, but more readily in alcohol or ether, the
latter of which is capable of removing it fi'om its aqueous solution. It
neutralizes acids, forming with some of them crystallizable salts, soluble
in water or alcohol.
The herb likewise contains traces of essential oil (the Lobelianin of
Pereira ?), resin and gum. The seeds afforded Procter about 30 per
cent, of fixed oil, sp. gr. 0 940, which was found to dry very rapidly. The
Lobeliin of Reinsch appears to be an indefinite compound.
In 1871 Enders at our request performed some researches on Lobelia
in order to isolate the acrid substance to which the herb owes its taste.
He exhausted the drug with spirit of wine and distilled the liquid in
presence of charcoal, which then retained the acrid principle. The char-
coal was washed with water, and then treated with boiling alcohol.
This on evaporation yielded a green extract, which was further purified
by means of chloroform. Warty tufts were thus finally obtained, yet
always of a brownish colour. The tufts are readily soluble in ether and
chloroform, but only slightly in water ; they possess the acrid taste of
lobelia. This substance, which we may term Lohelacvm, is decomposed
if merely boiled with water ; by the influence of alkalis or acids it is
resolved into sugar and Lobelic Acid. The latter is soluble in ether,
water, and alcohol, and is non-volatile ; it yields a soluble salt with
baryum oxide, whereas its plumbic salt is insoluble in water.
Lewis suggests that lobelacrin is nothing else than lobeliate of
lobeline, which he believes to exist ready formed in the plant. From a
^American Journ. of P/iarm. xxxvii. "Am. Jown. of Phaim, iii. (1838) D8 ;
(1866) 209; also Jakresbericht of Wiggers vii. (1841) 1 ; Pharm. Jovrn. x. (1851) 456.
and Husemami, 1866. 252. Pliarm. Jovrn. x. (1851) 270.
FOLIA UV^ URSI.
401
decoction of the drug, on addition of sulphate of copper, lobeliate of
copper is precipitated. By decomposing the latter with sulphuretted
hydrogen, concentrating, the solution and shaking it with warm ether,
Lewis obtained a yellow solution affording on evaporation a crystalline
mass of lobelic acid.
Uses — Lobelia is a powerful nauseating emetic ; in large doses an
acro-narcotic poison. It is prescribed in spasmodic asthma.
EKICACEtE.
FOLIA UVJE URSI.
Bearherry Leaves; F. Femlles de Busserole ; G. Bdrentrauhenbldtter.
Botanical Origin — Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi Sprengel (A. officinalis
Wimmer et Grabowsky, Arbutus Uva-ursi L.), a small, procumbent,
evergreen shrub, distributed over the greater part of the northern
hemisphere. It occurs in North America, Iceland, Northern Europe,
and Russian Asia, and on the chief mountain chains of Central and
Southern Europe. In Britain it is confined to Scotland, the north of
England, and Ireland.
History — The bearberry was used in the 13th century by the
Welsh "Physicians of Myddfai," described by Clusius in IGOl, and
recommended for medicinal use in 17G3 by Gei-hai-d of Berlin and
others.^ It had a place in the London Pharmacopoeia for the first time
in 1788.
Description — The leaves are dark green, f to 1 inch in length by
to f of an inch in breadth, obovate, rounded at the end, gradually
nan-owed into a short petiole. They are entire, with the margin a little
reflexed, and in the young state slightly pubescent, otherwise the whole
leaf is smooth, glabrous, and coriaceous ; the upper surface shining,
deeply impi'essed with a network of veins ; the under minutely reticu-
lated Avith dai-k veius.^ The leaves have a very astringent taste, and
when powdered a tea-like smell.
Chemical Composition— Kawalier (1852) has shown that a decoc-
tion of bearberry treated with basic acetate of lead yields a gallate of
that metal, thus proving that gallic acid exists ready-formed in the
leaves. When the filtrate, freed from lead by sulphuretted hydrogen, is
properly concentrated, it deposits acicular crystals of Arbutin, a bitter
neutral substance, easily soluble in hot water, less so in cold, dissolving
in alcohol, but sparingly in ether.
By contact for some days with emuslin, or by boiling with dilute
sulphuric acid, ai-butin is resolved, according to Hlasiwetz and Haber-
mann (1875), as follows : —
C-=H^0"H-2 0ff = OTi20° . OT4(OH)2 . OT^OH.OCHS)
Arbutiu. Glucose. Hydrokinone. Metliyl-hydrokinone.
Yet possibly arbutin is a mixture of the glucoside compounds of
both hydrokinone and methyl-hydrokinone.
1 Murray, Apparatus Medicaminum, ii. ^ Microscopic structure of the leaves, see
(1794) 64-81. Pockiington, Pharm. Joiirn. v. (1874) 301.
2 C
402
ERICACE^.
By heating arbutin with peroxide of manganese and dilute su]i)huric
acid, on the other hand, Kinone, CffO^ and formic acid are produced.
If a concentrated decoction of the leaves is allowed to stand for some
months, a decomposition of the arbutin takes place, and. a certain quan-
tity of hydrokinone can be isolated by shaking the liquid with ether.
Arbutin is apparently widely distributed among the plants belong-
ing to the order EricacCcB. Maisch in 187-i showed it to occur in
Arctostaphylos glauca Swindley, Gaidtkeria ■p^'ocumhens L. (Winter-
green) and several other allied American plants. Kennedy (1875)
isolated arbutin from Kalniia latifolia L. (Spoonwood), where it occurs
in smaller quantity than in bearberry leaves.
Kinic acid (see p. 363) is probably absent in all these plants con-
taining arbutin.
Uloth (18.59) had already noticed pyrocatechin (p. 244) and hydro-
kinone among the products of the distillation of an aqueous extract
of bearberry leaves. Arbutin itself also yields hydrokinone by means
of dry distillation. Hydrokinone forms colourless crystals, melting at
169° C.
In the mother liquor from which the arbutin has crystallized, there
remains a small quantity of the very bitter substance called. Ericolin,
occurring in greater abundance in Calluna, Ledum, Rhododendron, and
other Ericacece. Ericolin is an amorphous yellowish mass, softening
at 100° C. and resolved, when heated with dilute sulphui-ic acid, into
sugar and. Ericinol, a colourless, quickly resinifying oil of a peculiar,
not disagreeable odour; its composition^ agrees with the formula
Q10JJ16Q -j-j^g same, or C'^H^'O", is to be assigned to Ursone, which
H. Trommsdorlf, in 1854, obtained from bearberry leaves by exhausting
them with ether (in which however it is but slightly soluble). Ursone
is a colourless and tasteless crystal] izable substance. It melts at 200° C,
and sublimes apparently unchanged. Tonner (1866) met with it in the
leaves of an Australian Epacris, a plant of the same order as the
bearberry.
Lastly, tannic acid is present in the leaves under notice ; their
aqueous infusion is nearly colourless, but assumes a violet hue on addi-
tion of ferrous sulphate. After a short time a reddish precipitate is
produced, which quickl}' turns blue. By using ferric chloride, a bluish
black precipitate immediately separates.
Adulteration — The leaves of Vaccinium Vitis-idcea L., called
Red Wliortlehevry or Cowberry, have been confounded with those of
bearberry, which in form they much resemble. But they are easily
distinguished by being somewhat crenate towards the apex, dotted and
reticulate on the under surface and more revolate at the margin.
. Uses — An asti-ingent tonic used chiefly in affections of the bladder.
> Gmelin, Chemistry, xvi. (18G4) 28.
FRUCTUS DIOSPYRI.
403
EBENACE^.
FRUCTUS DIOSPYRI.
Indian Persimmon.
Botanical Origin — Diosjyyros Emhryopteris Pers. {Emhryopteris
glutinifem Roxb.), a middle-sized or large evergreen tree, native of the
western coast of India, Ceylon, Bengal, Burma, Siam, and also Java.^
History — The tree, which is mentioned in the earliest epic poems
of tlie Sanskrit literature under the name of tindulca,'^ was also known
about the year 1680 to Rheede, and was figured in his Hortus Mala-
haricits.^ The circumstance that the unripe fruit abounds in an astrin-
gent viscid juice which is used by the natives of India for daubing the
bottoms of boats, was communicated by Sir William Jones to Roxburgh
in 1791. The introduction of the fruit into medicine, which is due to
O'Shaughnessy,^ has been followed by its admission to the Pharmacopoiia
of India, 1808.
Description — The fruit is usually solitaiy, subsessile or pedun-
culate, globular or ovoid, 1^ to 2 inches long, and as much as I J inch in
diameter, surrounded at the base by a large and deeply 4-lobed calyx.
It is of a yellowish colour, covered with a rusty tomentum ; internally
it is pulpy, 6- to 10-celled, with thin flat solitary seeds. The fruit is
used onl}' in the unripe and fresh state ; the pulp is then excessively
astringent. At maturity, in the month of April near Bombay, the fruit
becomes eatable, but is very little appreciated.
Chemical Composition — No analysis has been made of this fruit,
but there can be no doubt that in common with that of other species
of Diospyros, it is, when immature, rich in tannic acid. Charropin
(1873),^ who has examined the fruit of the American D. cirginiana L.,
found it to contain a tannic acid which he considered identical with
that of nutgalls, besides an abundance of pectin, glucose, and a yellow
colouring matter insoluble in water but dissolving freely in ether.
Uses — The inspissated juice has been recommended as an astringent
in diarrhoea and chronic dysentery.
STYEACE^.
RESINA BENZOE.
Benzo'inum ; Benzoin, Gum Benjamin ; F. Benjoin ; G. Benzoeharz.^
Botanical Origin— S^?/ra^ Benzoin Dryander, a tree of moderate
height, with stem as thick as a man's body and beautiful ci'own of
' Fig. in Bentley and Trinien, Med.
Plant. part 18 (1877).
-As we learn from Dr. Eice. — Prof.
Dymock (1876) gives Timbooree as the Bom-
bay name.
Tom. iii. tab. 41.
* Bengal Dispensatory, Calcutta, 1 842. 428.
^ Etude sur le Plaqueminier (Diospyros),
th6se, Paris, 1873. 28-30.
6 Benzoin in Malay and Javanese is termed
Kamdfian, Kamihan, a.i\d Kaniayan, abbre-
viated to mdnan and niihan (Crawfurd) ; it
is called in Siamese hom-yan or kan-yan ;
in Chinese ngdn-si-hidng.
The name Benzoin is also applied to the
beautiful prisms C^^ff'-^O^ obtained by
treating Bitter Almond Oil with an alco-
holic solution of potash.
404
STYRACE^.
1
foliage, indigenous to Sumatra and Java, in the first of which islands
benzoin is produced.
The tree yielding the superior benzoin of Siam, though commonly
referred to this species, has never been examined botanically, and is
actually unknown. The French expedition for the exploration of the
Mekong and Cochin China (18G6-68), reported the drug to be produced
in the cassia-yielding forests on the eastern bank of the river in question
in about N. lat. 19°. Whether any benzoin is obtained from S. Finlay-
soniana Wall, as conjectured by Royle, we know not.
History — There is no evidence that the Greeks and Romans,^ or
even the earlier Arabian physicians, had any acquaintance with benzoin;
nor is the drug to be recognized among the commodities which were
conveyed to China by the Arab and Pei-sian traders between the 10th
and 13th centuries, though the camphor of Sumatra is expressly named.
The first mention of benzoin known to us (disregarding the word
kalanusari, which in the St. Petersburg Dictionary is given as the old
Sanskrit name of benzoin) occurs in the travels of Ibn Batuta,^ who
having visited Sumatra during his journey through the East, A.D.
1325-49, notes that the island produces Java Franldncense and cam-
phor. The word Java was at that period a designation of Sumatra, or
was even used by the Arabs to signify the islands and productions of
the Archipelago generally.* Hence came the Arabic name Luhdn Jchvi,
i.e. Java Frankincense, corrupted into Banjaivi, Benjui, Benzui,
Benzoe and Benzoin, and into the still more vulgar English Benjamin.
We have no further information about the drug until the latter half
of the following century, when we find a record that in 1461 the sultan
of Egypt, Melech Elmaydi, sent to Pasquale Malipiero, doge of Venice,
a present of 30 rotoli of Benzol, 20 ivtoli of Aloes Wood, two pairs of
Carpets, a small flask of balsam (of Mecca), 15 little boxes of Theriaka,
42 loaves of Sugar, 5 boxes of Sugar Candy, a horn of Civet, and 20
pieces of Porcelain.* Agostino Barberigo, another doge of Venice, was
presented in a similar manner in 1490 by the sultan of Egypt with 35
rotoli of Aloes Wood, the same quantity of Benzui and 100 loaves of
Sugar.
Among the precious spices sent from Egypt in 1476 to Caterina
Cornaro, queen of Cyprus, were 10 lb. of Aloes Wood and 15 lb. of
Benzui.^ These notices indicate the high value set upon the drug
when first brought to Europe.
The occurrence of benzoin in Siam is noticed in the journal of the
voyage of Vasco da Gama,^ where, in enumerating the kingdoms of
India, it is stated that Xarnaux (Siam^) yields much benzoin worth 3
cruzados, and aloes worth 25 criizados per farazola. According to the
1 Crawfurd suggests that the Mala-
hathrum of the ancients is possibly benzoin.
— Diet, of Indian Islands, 1856. 50.
^ Voyages d'Ibn Baloutah, traduit par
Defr(5inery et Sanguinetti, Paris, 1853-59.
iv. 228. 240.
» Yule, Book ofSer Marco Polo, ii. (1871)
228.
' Muratori, Rerum Italicartun Scriptores,
xxii. (1733) 1170.— 100 rotoli = 175 lb.
avoirdupois.
° L. de Mas Latrie, Hist, de I' tie de
Clii/pre, etc. iii. (1861) 483.
" Ibid. iii. 406.
' Eoteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama
em 1497, par Herculano e o Barao Castello
de Paiva, segunda edifao, Lisboa, 1861.
109.
The Roteiro is also found in Fliickiger,
Documente zur Geschichte dei- Pharmacie,
Halle, 1876. 13.
» Yule, op. cit. ii. 222.
RESINA BENZOE.
405
same record, the price of benzoin (beijoim) in Alexandria was 1 crazado
})cr arndel, half the value of aloes wood.
The Portuguese traveller Barbosa^ visited in 1511 Calicut on the
Malabar Coast, and found Benzui to be one of the more valuable items
of export, one farazola (22 ft). 6 oz.) costing G5 to 70 fanoes ; camphor
fetched nearl}^ the same price, and mace only 25 to 30 fanoes. From
other sources we gather that benzoin was an article of Venetian trade
in the beginning of the IGth century.
Garcia de Orta, writing at Goa (1503), was the first to give a lucid
and intelligent account of benzoin, detailing the method of collection,
and distinguishing the drug of Siam and Martaban from that produced
in Java and Sumatra.
It began then to be regularly imported into Europe,^ being frequently
called Asa dulcis. The chemists of that time submitted it, like many
other substances, to dry distillation. Benzoic acid occasionally
separating from the oily products ("olemn Benzoes") was noticed
already by Nostredame,^ Rosello,* Liebaut,^ Blaise de VigeDere,° and
others. It was a common pharmaceutical preparation, under the name
of Flores Benzoes, since the l7th century.'^
In the early part of the 17th century, there was direct commercial
intercourse between England and both Siam and Sumatra, an English
factory existing at Ayuthia (Siara) until 1G23 ; and benzoin was doubt-
less one of the commodities imported. The import duties levied upon,
it in England in 1035 amounted to 10s. per Ib.^
Production — Benzoin is collected in Northern and Eastern
Sumatra, especially in the Batta country, lying southward of the state
of Achin.^ The tree grows in plenty also in the highlands of Palembang
in the south and its resin is collected. It is chiefly on the coast regions
that considerable plantations ai'e found. Teysmann saw the cultivation
in the tracts of the river Batang Leko, the trees being planted about
15 feet apart. The benzoin from the interior is mostly from wild trees,
which occur at the foot of the mountains at an elevation of 300 to
1000 feet.
The trees, which are of quick growth, are raised from seeds
grown on the [edges of?] rice-fields; they require no particular
attention beyond being kept clear of other plants, until about 0 or
7 years old, when they have trunks G to 8 inches in diameter, and
1 Fltickiger, I.e., page 14.
- Cardanus, Les litres de la suhtilite,
Paris, 1556 (first edition, 1550), page 160
h. states: " belzoi est de vil prix pour
I'abondance."
3 Excellent el moult utile opuscule a touts
necessaire qui desirent avoir cognoissance de
plusieurs exquises receptes, 1556.
■* Alexii Pedemoutani (or Hieron.
Rosello), De secretis libri vi., Basil, 1560,
page 107.
* Quatre livres de secrets de medecine et
de la philosopJde chiviique, Paris, 1579,
page 146.
^ Traicfe du feu et du sel, Paris, 1622,
page 99. — Vigenere speaks distinctly of
"filamens ou aiguilles," i.e. crystals. — He
died in 1596.
' Fltickiger, Pharm. Journ. vi. (1876)
1022.
^ The Rates of Marchandizes, London,
1635.
^ Miquel, Prodromus Flora} Sumatrano',
1860. 72 ; Marsden, Hi.'it. of Sumatra,
London, 1783. 123.— The latter author
resided at Bencoolen, as an official of the
English Government.
The statement of Crawfurd, I.e., that
benzoin is collected in Borneo "on the
northern coast in the territory of Brunai " is
to us inexplicable. Mr. St. John, British
Consul in Borneo, in an official report on
the trade of Brunai, dated from that place
29 January 1858, enumerates the various
productions of the district, but does not
name benzoin.
STYRACEiE.
are capable of yielding the resin. Incisions are then made in their
stems, from which there exudes a thick, whitish, resinous juice, which
soon hardens by exposure to the air, and is carefully scraped off
with a knife.
The trees continue to yield at the rate of about three pounds per
annum for 10 or 12 years, after which period they are cut down. The
resin which exudes during the first three years is said to be fuller of
white tears, and therefore of finer quality, than that which issues sub-
sequently, and is termed by the Malays Head Benzoin. That which
flows during the next 7 or 8 years, is browner in colour and less
valuable, and is known as Belly Benzoin; while a third sort, called
Foot, is obtained by splitting the tree and scraping the wood ; this last
is mixed with much bark and refuse.^
Benzoin is brought for sale to the ports of Sumatra in large cakes
called Tampangs, wrapped in matting. These have to be broken, and
softened either by the heat of the sun or by that of boiling water, and
then packed into squai'e cases which the resin is made to fill.
The only account of the collection of Siam Benzoin is that
given by Sir E,. H. Schomburgk, for some years British Consul at
Bangkok.^ He represents that the bark is gashed all over, and that
the resin which exudes, collects and hardens between it and the
wood, the former of which is then stripped ofi". This account is con-
firmed by the aspect of some of the Siam benzoin of commerce as
well as by that of pieces of bark in our possession; but it is also
evident that all the Siam drug is not thus obtained. Schomburgk
adds, that the resin is much injured and broken during its convey-
ance in small baskets on bullocks' backs to the navigable parts of
the Menam, whence it is brought down to Bangkok.^
Whether benzoin owes its original fluidity to a volatile oil hold-
ing the resin in solution, and its solidification to the volatilization
of this oil, or whether the resin itself hardens by oxidation, — what
occasions the remarkable diversity of aspect between the opaque and
milk-like, and the completely transparent resin, are questions to be
investigated by some future observer.
Description — Benzoin (always termed in English commerce Gum
Benjamin) is distinguished as of two kinds, Siam and Sumatra. Each
sort occurs in various degrees of purity, and under considerable
diffei'ences of appearance.
1. Siam Benzoin — The most esteemed sort is that which consists
entirely of flattened tears or drops, an inch or two long, of an opaque,
milk-like, white resin, loosely agglutinated into a mass. More fre-
quently the mass is quite compact, consisting of a certain proportion of
white tears of the size of an almond downwards, imbedded in a deep,
rich amber-brown, translucent resin. Occasionally the translucent resin
preponderates, and the white tears are almost wanting. In some
packages, the tears of Avhite resin are very small, and the whole mass
^ The terms Head, Belly and Foot, equi-
valent to our words mperior, medium and
hifmor, are used in the East to distinguish
the qualities of many other commodities,
as Borneo Camphor, Esculent Birds'-nesta,
Cardamoms, Galbauuui, &c.
^ This account must have been derived
from others, for Sir R. H. Schomburgk
never visited the region producing
benzoin.
3 Fharvi. Journ. iii. (1862) 126.
RESINA BENZOE.
407
has the aspect of a reddish-brown granite. There is always a certain
admixture of bits of wood, bark, and other accidental impurities.
The white tears when broken, display a stratified structure with
layers of greater or less translucency. By keeping, the white milky
resin becomes brown and transparent on the surface.
Siam benzoin is very brittle, the opaque tears showing a slightly
waxy, the transparent a glassy fracture. It easily softens in the mouth
and may be kneaded with the teeth like mastich. It has a delicate
balsamic, vanilla-like, fragrance, but very little taste. When heated it
evolves a more powerful fragrance, together with the irritating fumes
of benzoic acid ; its fusing point is 75° C. The presence of benzoic acid
may be shown by the microscopical examination of splinters of the
resin under oil of turpentine.
Siam benzoin is imported in cubic blocks, which takes their form
from the wooden cases in which they are packed while the resin is
still soft.
2. Sitmafra Benzoin — Prior to the I'enewal of direct commercial
intercourse with Siam in 1853, this was the sort of benzoin most com-
monly found in commerce.
It is imported in cubic blocks exactly like the preceding, from
which it difiers in its generally gi-eyer tint. The mass however, when
the drug is of good quality, contains numerous opaque tears, set in a
translucent, greyish-brown resin, mixed with bits of wood and bark.
When less good, the white tears are wanting, and the proportion of
impurities is greater. We have even seen samples consisting almost
wholly of bark. In odour, Sumatra benzoin is both weaker and less
agreeable than the Siam drug, and generally falls short of it in purity ^
and handsome appearance, and hence commands a much lower price.
The greyish-brown portion melts at 95°, the tears at 85° C.
A variety of Sumatra benzoin is distinguished by the London drug-
brokers as Penang Benjamin or Storax-sriielling Benjamin. We have
seen it of very fine quality, full of white tears (some of them two inches
long), the intervening resin being greyish.^ The odour is very agree-
able, and pei'ceptibly dift'erent from that of Siam benzoin, or the usual
Sumatra sort. Whether this drug is produced in Sumatra and by
Styrax Benzoin we know not ; but it is worthy of note that ^. subden-
ticulata Miq., occurring in Western Sumatra, has the same native
name {Kajoe Keminjan) as S. Benzoin, and that Miquel remarks of
it — "An ctiam henzoifermn ? " ^
Chemical Composition — Benzoin consists mainly of amorphous
resins perfectly soluble in alcohol and in potash, having slightly acid
properties, and difi^ering in their behaviour to solvents. If two parts of
the drug are boiled with one part of caustic lime and 20 parts of water,
benzoin acid is removed. From the residue the excess of lime is
dissolved by hydrochloric acid, and the remaining resins washed and
dried. About one-third of them will be found readily soluble in ether,
the prevailing portion dissolves in alcohol, and a small amount remains
undissolved.
' 111 the Public Ledger, May 2, 1874, the - There were 8 cases of this drug offered
prices are quoted thus : — >Siaiu Guin Ben- at Public Sale, 13 April 1871.
jamin, 1st and 2nd qualities, £10 to £28 per ^ Prod, Florce Siimatrante, 18G0, 474,
cwt. ; Sumatra, 1st and 2nd, £7 10s. to £12.
408
STYRACEtE.
By distilling the resin of benzoin witla ten times its weight of zinc
dust, Ciamician (1878) chiefly obtained toluol, C'^H'^(CH').
Subjected to dry distillation, benzoin affords as chief product
Benzoic Acid, CffO^ together with empyreumatic products, among
which Berthelot has proved the presence (in Siam benzoin) of Htyrol
(p. 27-i). The latter has been obtained in 1874 by Theegarten from
Sumatra benzoe by distilling it with water. When the resin is fused
with potash, it is partly decomposed and then, according to Hlasiwetz
and Barth (186G), yields among other products, protocatechuic acid
(more than 5 per cent.), G"H'*(OH)^COOH, para-oxybenzoic acid,
OT'(OH)COOH, and pyrocatechin, C«H*(OH)".
Benzoic acid exists ready-formed in the drug to the extent of 14 to
18 per cent.-' Although the acid dissolves in 12 parts of boiling water,
the resin in which it is imbedded precludes its complete extraction by
this means. It is however easily accomplished by tlie aid of an alkali,
most advantageously by milk of lime, which does not combine with the
amorphous resins.
Benzoin is not manifestly acted on by bisulphide of carbon, but if
kept in contact with it for a month or two, very large colourless crystals
of benzoic acid make their appearance. Brought into a warm room, the
crystals quickly dissolve, but are easily reproduced by exposure to cold.
Most pharmacopoeias require not the inodorous acid obtained by a
wet process, but that afforded by sublimation, which contains a small
amount of fragrant empyreumatic products. The resin, when repeatedly
subjected to sublimation, affords as much as 14 percent, of benzoic acid.
It has long been known that the opaque white tears of benzoin are less
rich in benzoic acid than the transparent brown I'esin in which they lie.
From the latter, S. W. Brown (1833) extracted 13 per cent, of impure
acid, but from the former scarcely 8| per cent. We are by no means sure
that such difference is constant.
Bitter almond oil, which by oxidation yields benzoic acid, is wanting
in benzoin. Very little volatile oil is in fact to be got ; half a pound of
the best Penang benzoin yielded us by distillation with water only a
few drops of an extremely fragrant oil {sty rol:!).
Ferric chloride imparts to an alcoholic solution of benzoin a dark
brownish green, which is not acquired under the same circumstances by
the aqueous decoction of the powdered resin. Benzoin dissolves in cold
oil of vitriol, forming a solution of splendid carmine hue, from which
water separates crystals of benzoic acid.
Kolbe and Lautemann in 18G0 discovered in Siam and Penang ben-
zoin together with benzoic acid, an acid of different constitution, which
in 1861 they recognized as Cinnamic Acid, CH^'Ol Aschoff' (1861)
found in a sample of Sumatra benzoin, cinnamic acid only, of which he
got 11 per cent; and in amygdaloid Siam and Penang benzoin only
benzoic acid. In some samples of the latter, one of us (F.) has likewise
met with cinnamic acid. On triturating this sort with peroxide of lead
and boiling the mixture with water, the odour of bitter-almond oil, due
to the oxidation of cinnamic acid, is evolved.
The simultaneous occurrence of benzoic and cinnamic acids, or the
1 Lciwe (1870) and Rump (1878) at-
tempted to prove that the acid is partly
preseYit in the form of a compoxind, but
they have not shown with which substance
it is combined in the drug.
MANNA.
409
absence of one or other of them in benzoin, is due to circumstances at
present unexplained. Rump is of the opinion that the last-named acid
exclusively is present in the Penang (or Sumati-a) benzoin and that no
variety of the drug contains both those acids.
Rump (1878) treated Siam benzoic with caustic lime (see p. 407),
precipitated the benzoic acid with hydrochloric acid, and agitated the
liquid witli ether. The latter on evaporating afforded a mixture of
Ijenzoic acid and Vanillin (see article Vanilla).
Commerce — The statistics of Singapore,^ the great emporium of the
commerce of the Indian Archipelago, show the imports of Gum Benjamin
in 1871 as 7442 cwt., of which quantity G185 cwt. had been shipped from
Sumatra and 405 cwt. from Siam. In 1877 only 1871 peculs (2227 cwts.)
were exported from Singapore. Penang, which is also a mart for this drug
was stated in 1871 to have received from Sumatra for trans-shipment,
4959 cwt. of Gum Benjamin.
Padang in Sumatra exported in 1870, 4303 peculs (5122 cwt.) ; and
in 1871, 40G4 peculs (4838 cwt.) of benzoin.^
The imports of Gum Benjamin into Bombay in the year 1871-72
were no less than 5975 cwt., and the exports 1043 cwt.'
Uses — Benzoin appears to be nearly devoid of medicinal properties,
and is but little employed. It is chiefly imported for use as incense in
the service of the Greek Church.
OLEACE^.
MANNA.
Manna ; F. Manne ; G. Manna.
Botanical Origin — Fraxinus Ornus L. (Ornus europoia Pers.), the
Manna-ash, is a small tree found in Italy, whence it extends northwards
as far as the Canton of Tessin in Switzerland and the Southern Tyrol.
It also occurs in Hungary (Buda) and the eastern coasts of the Adriatic,
in Greece, Turkey (Constantinople), in Asia Minor about Smyrna and at
Adalia on the south coast. It groAvs in the islands of Sicil}'', Sardinia
and Corsica, and is found in Spain at Moxente in Valencia.'* As an
ornamental tree it has been introduced into Centi'al Europe, where it is
often seen of greater dimensions, sometimes acquiring a height of about
30 feet. It blossoms in early summer, producing numerous feathery
panicles of dull white flowers which give it a pleasing appearance. The
foliage exhibits great variation in shape of leaflets, even where the tree
is uncultivated ; and the fruits also are very diverse in form.
In some districts of Sicily, a little manna is obtained from the
Common Ash, F. excelsior L.
History — The name Manna, though originally applied to the ali-
ment miraculously provided for the sustenance of the ancient Israelites
^ Blue Book for the Colony of tlie Straits
Settlements, Singapore, 1872.
- Consular I'qwrts, Augiist 1873. 953.
^ Statement of the Trade and Kavicjation
of the Presidency of Bombay for 1871-72,
pt. ii. 26. 79.
* Fraxiiuts Dungeana DC, a tree of
Northern China, appears to be hardly dis-
tinct from F. Ornus.
410
OLEACEiE.
during their journey to the Holy Land, has been used to designate other
substances of distinct nature and origin. Of these, the best known and
most important is the saccharine exudation of Fraxinus Ornus L.,
which constitutes the Manna of European medicine.
It appears evident' that previous to the loth century, the manna
in Europe was imported from the East and was not that of the ash.
Raffaele MafFei, called also Volaterranus, a Avriter who flourished in the
second half of the 15th century, states that manna began to be gathered
in Calabria in his time, but that it was inferior to the oriental." At
this period the manna collected was that which exuded spontaneously
from the leaves of the tree, and was termed Manna di foglia or Manna
difronda: that which flowed from the stem bore the name of Manna
di corpo and was less esteemed. All such manna was very dear.
About the middle of the 16th century, the plan of making incisions
in the trunk and branches was resorted to, and although it was strenu-
ousl}'' opposed even by legislative enactment, the more copious supplies
which it enabled the collectors to obtain led it to being generally
adopted. The Ricettario Fiorentino of the year 1573^ states that
the manna " fatta con arte," i.e. obtained by incisions, came from
Cosenza in Calabria and differed not little from Syrian " manna
mastichina." ^
Manna di foglia became in fact utterlj^ unknown, so that Cirillo
of Naples, writing in 1770, expresses doubt whether it ever had any
existence.^
With regard to the history of manna-production in Sicily, there is
this curious fact, that near Cefalh there exists an eminence in the
Madonia range, called Gehehnan or Gibehnanna, which in Arabic
signifies manna-mountain. This name is not of modern oi'igin, but is
found in a diploma of the year 1082, concerning the foundation of the
bishopric of Messina ; and it has been held to indicate that manna was
there collected during the Saracenic occupation of Sicily, A.D. 827 to
1070. We have not been successful in finding any evidence whether
this supposition is well founded. On the other hand, it is remark-
able that no writer, so far as we know, mentions manna as a production
of Sicily, before Paolo Boccone of Palermo, who, after naming many
localities for the drug in continental Italy, states that it is also obtained
in Sicily.^
Manna was also produced until recently in the Tuscan Maremma,
but neither from that locality, nor from the States of the Church, where
it Avas collected in the time of Boccone, is any supply now brought into
commerce, though'the name of Tolfa, a town near Civita Vecchia, is still
used to designate an inferior sort of the drug.
The collection of manna in Calabria, which was imported up to the
end of last century, has now almost entirely ceased.''
1 Hanbury, Historical Notes on Manna,
Pharm. Journ. xi. (1870) 326 ; or Science
Papers, 355.
^ Commentarii Urhani, Paris, 1515. lib.
38. f. 413.
' P. 46; we have not seen the edition of
1498.
Mastichina alludes probably to the
granular form of that manna — perhaps it
was that of Alhagi, which we shall mention
further on, p. 414.
5 Phil. Trans. Ix. (1771) 233.
« Museo di Fisica, Venet. 1697. Obs.
xiv.-xv.
' Hanbury in Giornale Botanico Italiano,
Ottobre 1872. 267; Pharm. Journ. Nov. 30.
1872. 421 ; Science Papers, 365.
MANNA.
411
Production— The manna of commerco is collected at the present
(lay exclusively in Sicily. The princi])al localities producing the drug
are the districts around Capaci, Carini, Cinisi, and Favarota, small
towns 20 to 25 miles west of Palermo near the shores of the bay of
Castellamare ; also the townships of Geraci, Castelbuono, and other
places in the district of Cefalu, 50 to 70 miles eastward of Palermo.
The manna-ash, in the districts whence the best manna is obtained,
does not at the present day form natural woods, but is cultivated in
regular plantations called /rass/7;efi'/. The trees, which attain a height
of from 10 to 20 feet, are planted in rows and stand about 7 feet apart,
the soil between being at times loosened, kept free from weeds, and
enriched by manure. After a tree is 8 years old and when its stem is
at least 3 inches in thickness, the gathering of manna may begin ; and
may continue for 10 or 12 years, when the stem is usually cut down,
and a young one brought up from the same root takes its place. The
same stump thus has often two or three stems rising from it.
To obtan manna, transverse cuts from 1^ to 2 inches long and 1
inch apart, are made in the bark, just reaching to the wood. One cut
is made daily, beginning at the bottom of the tree, the second directly
above the first, and so on while dry weather lasts. In the following-
year, cuts are made in the untouched part of the stem, and in the same
way in succeeding seasons. When after some years the tree has been
cut all round and is exhausted, it is felled. Pieces of sticks or straws are
inserted in the incisions, and become encrusted with the very superior
manna, called Manna a cannolo, which however is unknown in com-
merce as a special sort. The fine manna oixlinarily seen appears to
have hardened on the stem of the tree. The manna which flows from
the lower incisions, and is often collected on tiles or on a cup-shaped
piece of the stem of the prickly pear (Opuntia), is less crystalline, and
more gummy and glutinous, and is regarded of inferior quality.
The best time for notching the stems is in July and August, when
the trees have ceased to push forth more leaves. Dry and warm
weather is essential for a good harvest. The manna after removal from
the tree, is laid upon shelves in order that it may dry and harden
before it is packed. The masses left adhering to the stem after the
finer pieces have been gathered, ai"e scraped otf and form part of the
Small Manna of commerce.^
Secretion — We have examined mh'roscopically the bark of stems
oi Fraxinus Ornus that had been incised for manna at Capaci. It
exhibits no peculiarity explaining the formation of manna, or any
evidence that the saccharine exudation is due to an alteration of the
cell-walls as in the case of tragacanth. The bark is poor in tannic
matter ; it contains starch, and imparts to water a splendid fluorescence
due to the presence of Fraxin.
Description — Various terms have been used by pharmacological
writers to designate the different qualities of manna, but in English
1 Our account of the production of manna
has been derived from the observations of
Stettner, wlio visited Sicily in the sujnmer
of 1847 {Arrhiv der Pharm. iii. 194 ; also
Wiggers' Jahresbericht, 1848. 35; Hooker'sf
Jouni. of Bot. i. 1849. 124), from those of
Cleghorn {Trans, of the Bot. Soc. of Edin-
biirg/i, X. 1868-69. 132), and from personal
investigations made by one of us in tlie
neighbourhood of Palermo in May 1872.
See Hanbury, Science PajJers, 367.
412
OLEACEiE.
commerce they are not now employed; and the better kinds of the
drug are called simply Flahe Mamia, Mdiile the smaller pieces, usually
loosely agglutinated and sold separately, are termed Small Manna or
Tolfa Manna.
Owing to the gradual exudation of the juice and the deposition of
one layer over another, manna has a stalactitic aspect. The finest
pieces are mostly in the form of three-edged sticks, sometimes as much
as 6 to 8 inches long and an inch or more wide, grooved on the inner
side, which is generally soiled by contact witli the bark ; of a porous,
crystalline, friable structure and of a pale brownish yellow tint,
becoming nearly pure white in those parts which have been most
distant from the bark of the tree. Tlie pieces which are of deeper
colour, and of an unctuous or gummy appearance, are less esteemed.
Good manna is crisp and brittle, and melts in the mouth with an
agreeable, honey-like sweetness, not entirely devoid of traces of bitter-
ness and acridity. Its odour may be compared to that of honey or
moist sugar.
Manna of the best quality dissolves at ordinary temperatures in about
six parts of water, forming a clear, neutral liquid. It contains besides
mannite, a small proportion of sugar and gum.
The manna which exudes from the older stems and from the lower
parts of even young trees, contains more or less considerable quantities
of gum and fermentable sugar, as well as extraneous impurities. The
less favourable weather of the later summer and autumn promotes an
alteration in the composition of the juice, and impairs its property of
concreting into a crystalline mass.
Chemical Composition — The predominant constituent of manna,
at least of the better sorts, is Manna-sugar or Mannite, G''H*(OH)''
which likewise occurs, though in much smaller quantity, in many other
plants besides Fraxinus. Artificially, it is produced by treating
glucose, CH^^O with sodium-amalgam, and indirectly in the fermenta-
tion of glucose or of cane-sugar. It is isomeric with dulcite or melam-
pyrin ; crystallizes in shining pi^isms or tables, belonging to the
rhombic system ; melts at 106° C, and in very small quantity may by
careful heating be sublimed and decomposed. It dissolves in 6 o parts
of water at 16° G, less freely in aqueous alcohol, very sparingly in
absolute alcohol, and not in ethei-. The solution has an extremely
weak rotatory power, and is not altered by boiling with dilute acids or
alkalis, or with alkaline cupric tartrate.
Berthelot has shown that mannite is susceptible of fermentation,
though not so easily as sugars belonging to the group of carbo-hydrates.
The quantity of mannite in the best manna varies from 70 to 80 per
cent.
When a solution of manna is mixed with alkaline cupric tartrate,
rapid reduction to cuprous hydrate takes place even in the cold. This
eSect is due to the presence of a sugar which, according to Backhaus
(1860), consists of ordinary dextro-glucose. It may amount to as much
as 16 per cent., and is found in the best flake manna, but most abun-
dantly in the unctuous varieties. Buignet^ has pointed out that the
rotatory power of this sugar being inconsiderable, it probably consists
'Joimi. de Pharm. vii. (1867) 401 ; viii. (1868) 5.
MANNA.
418
of a mixture of Cane-sugar and Levulose. He found however that an
aqueous solution of manna deviates powerfully to the right, a fact
which he considers due to the pr-esence of a large proportion of Dextrin.
The best kinds of manna, according to Buignet, contain about 20 per
cent, of dextrin ; the inferior much more.
In our experiments we have not succeeded in isolating either dextrin
or cane-sugar. There is present, even in the finest manna, a small
amount of a dextrogyre mucilage, which is precipitated by neutral
acetate of lead, and yields mucic acid when boiled with concentrated
nitric acid.
Ether exti'acts from an aqueous solution of manna a very small
quantity of red-brown resin, having an offensive odour and sub-acrid
taste ; together with traces of an acid which reduces silver-salts and
appears to be easily resinified. The quantity of water in the inferior
kinds of manna often amounts to 10 or 15 per cent. The finest manna
aff'ords about 3'6 per cent, of ash.
The greenish colour of certain pieces of manna was formerly attri-
buted to the presence of copper, till Gmelin, on account of the fluor-
escence of the solution, ascribed it to ^Escnlin. It is in reality produced
by a body much resembling aesculin, namely Fraxin, C'H^^O"', occurring
in the bark of the manna-ash and of the common ash, and together
with assculin, in that of the horse-chestnut. Fraxin crystallizes in
colourless prisms, easily soluble in hot water and in alcohol, and liaving
a faintly astringent and bitter taste. B}' dilute acids, it is resohu'd in-
to Fraxetin, C'"ff 0', and Glucose, C'lV'O'. The presence of fraxin in
manna, especially in the inferior sorts, is made apparent by the faint
fluorescence of the alcoholic manna solution. The smallest fragment of
the bark of tlie ash or the manna ash immersed in water displays the
same fluorescence.
Commerce — The exports of manna from Sicily ' (chiefly from
Palermo) have been as follows : —
1869 1870 1871
234G cwt., val. A'15,972. 1564 cwt., val. £10,220. 3038 cwt., val. £19,528.
About half the quantity is sent to France. Italian commercial statistics"
represent the export of manna in 1870 thus : — in canelli 58,691 kilo.
(1155 cwt.), in sorte 18'j,GG4 kilo. (3G76 cwt). The United Kingdom
imported in the year 1870, 230 cwt. of manna, valued at £4447.^
In 1877 the exports of "canelli" from Messina were 4273 kilo-
grammes, and of the drug " in sorte " 52,874 kilogr. ; total value, 127,145
lire.
Adulteration — ^It can hardly be said that manna is subject to
adulteration, though attempts to introduce a spurious manna made of
glucose have been recorded. But considerable skill and ingenuity have
been expended in converting the inferior sorts of manna into what has
the aspect of fine natural Flake Manna, the manufacturers admitting
however the factitiousness of their product. The artificial Flake Manna
has the closest superficial resemblance to very fine pieces of the natural
^ Report hy Consul Dennis on the Com-
merce and Navigation of Sicily in 1869, 1870
and 1871.
* Direzione generale delle Gabellc — Movi-
mento commerciale del rei/no d'ltalia nel
1870, Milano, 1871.
^Annual Statement of the Trade and
Navigation of the U.K. for 1870, p. 102
414
OLEACE^.
drug, but differs in its more uniform colour, and in being uncontaminated
witli the sliglit impurities, from which natural manna is never wholly
free. It differs also in that when broken, no crystals of mannite are to
be seen in the interstices of the pieces, and it wants the peculiar odour
and slightly bitter flavour of natural manna. If one part of it is boiled
with four of alcohol (0'838), a viscid honey-like residue will be obtained,
whereas natural manna leaves undissolved a hard substance. Histed ^
found it to afford a,bout 40 per cent, of mannite, while fine manna
similarly treated yielded 70 per cent.
Uses — A gentle laxative, much less frequently employed in this
country than formerly, but still largely consumed in South America.
Mannite, which possesses similar properties, is often prescribed in Italy.
Other sorts of Manna.
Various plants besides Fraxinus afford, under certain conditions,
saccharine exudations, some of which constituted the Oriental Manna
used in Europe in early times. So far as is known, they differ from
officinal manna in containing no mannite.
Alhagi Manua ; Tiiranjahhi (Arabic) ; is afforded by Alhagi
Camelorum Fisch. (Hedysaruni Alhagi Pallas, non L.), a small spiny
plant of the order Leguminosm found in Persia, Afghanistan and
Beluchistan. It had already been noticed by Isztachri.^ Excellent
specimens of the manna, kindly obtained for us in the north-west of
India by Dr. E. Burton Brown and Mr. T. W. H. Tolbort, show it as a
substance in little roundish, hard, dry tears, varying from the size of a
mustard seed to that of a hemp-seed, of a light brown colour, agreeable
saccharine taste, and senna-like smell. The leaflets, spines and pods of
the plant, mixed with the grains of this manna, are characteristic and
easily recognizable.
Villiers (1877) showed this manna to contain cane-sugar, a dextro-
gyrate glucose, and melezitose (see further on: Brian9on manna, page 41G).
Ludwio-^ had also found some dextrin and mucilage.
Alhagi Manna is collected near Kandahar and Herat, where it is
found on the plants at the time of flowering. It is imported into India
from Kabul and Kandahar to the extent of about 25 maunds (2000 lb.)
annually ; its value is reckoned at 30 rupees per seer, = 30.s. per lb.''
Gaz-awjah'm (Arabic) ; Tamarish 3Imma (in part) — In the
months of June and July, the shrubs of tamarisk (Tamarix gallica
var. mannifera Ehrenb.) gTOwing in the valleys of the peninsula of
Sinai, especially in the Wady es Sheikh, exude from their slender
branches, in consequence of the puncture of an insect (Coccus manni-
jjarus Ehrenb.) little honey-like drops, which in the coolness of early
morning are found in a solid state. This substance is Taniarisk
Manna : it is collected by the Arabs, and by them sold to the monks
of St. Katharine, who dispose of it to the pilgrims visiting the convent.
^ On artificial Flake Manna, in Pharrn.
Journ. xi. (1870) 629.
^ Tchihatcheff, I'Asie minenre, ii. (1856)
355.
^ Archiv der P/iarmacie, 103 (1870)
32-52.
* Stewart, Ptinjab Plants, Lahore (1869)
p. 57 ; Davies, Report on the trade and
resources of the countries on the J^. W.
hoiindarii of British India, Lahore, 1862.
MANNA.
415
Tamarisk Manna is also produced (but is perhaps no longer collected ? )
in Persia, where it is called GdZ-angahvn ;^ and probaloly likewise in
the Punjab,- from which regions it may have been brought to Europe
in ancient times.
A specimen of tamarisk manna brought from Sinai, examined in
18G1 by Berthelot, had the appearance of a thick yellowish syrup, con-
taminated with vegetable remains. It was found to consist of cane-
sugar, inverted sugar (IsBvulose and glucose), dextrin and water, the
last constituting one-fifth of the whole.^
Although the name Gaz-ancjahin signifies tamar isle-honey, it is
used according to Haussknecht* at the present time in Persia, to
designate certain round cakes, common in all the bazaars, of which the
chief constituent is a manna collected in the mountain districts of
Chahar- Mahal and Faraidan, and especially about the town of Khonsar,
south-west of Ispahan, from Astri«j(das Jiorulentus Boiss. et Haussk.
and A. adscendens Boiss. et Haussk. The best sorts of this manna,
which are termed Gaz Alefi or Gaz Khonsari, are obtained in August
by shaking it from the branches, the little drops finally sticking
together and forming a dirty, greyish-white, tough mass. The com-
moner sort got by scraping tlie stem, is still more impure. The
specimen of it brought by Haussknecht yielded to Ludwig^ dextrin,
uncrystallizable sugar and organic acids.
Shir-lhisf — Ancient writers on materia medica as Garcia d'Orta
(1563) mention a sort of manna known by this name. The substance
is still found in the bazaars of North-Avestern India, being imported in
small quantity from Afghanistan and Turkistan.** Haussknecht in his
paper on Oriental Manna already quoted, states that it is the exuda-
tion of Cotoneaster nummular ia Fisch. et Mey. (Rosacece), also of
Atrajyhaxis sj^inosa, L. {Polygonacea), and that it is brought chiefly
from Herat. We have to thank Dr. E. Burton Brown of Lahore, and
Mr. Tolbort for specimens of this manna, which, from fragments it
contains, is without doubt derived from a Cotoneaster. It is in irregular
roundish tears, from about J up to f of an inch in greatest length, of
an opaque dull white, slightly clammy, and easily kneaded in the
fingei's. It has a manna-like smell, a pure sweet taste and crystalline
fracture. With water, it foi-ms a syrupy solution with an abundant
residue of starch granules.
Shi'r-khist was found by Ludwig to consist of an exudation analo-
gous to tragacanth, but containing at the same time two kinds of gum,
an amorphous levogyre sugar, besides starch and cellulose.
Oah Manna — ^The occurrence of a saccharine substance on the oak
is noticed by both Ovid and Virgil, and it is also mentioned by the
Arabian physicians, as Ibn Bay tar ''and EUuchasem Elimithar.^ The
last named, who died a.d. 1052, states that the exudation appears upon
the oaks in the region of Diarbekir. At the present day, it is the
object of some industry among the wandering tribes of Kurdistan, who,
Angelus, Pharm. Pecs/ea (see appendix) ° Loc. cit.
p. 359. Davies in tlie work quoted at page 414,
- Stewart, op. cit. p. 92. note 4.
3 Comptes Rendns,\m.{\.SQ\)5SZ; Pliarm. t Ed. Sontheimer, i. (1840) 375.
Journ. iii. (1862; 274. 8 Tacuini Sanitatis, Argentorati (1531)
^ Archiv d. Pharmacie, 192 (1870) 246. 24.
416
OLEACEiE.
according to Haussknecht, collect it from Quercus Vallonea Kotschy
and Q. persica Jaub. et Spach. These trees are visited in the month
of August by immense numbers of a small white Coccus, from the
puncture of which a saccharine fluid exudes, and solidifies in little
grains. The people go out before sunrise, and shake the grains of
manna from the branches on to linen cloths, spread out beneath the
trees. The exudation is also collected by dipping the small branches
on which it is formed, into vessels of hot water, and evaporating the
saccharine solution to a syrupy consistence, which in this state is used
for sweetening food, or is mixed with flour to form a sort of cake.
A fine specimen of the Oak Manna of Diarbekir was sent to the
London International Exhibition of 1862. It constituted a moist soft
mass of agglutinated tears, much resembling an inferior sort of ash-
raanna, and had an agreeable saccharine taste.
A less pure form of this manna occurs as a compact, greyish, saccha-
rine mass, sometimes hard enough to be broken with a hammer. It
consists of sugary matter, mixed with abundance of small fragments of
green leaves, and has a herby smell and pleasant sweet taste. A sample
of it brought from Diarbekir, examined by one of us, yielded 90 per
cent, of dextrogyre sugar, which could not be obtained in a crystalline
state, thougli it exists in such condition in the crude drug. Starch and
dextrine were entirely Avanting.^
A specimen furnished to Ludwig- by Haussknecht afforded much
mucilage, a small amount of starch, about 48 per cent, of dextrogyre
grape sugar, with traces of tannic acid and chlorophyll.
Brkmgon Manna — This is a white saccharine substance which, in
the height of summer and in the early part of the day, is found adher-
ing in some abundance to the leaves of the larch {Pinus Larix L.),
growing on the mountains about Briangon in Dauphiny. It was
formerly collected for use in medicine, but only to a very limited ex-
tent, for it was rare in Paris in the time of Geoffrey (170.9-1731),
and at the present day has quite disappeared from trade, though still
gathered by the peasants. A specimen collected for one of us near
BrianQon in 1854, consists of small, detached, opaque, white tears, many
of them oblong and channelled, and encrusting the needle-like leaf of
the larch; they have a sweet taste and slight odour.^ Under the
microscope they exhibit indistinct crystals.
Briangon manna has been examined in 1858 by Berthelot, who
detected in it a peculiar sugar termed Melezitose, answering to the for-
mula C''H=^0"-|-OHl
Several other saccharine exudations have been observed by travel-
lers and naturalists ; we shall simply enumerate the more remarkable,
referriuo- the reader for further information to the original notices.
Pirns glabra Boiss. affords in Luristan a substance which, according
to Haussknecht, is collected by the inhabitants, and is extremely like
Oak Manna. It is stated by the same traveller that Salix fragilis L.,
and Scrophidaria frigkla Boiss., likewise yield in Persia saccharine
exudations. A kind of manna was anciently collected from the cedar,
Pinus Cedvus L.* Manna is yielded in Spain by Gistus laclaniferus
^ Further particulars, see Fliickiger, ^ Loc. cit. p. 35.
Ueher die Eichenmanna von Kurdistan, in ^ Hanbiiry, Science Papers, p. 438.
Archiv der Fharmacie, 200 (1872) 159. * Geoffroy, Mat. Med. ii. (1741) 584.
OLEUM OLIV^.
417
L.^ Australian Manna, which is in small rounded, opaque, white, dry
masses, is found on the leaves of Eucalyptas vbnmalis Labill. It con-
tains a kind of sugar called Melitose^ has a sweet thistle, is devoid of
medicinal properties and is not collected for use.^
The substance named Tigala (corrupted into Treliala), from which
a peculiar sugar has been obtained,'' is the coccoon of a beetle, and not
properly a saccharine exudation.^
The Ler}) Manna of Australia is also of animal origin." It consists
of water 14, white threadlike portion 33, sugar 53 pai'ts. The threads
possess some of the characteristic properties of starch, from which they
differ entirely by their form and unalterability even in boiling water.
Yet in sealed tubes, they dissolve in 30 parts of water at 135° C.
The sugar is dextrogyre ; it impregnates the threads as a soft brown
amorphous mass. In the purified state it does not crystallize, even
after a long time. By means of dilute sulphuric acid, the threads are
converted into crystalline grape-sugar.
OLEUM OLIViE.
Olive Oil; Salad Oil; F. Hiiile d' Olives; G. Olivendl ; Baumdl;
Provencer Oel.
Botanical Origin — Olea. europcea L., an evergreen tree,'^ seldom
exceeding 40 feet in height, yet attaining extreme old age, abundantly
cultivated in the countries bordering the Mediterranean, up to an eleva-
tion of about 2000 feet above the sea-level.'* Olea, femujinea Royle
(0. cuspidata Wallich), a tree abundant in Afghanistan, Beluchistan and
Western Sind, has been supposed to be a wild form of 0. europa^a, but is
regarded by Brandis ^ as a distinct species. It is not known to have
been ever cultivated, yet its fruit, which is of a small size and but
sparingly produced, is capable of affording a good oil.
History — In ancient Egypt the olive was known by the tei'm bdk;
it can be traced as far as the 17th century before our era.^"
According to the elaborate investigations of Bitter" and of A. De
Candolle,^" the olive tree is a native of Palestine, and perhaps of Asia
Minor and Greece. Its original area also extends over north-eastern
1 Dillon, Travels through Spain (1780) should refer to the extremely exhaustive
p. 127. work of Coutance, rO^iiv'er, Paris, 1877, 45G
- Gmelin, Chemistry, xv. 296. pages, 120 figures.
^ Pharm. Journ. iv. (1863) 108. ** Grisebach states the elevation above
Comptes Eendus, xlvi. (1858) 1276; the sea of olive-cultivation thus : — Portu-
Gmelin, Chemistry, xv. 299. gal (Algarve) 1400 feet ; Sierra Nevada 3000 ;
Belon, Singularitez (1554) 1. 2. cai). 91 ; do., southern slope 4200; Nice 2400; Etna
Guibourt, Comptes Rendus (1858) 1213; 2200; Macedonia 1200 ; Gil icia 2000.— D/e
Hanbury, Journ. Linn. Soc, Zoology, iii. Vegetation der Erde nach ihrer hlimatolo-
(1859) 178; also Science Papers, 158. gischen A nordnung, i. (1872) 262. 283. 342.
° Dobson, Proceedings of Royal Society " Forest Flora of JSfortli-ioestern and Cen-
of Van Diemen's Land, i. (1851) 234; tral Lidia, ISli, SOT.
Pharm. Journ. iv. (1863) 108; Fltickiger, Briigsch-Bey, Reise nach der grossen
Wittstein's Vierteljahresschrift, xvii. (1868) Case Kargeh, Leipzig, 1878. 80. etc. — See
161; Archiv der Pharmacie, 196 (1871) 7; also Journ. of Botany, 1879. 52.
abstracted in the Yearbook of Pharmacy, " Erdhunde von Asien, vii. (part 2. 1844)
1871. 188. 516-537.
'' Readers desiring full information about Giographique Bofanique (1855) 912.
the olive tree, its oil, its history, etc.
2 D
418
OLEACE^.
Africa ; Schweinfuvth^ regards it as undoubtedly wild ou the mountains
of Elbe and Soturba in lat. 22 N. on the western shores of the Red Sea,
a locality which he visited in 18G8. The olive tree has also been met
with as far eastward as the country of the Gallas, where it is much
appreciated as affording excellent timber.^ It is also stated by Theo-
y)hrastus, that in his time the tree was plentiful in the Cyrenaica, the
modern Barca, in northern Africa.
The olive would appear to have been introduced at a very remote
period into north-western Africa and Spain. Willkomm (1876) is of
the opinion that it was originally a native of the whole Mediterranean
region.
At the present day it is largely cultivated in Algeria, Spain, Por-
tugal, Southern France, Italy, the Greek Peninsula and Asia Minor.
In the Crimea the tree grows well, but does not afford good fruit. It
was carried to Lima in Peru about 1560 and still flourishes there, and
in great plenty in the coast valleys further south as far as Santiago in
Chili.'
Olive oil is mentioned in the Bible so frequently that it must have
been an important object with the ancient Hebrews. It held an equally
prominent place among the Greeks and Romans,^ whose writers on
agriculture and natural history treat of it in the most circumstantial
manner. Olive fruits preserved in brine were used by the Romans as
an article of food,^ and were an object of commerce with Northern
Europe as early as the 8th century.*'
Production — In common with many important cultivated plants,
the olive occurs under several varieties diflering more or less from the
wild form, the finer of which are propagated by grafting. It is also
increased by the suckers which old trees throw up from their naked
roots, and which are easily made to develope into separate plants.'' The
fruit, an oval drupe, half an inch to an inch or more in length, and of a
deep purple, is remarkable for the large amount of fat oil contained in
its pulpy portion (sarcocarp). The latter is most rich in oil when ripe,
containing then nearly 70 per cent., besides 25 per cent, of water. The
unripe fruit, as well as other parts of the plant, abounds in mannite,
which disappears in proportion as the oil increases. The ripe olive con-
tains no mannite, it having probably been transformed into fatty oil.^
The process for extracting olive oil varies slightly in dift'erent coun-
tries, but consists essentially in subjecting the crushed pulp of the ripe
fruit to moderate pressure. The olives, which are gathered from the
trees, or collected from the ground, in November, or during the whole
winter and early spring, are crushed under a millstone to a pulpy mass.
This is then put into coarse bags, which, piled upon one another, are
1 Bot. Zeitunrj, 18C8. 8G0.
2 Arnoux, L'evue des Dtii.c Mondes, Jan-
vier 1879. 381.
Perez-Rosales, Essai sm le Chili, Ham-
boiug, 1857. 133.
Helm, Kidturpjlanzen und Haxisthiere
in ihrem Ueh(rga»(/e aiis Asien nach G'rie-
fhenland vml ItaUeii, Berlin, 1877. 88-143,
— an inti resting account of tlie importance
of the olive in ancient times.
^ Specimens may be seen among the an-
tiquities found at Pomiiei.
« Diploma of Chilperic, a.d. 716. — Par-
dessus, Lyiplo7nata, Vhartce, etc., Paris, ii.
(1849) 309.
^Vinter, inPhctrm. Journ. Sept. 7, 1872.
^ DeLuca mJcmrn. dePliarm. xlv. (18C4)
65. — Some further researches by Harz on
the formation of olive oil may be found in
the Jahreshericlit of Wiggers and Huse-
mann (1870) 392.
OLEUM OLIV^.
419
subjected to moderate pressure in a screw press. The oil thus obtained
is conducted into tubs or cisterns containing water, from the surface of
wliich it is skimmed with ladles. This is called Virgin Oil. After it
has ceased to flow, the contents of the bags are shovelled out, mixed
with boiling water, and submitted to stronger pressure than before, by
which a second quality of oil is got. If the fruit is left for a consider-
able time in heaps it undergoes decomposition, yielding by pressure a
very inferior quality of oil called in French Huile fennevtee. The
worst oil of all, obtained from the residues, has the name of Huile
iournante or Haile d'emfer.
It is said that in some districts the millstones are so mounted as to
crush the pvilp without breaking the olive-stones, and that thus the oil
of the pvdp is obtained unmixed with that of the kernels.^ We have
made many inquiries in Italy and France as to this method of oil-making,
but cannot find that it is anywhere followed.
The fixed oil of the kernels of ripe olives has been extracted and
examined by one of us (F.) Though the kernels have a bitterish taste,
the oil they yield is quite bland ; by exposure to the vapour of hypo-
nitric acid, it concretes like that of the pulp. If the whole of it were
extracted in making olive oil, it would only be about as 1 part of oil of
the kernel, to 40 pai'ts of oil of the pulp.
Description — Olive Oil is a pale yellow or greenish yellow, some-
what viscid liquid, of a faint agreeable smell and of a bland oleaginous
taste, leaving in the throat a slight sense of acridity.^ Its specific
gravity on an average is 0'91G at 17°'5 C. In cold weather, olive oil
loses its transparency by the separation of a crystalline fatty body.
The deposition takes place at a few degrees above the freezing point of
water, and in some oils even at 10° 0. (50° F.) If the oil is allowed to
congeal perfectly, and is then submitted to strong pressure, about one-
third of its weight of solid fat may be separated. After repeated
crystallizations, this fat melts at 20 to 28° C. The fluid part or Olein,
continues fluid at - 4° to - 10° C. Olive oil belongs to the class of the
less alterable, non-drying oils.
The foregoing description does not apply to the inferior sorts of oil,
which congeal more easily, are more or less deep-coloured, have a dis-
agreeable odour and taste, and quickly turn rancid. These inferior oils
have their special applications in the arts.
Chemical Composition — The chief constituent of olive oil is Olein
or more correctly Triolein, C^H^(O.C'*H^^O)^ identical so far as at present
ascertained with the fluid part of all oils of the non-drying class. The
proportion of olein in olive oil, as well as in other oils, is liable to
variation, the result partly of natural circumstances and partly of the
processes of manufacture. The best oils are rich in olein.
As to the solid part of olive oil, Chevreul believed it to be constituted
of Margarin, which he first examined in 1820. But Heintz (18.52 and
later) showed margarin to be a mixture of palmitin with other compounds
of glycerin and fatty acids. Collett in 1854 isolated Palmitic Acid,
1 IVie Grocer, April 25, 1868, siipplement ;
Pereira, Ekm. of Mat. Med. ii. (1850) 1505.
- This according to our experience is the
case even with oil as it runs from the pulp
aud therefore in the freshest condition ;
but the acrid after-taste is more perceptible
in oil which has been long kept.
420
OLEACEtE.
Qi6jj32Q2^ from olive oil ; and Heintz and Krug (1857) further proved
that Triioalmitin is the chief of the solid constituents of olive oil. They
also met with an acid melting at 7l°'4 C, which they regarded as
Arachic Acid (p. 187). As to stearic acid, Heintz and Krug did not
fully succeed in evidencing its presence in olive oil.
Lastly, Benecke discovered in olive oil a small quantity of CJioles-
terin, C''*H^^O. It may be removed by means of glacial acetic acid or
alcohol, which dissolve but very little of the oil.
Commerce — Various sorts of olive oil are distinguished in the
English market, as Florence, Gallipoli, Gioja, Spanish (Malaga and
Seville), Sicily, Myteline, Corfu and Mogador.
Olive oil was imported into the United Kingdom in the year 1872
to the value of £1,193,064. Nearly half the quantity was shipped from
Italy, one-fifth from Spain, and the remainder from other Mediterranean
countries.
The average annual production in Italy is estimated at about 3
millions of hectolitres (GG million gallons), but the quantity exported
does not reach half that amount.
The statistics of the French Government indicate the annual pro-
duction of olive oil in France to be not more than 250,000 hectolitres,
equivalent in value to 30 millions of francs (£1,200,000).^
Uses — The uses of olive oil in medicine and its immense consump-
tion in the warmer parts of Europe as an article of food, are too well
known to require more than a passing allusion.
Adulteration — Olive Oil is the subject of A^arious fraudulent
admixtures with less costly oils, the means of detecting which has
engaged much attention. Of the various methods by which chemists
have endeavoured to ascertain the purity of olive oil, the following are
the more noteworthy : —
a. Drying oils (such as the oils of poppy and walnut) may be
distinguished by their not being converted into solid crystallizable
elaidin by hyponitric acid or concentrated solution of nitrate of
protoxide of mercury. Olive oil which contains any considerable
proportion of one of these oils, no longer solidifies if exposed for a
moment to one of the above-mentioned reagents. This test however
is not of sufliicient delicacy for small amounts of drying oils.
b. Olive oil being one of the lighter oils, the specific gravity
may to some degree indicate admixture with a heavier oil. To
make use of this fact, Gobley and other chemists have invented
an instrument called an elaiometer, for taking the specific gravity
of oils.
c. Observation of the Cohesion-figure. — This test, proposed by
Tomlinson in 1864,^ depends on the forces of cohesion, adhesion,
and diff'usion. Thus, if a drop of any oil hanging from the end of a
glass rod is gently deposited upon the suvfiice of chemically clean
water, contained in a clean glass, a contest takes place between the
^ Exposition de 1867 ii Paris, i?(-y);jo)-te 400,000 hectolitres are calculated for the
Jury Irtfernatioiud, xi. 108. — In the work year 1866.
of Coutauce, quoted p. 417, note 7, nearly Pharm. Joiirit. v. (18G4) .i87. 495, v/itli
figures.
CORTEX ALSTON liE.
421
forces in question the moment the drop flattens doAvn by its gravity
upon the surface of the water. The adhesion of the liquid surface
tends to spread out the drop into a fllm, the cohesive force of the
particles of the drop strives to prevent that extension, and the
resultant of these forces is a figure which Mr. Tomlinson believes to
be definite for every independent liquid. The figure thus produced
is named the cohesion-figure.
So far as our experience goes, the processes hitherto recommended
for testing olive oil (and there are several that we have not mentioned)
are only available in cases where the adulteration is considerable, and
Are quite insufiicient for discovering a small admixture of other oils.
How little they are appreciated, may be inferred from the fact that the
Chamber of Commerce of Nice"' offered a reward of 15,000 francs
(£C00) for a simple and easy process for making evident an admixture
with olive oil of 5 per cent, at least of any seed-oil.
APOCYNE^.
CORTEX ALSTONIiE.
Cortex Alstonice scholar is ; Dita Bark ;^ Alstonia Bark.
Botanical Origin — Alstonia^ scholaris R. Brown (Echites scholar is
L.), a handsome forest tree, .50 to 90 feet in height, common throughout
the Indian Peninsula from the sub-Himalayan region to Ceylon and
Burma; found also in the Philippines, Java, Timor and Eastern Australia,
likewise in Tropical Africa. It has oblong obovate leaves, in whorls of
5 to 7, and slender pendulous pods a foot or more in length.
History — Saptachhada and saptaparna (literally seven-leaf), occur-
ring in early Sanskrit epic poetry and also in Susruta, are ancient names
of Alstonia (Dr. Rice). Rheede^ in 1G78 and Rumphius" in 1741 described
and figured the tree, and mentioned the use made of its bark by the
native practitioners. Rumphius also explained the trivial name
scholaris as referring to slabs of the close-grained wood which are used
as school-slates, the letters being traced upon them in sand. The tonic
properties of the bark were favourably spoken of by Graham in his
Catalogue of Bombay Plants (1839), and further recommended by Dr.
Alexander Gibson in 1853." The drug has a place in the Pharmacopoeia
of India, 1868.
Description — The drug, as presented to one of us by the late Dr.
Gibson and by Mr. Broughton of Ootacamund, consists of irregular
fragments of bark, | to -J- an inch thick, of a spongy texture, easily
breaking with a .short, coarse fracture. The external surface is very
uneven and rough, dark grey or brownish, sometimes with blackish
1 Annales de Chimle et de Physique,
March, 1869. 309.
- From Dita, the name of the tree in the
island of Luzon.
^ So named in honour of Charles Alston,
I'rofessor of Botany and Materia Medica
(1740-1760) in the University of Edin-
burgh.— The plant is figured in Bentley
and Trimen, Med. PI. part 25 (1877).
■* HortUH Malaharlcus, i. tab. 45.
' Herb. Ambohi. ii. tab. 82.
" Pharm. Journ. xii. (1853) 422.
422
1
spots ; the interior substance and inner surface (liber) is of a bright
buff. A transverse section shows the liber to be finely marked by
numerous small medullary rays. The bark is almost inodorous ; its
taste is purely bitter and neither aromatic nor acrid.
Microscopic Structure — The cortical tissue is covered with a thin
suberous coat ; the middle layer of the bark is built up of a thin walled
parenchyme, through which enormous, hard, thick-walled cells are scat-
tered in great numbers and are visible to the naked e3'e, as they form
large irregular gi'oups of a bright yellow colour. Towards the inner part
these stone-cells disappear, the tissue being traversed by undulated
medullary rays, loaded with very small stai'ch grains ; many of the other
parenchymatous cells of the liber contain crystals of calcium oxalate.
The longitudinal section of the liber exhibits large but not very
numerous laticiferous vessels, containing a brownish mass, the concrete
milk-juice in which all parts of the tree abound.
Chemical Composition — The first attempts to isolate the active
principles of this bark were made by two apothecaries, Scharlde at
Batavia' (1862) and Gruppe at Manila^ (1872).
In 1875 Jobst and Hesse exhausted the powdered bark with
petroleum ether, and then extracted, by boiling alcohol, the salt of an
alkaloid, which they called Ditamine. After the evaporation of the
alcohol, it is precipitated by carbonate of sodium and dissolved by
ether, from which it is removed by shaking it with acetic acid.
Ditamine as again isolated from the acetate forms an amorphous and
somewhat crystalline, bitterish powder of decidedly alkaline character ;
the barks yields about 0 02 per cent, of it.
From the substances extracted by means of petroleum ether, as
above stated, Jobst and Hesse further isolated (1) Eckicaoutchin,
Q25_fj40Q2^ an amorphous yellowish mass ; (2) Echicerin, Q^W^Oi\ forming
acicular crystals, melting at 157° C; (3) Echitin, C^^H^-0^, crystallized
scales, melting at 170° ; (4) Echitein, C*2jj70O2^ which forms rhombic
prisms, melting at 195" ; (5) Echiretin, CH''0", an amorphous
substance melting at 52° C.
Echicaoutchin may be written thus: (C^HyO^ echicerin (C'H^)''0-,
echiretin (C^'H^yO^ ; these formulfe at once point out how nearly the
three last named substances are allied. They are probably constituents
of the milky-juice of the tree.
Lastly, Jobst and Hesse pointed out the existence of another
alkaloid in Dita bark.
Harnack (1877) on the other hand is of the opinion that it contains
only one alkaloid, which he terms Ditaine. He used the alcoholic
extract of the bark which he treated with ether to which he added a
little ammonia. By this process ditamine of Jobst and Hesse would
have been removed, but Harnack suggests that only a little ditaine
is dissolved by ether. He then mixed the extract with potash and
exhausted it with alcohol, which afforded crystals of ditaine, answering
to the formula C'-H^^N^O* ; its physiological action is nearly the same
as that of curare. Ditaine is but sparingly soluble in ether or petro-
^Geneesk,Tijdschr,J}i^edi']-l. I ndie,x. (1863) ^ JaJn-enheridit of Wiggers and Huse-
209; also Archiv der Pharmacie, 212 (1878) manu, 1873. 51.
439.
RADIX HEMIDESMl.
423
leum ether, but dissolves readily in water, alcohol, or chloroform ;
it has a decidedly alkaline reaction. It would appear that it is a
glucoside.
Dita bark is stated^ to yield 5 per cent, of " ditaine " ; but this pro-
bably refers not to the pure alkaloid.
Uses — The bark has been recommended as a tonic and antiperiodic,
being extravagantly praised as a substitvite for quinine.
ASCLEPIADE^.
RADIX HEMIDESMl.
Hemidesmns Root, Nunnari Root, Indian Sarsaparilla.
Botanical Origin — Hemidesmus indicus R. Brown (Periploca
hidica Willd., Asdepias Pseudo-sarsa Roxb.), a twining shrub, growing
throughout the Indian Peninsula and in Ceylon. The leaves are very
diverse, being narrow and lanceolate in the lower part of the plant, and
broadly ovate in the upper branches.^
History — In the ancient Sanskrit literature the plant occurs
frequently under the name Sarivd, and its root under the name of
JSfanndrl or Ananta-mul {i.e. endless root) has long been employed in
medicine in the southern parts of India.'' Ashburner in 1831 was the
first to call the attention of the profession in Europe to its medicinal
value."* In 18G4< it was admitted to a place in the British Fharma-
copoeia, but its efficiency is by no means generally acknowledged.
Description ° — The root is in pieces of G inches or more in length ;
it is cylindrical, tortuous, longitudinally furrowed, from xV of an
inch in thickness, mostly simj:)^ or provided with a few thin rootlets
emitting slender, branching woody aerial stems, of an inch or less
thick. Externally it is dark brown, sometimes with a slight violet-grey
hue, which is particularly obvious in the svmshine. The transverse
section of the hard root shows a white mealy or brownish or somewhat
violet cortical layer, not exceding yy- of 3,n inch in thickness, and a
yellowish woody column, separated by a narrow dark undulated cambial
line. Neither the wood nor the cortical tissue present a radiate
structure in the stout pieces ; in the thinner roots, medullary rays are
obvious in the woody part. The ei'tremely thin corky layer easily
separates from the bark, which latter is frequently marked transversely
by large cracks. The root, whether fresh or dried, has an agreeable
odour resembling tonka bean or melilot. The dried root has a sweetish
taste with a very slight acidity. The stems are almost tasteless and
inodorous. The root found in the English market is often of very bad
quality.
1 Yearbooh of Pharm. 1878. 624, from over as having a sweet smell of melilot.
Proc. of the American Pharm. Associa- The plant he says is called in Canarese
tion, 1877. Duda sali. The figure is reproduced in
- Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med. Antoine Colin's translation, but not in that
Planl'>, part 6 (187G). of Clusius.
^ There is an Indian root figured as Palo * Lond. Med. and Phijs. Journ. Ixv. 189.
de Culehra by Acosta (Tractado de las ^ Taken from excellent specimens obli-
Drogas . . . de las Indias Orientales, 1578, gingly sent to us from India by Dr. L. W.
cap. Iv. ) which is astonishingly like the iStewart and Mr. Bi'ouglitou.
drug in question. He describes it more-
424
ASCLEPIADEJ^:.
Microscopic Structure — All the proper cortical tissue shows a
uniform parenchyme, not distinctly separated into liber, medullary rays
and mesophloeum. On making a longitudinal section however, one can
observe some elongated laticiferous vessels filled with the colourless
concrete milky juice. In a transverse section, they are seen to be
irregularly scattered through the bark, chiefly in its inner layers, yet
even here in not very considerable number. They are frequently 30
mkm. in diameter and not branched.
The wood is traversed by small medullary rays, which are obvious
only in the longitudinal section. The parenchymatous tissue of the root
is loaded with large, ovoid starch granules. Tannic matters do not occur
to any considerable amount, except in the outermost suberous layer.
Chemical Composition — The root has not been submitted to any
adequate chemical examination. Its taste and smell appear not to
depend on the presence of essential oil, so far as may be inferred from
microscopic examination ; and it is probable the aroma is due to a body
of the cumarin class. According to Scott,^ the root yields by simple
distillation with water a steroptene, which is probably the substance
obtained by Garden in 1837, and supposed to be a volatile acid.
Uses— The drug is reputed to be alterative, tonic, diuretic and
diaphoretic, but is rarely employed, at least in England.
CORTEX MUDAR.
Cortex Calotropidis ; Mudar; F. Ecorce de racine de Mudar.
Botanical Origin — The drug under notice is furnished by two
nearly allied species of Calotropis, occupying somewhat distinct geo-
graphical areas, but not distinguished from each other in the native
languages of India. These plants are : —
1. Calotropis procera R. Brown (C. Hamiltonii Wight), a large
shrub, 6 or more feet high, with dark green, oval leaves, downy
beneath, abounding in acrid milky juice.
It is a native of the drier parts of India, as the Deccan, the Upper
Provinces of Bengal, the Punjab and Sind, but is quite unknown in the
southern provinces ; it also extends to Persia, Palestine, the Sinaitic
Peninsula, Ai'abia, Egypt, to the oasis Dachel, and other oases of the
Sahara, to Nubia, Abyssinia, the lake Tsad and through the Sudan.
Lastly it has been naturalized in the West Indies.
2. C. gigantea R. Brown (Asclepias gigantea Willd.), a large erect
shrub, 6 to 10 feet high, with stem as thick as a man's leg,^ much
resembling preceding, indigenous to Lower Bengal and the southern
parts of India, Ceylon, the Malayan Peninsula, and the Moluccas.
Both species are extremely common in waste ground over their
respective areas.'^
1 Pliarm. of India, 457 ; also Chem.
Gazette, 1843. 378.
2 Hence the specific uame gigantea.
^ The botanical distinctions between the
two species may be stated thus : —
C. procera, corolla cup-shaped, petals
somewhat erect, flowerbuds spherical,
appendages of corona with a blunt upward
point. See Fig. in Bentley and Trimen,
Med. Plants, part 25 (1877).
C. giijantea, corolla opening flat, flower-
buds bluntly conical or oblong, appendages
of corona rounded.
COUTEX MUL>AR.
4-25
History — The ancient name of the plant, which occurs ah-eady in
the Vedic literature, was A rka (wedge), alluding to the form of the leaves
which were used in sacrificial rites. From one of the Sanskrit names of
this plant, namely Manddra, Mudar is a corruption;^ the latter is
frequently mentioned in the writings of Susruta.
The plant was likewise well known to the Arabian physicians.'^
G. proccm was observed in Egypt by Prosper Alpinus (1.580-84),
and upon his return to Italy was figured, and some account given of its
medicinal properties.^ It is also the " Apocynum syriacum " figured by
Clusius.^
C. qigantea was figured by Rheede ° in 1679, and in our own day
by Wight."
The medicinal virtues of nuidar, though so long esteemed by the
natives of India, were not investigated experimentally by Europeans
until the present century, when Playfair recommended the drug in
elephantiasis, and its good effects were afterwards noticed by Vos (182G),
Cumin (1827), and Duncan (1829). The last-named physician also
performed a chemical examination of the root-bark, the activity of
which he referred to an extractive matter which he termed Muda-
rine.''
Description — The root-bark of C. irrocera, as we have received it,**
consists of short, arched, bent, or nearly flat fragments, ^ to \ of an
inch thick. They have outwardly a thickish, yellowish-grey, spongy
cork, more or less fissured lengthwise, frequently separating from the
middle cortical layer; the latter consists of a white mealy tissue,
traversed by narrow brown liber-rays. The bark is brittle and easily
powdered ; it has a mucilaginous, bitter, acrid taste, but no distinctive
odour. The light-yellow, fibrous wood is still attached to many of the
pieces.
The roots of G. gigcmtea are clothed with a bark which seems to
be undistinguishable from that of G. 'procera '^wai described. The wood
of the root consists of a porous, pale-yellow tissue, exhibiting large
vascular bundles, and very numerous small medullary rays, consisting
of 1 to 3 rows of the usual cells.^
Microscopic Structure — In the root-bark of C._p?'oce)'a, the suberous
coat is made up of large, thin-walled, polyhedral, or almost cubic cells ;
the middle cortical layer, of a uniform parenchyme, loaded with large
starch granules, or here and there containing some thick-walled cells
(sclerenchyme) and tufts of oxalate of calcium. The large medullary
rays are built vip of the usual cells, having porous walls and containing
starch and oxalate. In a longitudinal section, the tissue, chiefly of the
middle cortical layer, is found to be traversed by numerous laticiferous
^ Information for which we are indebted
to Dr. Eice.
- Ibn Baytar, translated by Sontheimer,
ii. (1S42) 193.
3 De Plantis JEgypti, Venet. 1592. cap.
XXV.
^ Rarior. plantar, hist. ii. (1601) Ixxxvii.
^ /Tortus Malaharicus, ii. tab. 31.
" Illiisfrafioits of Indian Botany, Madras,
ii. (1850) tab. 155. — C. 2>?'ocera is figured by
the same author in his Icones Plantarum
Indicc Orientalis, iv. tab. 1278.
' Ediuh. Med. end Surg. Journ. xxxii.
(1829) 60.
^ We are indebted for an authentic speci-
men to Dr. E. Burton Brown of Lahore.
^ Roots of C. gigantea kindly supplied to
us by Dr. Bidie of Madras consist of light,
woody truncheons, ^- to 2J inches in dia-
meter.
ASCLEPIADEJ5.
vessels, containing the dry milk juice ^ as a brownish granular substance
not soluble in potash.
The microscopic characters of the root-bark of C. gigantea agree
with those here detailed of C. procem. The stems of Calotropis
are distinguished by strong liber fibres, which are not met with in
the roots.
Chemical Composition — By following the process of Duncan
above alluded to, 200 grammes of the powered bark of C. gigantea yielded
us nothing like his Mudarine, but 2"4 grammes of an acrid resin,
soluble in ether as well as in alcohol. The latter solution reddens
litmus ; the former on evaporation yields the resin as an almost colour-
less mass. If the aqueous liquid is separated from the crude resin, and
much absolute alcohol added, an abundant precipitate of mucilage is
obtained. The liquid now contains a bitter principle, which after due
concentration may be separated by means of tannic acid.
We obtained similar results by exhausting the bark of G. procera
with dilute alcohol. The tannic compound of the bitter principle was
mixed with carbonate of lead, dried and boiled with spirit of wine.
This after evaporation furnished an amorphous, very bitter mass, not
soluble in water, but readily so in absolute alcohol. The solution is
not precipitated by an alcoholic solution of acetate of lead. By purify-
ing the bitter principle with chloroform or ether, it is at last obtained
colourless. This bitter matter is probably the active principle of
Calotropis; we ascertained by means of the usual tests that no
alkaloid occurs in the drug. The large juicy stem, especially that of
G. gigantea, ought to be submitted to an accurate chemical and thera-
peutical examination.^
Uses — Mudar is an alterative, tonic and diaphoretic, — in large
doses emetic. By the natives of India, who employ it in venereal and
skin complaints, almost all parts of the plant are used. According to
Moodeen Sherift',^ the bark of the root and the dried milky juice are
the most efficient; the latter is however somewhat irregular and unsafe
in its action. The same writer remarks that he has found that the
older the plant, the more active is the bark in its effects. He recom-
mends that the corky outer coat, which is tasteless and inert, should be
scraped off before the bark is powdered for use : of a powder so
prepared, 40 to 50 grains suffice as an emetic.
The stems of G. gigantea afford a very valuable fibre which can be
spun into the finest thread for sewing or weaving.'*
^ It is evidently with a view to the reten-
tion of this juice, that the Pharmacopma
of India orders tlie bark to be stripped
from tlie roots when the latter are half-
dried. Moodeen Sheriff remai-ks of C.
ijifjantea, that although it is frequently
used in medicine, no part of it is sold iu
the bazaars, — no doubt from the circum-
stance that the plant is everywhere found
wild and can be collected as required.
- List's Asdepione (Gmeliu's Ghemislnj,
xvii. 368) might then be sought for.
' Supplement to the Pharmacopma of
India, Madras, 1869. 364 ; for further in-
formation on the thei'apeutic uses of mudar,
see also Pharin. of India, 458.
^ Drury, Useful Plants of India, 2nd ed.
1873. 101.
FOLIA TYLOPHORA
427
FOLIA TYLOPHOR^.
Country or Indian Ipecacua^iha.
Botanical Origin — Tijloi>hon(asthriiaticaWightetArnott{Asclepia.s
astJimatica Roxb.), a twining perennial plant, common in sandy soils
throughout the Indian Peninsula and naturalized in Mauritius. It
may he distinguished from some of its congeners by its reddish or dull
pink flowers, with the scale of the staminal corona abruptly contracted
into a long sharp tooth.^
History — The employment of this plant in medicine is well
known to the Hindus, who call it Antamul and use it with
considerable success in dysentery, but we have not succeeded in
tracing it in the ancient Indian literatvire. During the last century
it attracted the attention of Roxburgh ^ who made many obser-
vations on the administration of the root, while physician to
the General Hospital of Madras from 1776 to 1778. It was
also used very successfully in the place of ij)ecacuanha by Anderson,
Physician-General to the Madras army.^ In more recent times,
the plant has been prescribed by O'Shaughnessy, who pronounced
the root an excellent substitute for ipecacuanha if given in rather larger
doses.* Kirkpatrick^ administered the drug in at least a thousand
cases, and found it of the greatest value ; he prescribed the dried leaf,
.not only because superior to the root in certainty of action, but also as
being obtainable without destruction of the plant. The drug has been
largely given by many other practitioners in India. Tylopliora is also
employed in Mauritius, where it is known as Ipeca sauvage or Tpe'ca du
■pays. It has a place in the Bengal Phannaeopoeia of 1844, and in the
Pharmacopceia of Ivdia of 18G8.
Description'"' — The leaves are opposite, entire, from 2 to 5 inches long,
-J to 2 J inches broad, somewhat variable in outline, ovate or subrotund,
usually cordate at the base, abruptly acuminate or almost mucronate,
rather leathery, glabrous above, more or less downy beneath with soft
simple hairs. The pedicel, which is channelled, is ^ to | of an inch in
length. In the dry state the leaves are rather thick and harsh, of a
pale yellowish gi-een ; they have a not unpleasant herbaceous smell,
with but very little taste."
Chemical Composition — A concentrated infusion of the leaves has
a slightly acrid taste. It is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, by
neutral acetate of lead or cavTstic potash, and is turned greenish-black
liy perchloride of iron. Broughton of Ootacamund (India) has informed
us (1872) that from a large quantity of the leaves he obtained a small
^ Fig. iu Bentley and Tiimeu, il/ct/.
Plants, part 29 (1878).
- Flora Indica, ed. Carey, ii. (1832) 33.
^ Fleming, Catalogue of Indian Plants
and Drugs, Calcutta, 1810. 8.
Bengal Dispensatory (1842) 455.
' Catalogue of Madras Erhibition q/'1855,
— list of Mysore drugs ; also Pharm. of
India, 458.
^ Drawn up from an ample specimen
kindlj' presented to us, together with one of
the root, by Mr. Moodeen Sheriff of Madras.
' A figure of the leaves may be found in
a paper on Unto-mool by M. C. Cooke,
Pharm. .Journ. Aug. 6, 1870. 105 ; and one
of the whole plant in Wight's Icones Plant-
arum Indioi Orlentalif, iv. (1850) tab. 1277.
428
LOGANlACEvii.
amount of crystals, — insufficient for analysis. Dissolved and injected
into a small dog, they occasioned purging and vomiting.
Uses — Employed in India, as already mentioned, as a substitute for
ipecacuanha, chietly in the treatment of dysentery. The dose of the
powdered leaves as an emetic is 2.5 to 30 grains, as a diaphoretic and
expectorant 3 to 5 grains.
Radix Tj/lophorai — This root is met with in the Indian bazaais,
and has been employed, as before stated, as much or more than the leaf.
It consists of a short, knotty, descending rootstock, about J- of an inch in
thickness, emitting 2 to 3 aerial stems, and a considerable number of
wiry roots. These roots are often G inches or more in length by \ a line
in diameter, and are very brittle. The whole drug is of a pale yellowish
brown ; it has no considerable odour, but a sweetish and subsequently
acrid taste. In general appearance it is suggestive of valerian, but is
somewhat stouter and larger.
Examined microscopically, the parenchymatous envelope of the
rootlets is seen to consist of two layers, the inner forming a small
nucleus sheath. The outer portion is built up of large cells, loaded with
starch granules and tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium. Salts of iron
do not alter the tissue.
LOGANIACE^.
N U X VO MICA.
Semen Nucis Vomicce; Kux Vomica; F. Noix vomique; G. Brechnuss.
Botanical Origin — Strychnos Nux-vomica L., a moderate sized tree
with short, thick, often crooked stem, and small, greenish-white, tubular
flowers ranged in terminal corymbs. It is indigenous to most parts of
India, especially the coast districts, and is found in Burmah, Siam,
Cochin China and Northern Australia.
The ovary of S. Nux-vomica is bi-locular, but as it advances in
growth the dissepiment becomes fleshy and disappears. The fruit, which
is an indehiscent berry of the size and shape of a small orange, is
filled with a bitter, gelatinous white pulp, in which the seeds, 1 to 5 in
number, are placed vertically in an irregular manner. The epicar23 forms
a thin, smooth, somewhat hard shell, which at first is greenish, but when
mature, of a rich orange-yellow. The pulp of the fruit contains
strychnine,^ yet it is said to be eaten in India by birds. ^ The wood,
which is hard and durable, is very bitter.
1 Koxburgh's assertion that the pulp
"seems perfecihi innocent," induced us to
examine it chemically, which we were
enabled to do through the kindness of Dr.
Thwaites, of the Royal Botanical (hardens,
Ceylon. The inspisisatedpiilpreceYvedLirom
Dr. T., diluted with water, formed a very
consistent jelly having a slightly acid re-
action and very bitter taste. Some of it
was mixed with slaked lime, dried, and
then exhausted by boiling chloroform. The
liquid left on evaporation a yellowish
resinoid mass, which was warmed with
acetic acid. The colourless solution yielded
a perfectly white, crystalline residue, which
was dissolved in water, and precipitated with
bichromate of potassium. The crystallized
precipitate dried, and moistened with
strong sulphuric acid, exhibited the violet
hue characteristic of strychnine.
To confirm this experiment, M'e obtained
through the obliging assistance of Dr. Bidie
of Madras, some of the white j)ulp taken
with a spoon from the interior of the ripe
fruit, and at once immersed per se in spirit
of wine. The alcoholic fiuid gave abundant
evidence of the presence of strychnine.
- According to Cleghorn by the hornbill
NUX VOMICA.
429
History — Nux Vomica, which was unknown to the ancients, is
thought to \m\e been introduced into medicine by the Arabians. But
the notices in their writings which have been supposed to refer to it,
are far from clear and satisfactory. We have no evidence moreover
that it was used in India at an early period. Garcia de Orta, an observer
thoroughly acquainted with the drugs of the west coast of India in the
middle of the IGth century, is entirely silent as to nux vomica.
Fleming,* writing at the begining of the present century, remarks that
nux vomica is seldom, if ever, employed in medicine by the Hindus,
but this statement does not hold good now.
The drug was however certainly made known in Germany in the 16th
century. Valerius Cordus- wrote a description of it about the year
1540, which is I'emarkable for its accuracy. Fuchs, Bauhin and others
noticed it as j}^iix Mddla, a name taken from the Mdhel of Avicenna
and other Ai-abian authors.*
It was found in the English shops in the time of Parkinson (1G40),
who remarks that its chief use is for poisoning dogs, cats, crows, and
ravens, and that it is rarely given as a medicine.
Description — Nux Vomica is the seed, removed from the pulp and
shell. It is disc-like, or rather irregularly orbicular, a IHtle less than
an inch in diameter, by about a quarter of an inch in thickness, slightly
concave on the dorsal, convex on the ventral surface, or nearly flat on
either side, often furnished with a broad, thickened margin so that the
central portion of the seed appears depressed. The outside edge is
rounded or tapers into a keel-like ridge. Each seed has on its edge a
small protuberance, from which is a faintly projecting line (raphe)
passing to a central scar, which is the hilum or umbilicus ; a slight
depression marks the opposite side of the seed. The seeds are of a light
greyish hue, occasionally greenish, and have a satiny or glistening aspect,
by reason of their being thickly covered with adpressed, radiating
hairs. Nux vomica is extremely compact and horny, and has a very
bitter taste.
After having been softened by digestion in water, the seed is easily
cut along its outer edge, then displaying a mass of translucent, cartila-
ginous albumen, divided into two parts by a fissure in Avhich lies the
embryo. This latter is about of an inch long, having a pair of
delicate 5- to 7-nerved, heart-shaped cotyledons, with a club-shaped
radicle, the position of which is indicated on the exterior of the seed by
the small protviberance already named.
Microscopic Structure — The hairs of nux vomica are of remark-
able structure. They are formed as usual of the elongated cells of the
epidermis, and have their walls thickened by secondary deposits, which
are interrupted by longitudinally extended pores ; they are a striking
(Buceros malaharicus); according to Rox-
burgh by "many sorts of bird. " Beddome
(Flora iSi/h-aticci, Madras, 1872. 243) says
the pulp is quite harmless,and the favourite
food of many birds.
In Garnier, Exploration en Indo-China
ii. {Paris, 1873) 488, allusion is made to a
tree similar to that under notice having
fruits v.'hich are devoid of poison hcfnre
malar if If.
^ Catalogue of Indian 3Ied. Plants, and
Drugs, Calcutta, 1810. 37.
- Hist. Slirpium, edited by C. Gesner,
Argentorat. 1561. lib. iv. c. 21.
^ Clusius and others held the opinion that
the Nux niethel of the Arabs was the fruit of
a Datura, and an Indian species was accord-
ingly named by Linnjeus D. Mttd.
430
LOGANIACE^.
object in polarized light. The albumen is made up of large cells, loaded
with albuminoid matters and oily drops, but devoid of starch. In water
the thick walls of this parenchyme swell up and yield some mucilage ;
the cotyledons are built up of a narrow, much more delicate tissue,
traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles.
The alkaloids are not directly recognizable by the microscope ; but
if very thin slices of nux vomica are kept for some length of time in
glycerin, they develope feathery crystals, doubtless consisting of these
bases.
Chemical Composition — The bitter taste and highly poisonous
action of nux vomica are chiefly due to the presence of Strychnine
and Brucine. Strychnine, C'^^H^^N^O^, was first met with in 1818 by
Pelletier and Caventou in St. Ignatius' Beans, and immediately after-
wards in nux vomica. It crystallizes from an alcoholic solution in large
anhydrous prisms of the orthorhombic system. It requires for solu-
tion about 6700 parts of cold or 2500 of boiling water ; the solution is
of decidedly alkaline reaction, and an intensely bitter taste which may
be distinctly perceived though it contain no more than e oo^o-gn of the
alkaloid. The best solvents for strychnine are spirit of wine or chloro-
form ; it is but very sparingly soluble in absolute alcohol, benzol,
amylic alcohol, or ether. The alcoholic solution deviates the ray of
polarized light to the left.
Strychnine is not restricted to the fruit of the plant under notice,
but also occurs in the wood and bark.^ It is moreover found in the
wood of the root of Strychnos coluhrina L., and in the bark of the root
of Strychnos Tieute Lesch., both species indigenous to the Indian
Archipelago.
The discovery of Brucine was made in 1819 by the same chemists,
in nux vomica bark, then supposed to be derived from Brucea ferruginea
Hdritier (B. antidysenterica Miller), an Abyssinian shrub of the order
Simarubese. The presence of brucine in nux vomica and St. Ignatius' Bean
was pointed out by them in 1824. Brucine, dried over sulphuric acid, has
the formula C^H^^N'O*, but it crystallizes from its alcoholic solution
with 4 OH^. In bitterness and poisonoiis properties, as well as in
rotatory power, it closely resembles strychnine, differing however in
the following particulars: — it is soluble in about 150 parts of boiling-
water, melts without alteration a little above 180° C. In common with
its salts, it acquires a dark red colour when moistened with concentrated
nitric acid.
The proportion of strychnine in nux vomica appears to vary from
I to I per cent. That of brucine is variously stated to be 012 (Merck),
0'5 (Wittstein), I'Ol (Mayer) per cent.
A third crystallizable base, called Igasurine, was stated in 1853 by
Desnoix to occur in the liquors from which strychnine and brucine
had been precipitated by lime. Schiitzenberger's investigations (1858)
are far from proving the existence of " igasurine." ^
In nux vomica, as well as in St. Ignatius' Beans, the alkaloids,
1 It is remarkable that parasitic plants of
the order Loranthacem growing on Strychnos
Nux-vomka acquire the poisonous proper-
ties of the latter. — Pharm. of India, 1868.
108.
- For further information on igasurine,
consult Gmelin, Cliemistry, xvii. (ISOfi)
589 ; Watts, Dictionary of Chemistry, iii.
(1865) 243 ; Pharm. Journ. xviii. (1859)
432.
SEMEN IGNATII.
481
according to their discoverers, are combined with Stryclmic or Igasuric
Acid ; Ltidwig (1873), who prepared this body from the latter drug,
describes it as a yelloAvish-brown amorphous mass, having a strongly
acid reaction and a sour astringent taste, and striking a dark green
with ferric salts. We have ascertained the correctness of Ludwig's
observations.
Nux vomica dried at 100'' C. yielded us when burnt with soda-lime
1"822 per cent, of nitrogen, indicating about 11 '3 per cent, of protein
substances. By boiling ether, we removed from the seeds 4"14 per cent,
of fat ; Meyer ^ found it to yield butyric, capronic, caprylic, caprinic and
other acids of the series of the common fatty acids, and also one acid
I'icher in carbon than stearic acid. Nux vomica also contains mucilage
and sugar. The latter, which according to Rebling (1855) exists to the
extent of G per cent., reduces cupric oxide without the aid of heat.
When macerated in water, the seeds easily undergo lactic fermentation,
not however attended with decomposition of the alkaloids. The
stability of strychnine is remarkable, even after ten years of contact
with putrescent animal substances.
Commerce — Large quantities of nux vomica are brought into the
London market from British India.- The export from Bombay in the
year 1871-72 was 3341 cwt., all shipped to the United Kingdom.^
Madras in 1869-70 exported 4805 cwt. ; and Calcutta in 1865-66, 2801
cwt. The quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1870 * was
5534 cwt.
Nux vomica is stated by Garnier (l. c. page 429, note) to be largely
exported from Cambodja to China.
Uses — Tincture and extract of nux vomica, and the alkaloid strych-
nine, are frequently administered as tonic remedies in a variety of
disorders.
SEMEN IGNATII.
Faba Sancti Ignatii; St. Ignatius' Beans ; F. Feves de Saint-Ignace,
Noix Igasur; G. Ignatiusbohnen.^
Botanical Origin — Strychnos Ignatii Bergius** (S. jyhilvppensis
Blanco, Ignatiana jj/i ilipjjiniea Lour^^iro), a large climbing shrub, grow-
ing in Bohol, Samar, and (^ebu, islands of the Bisaya group of the Philip-
pines, and according to Loureiro in Cochin China, where it has been
introduced. The infloi*escence and foliage are known to botanists only
^ JaJiresbericht der Chemie, 1875. 856.
^ We have seen 1136 packages offered in
a single drug-sale (30 March 1871).
^ Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of Bombay for 1871-72, pt. ii. 62.
'' No later returns are accessible.
The plant and seeds are known in the
Bisa3'a language by the names of panga-
guason, aguason, canlara, maiianaog, dan-
cagay, calalonga or igasur ; in the islands
of Bohol and Cebu, where the seeds are
produced, by that of coyacoy, and by the
Spaniards of the Philippines as Pepita de
Bisaya or Pepita de Cathalogan (Clain,
Remedios Faciles, Manila, 1857. p. 610).
The name St. Ignatius' Bean applied to
them in Europe, is employed in South
America to designate the seeds of several
medicinal Cucurbitaceoe, as those of Feuil-
lea trilohaia L., Hypanthera Gt(a]}eva
Manso eiud A nisosperma Passijlora Manso.
" Materia Medica, Stockholm, 1778. i.
146. — We omit citing the Linnean Ignalia
amara, as it has been shown by Bentham
that the plant so named by the younger
Linnajus is Posoqueria longijflora Aubl. of
the order Rubiacece, a native of Guiana.
432
LOGANIACE^.
from the descriptions given by Loureiro ^ and Blanco.^ The fruit is
spherical, or sometimes ovoid, 4| inches in diameter by Gf long, as
shown by Ray and Petiver's figure. It has a smooth brittle shell en-
closing seeds to the number of about 24. G. Bennett,' who saw the
fruits at Manila sold in the bazaar, says they contain from 1 to 12
seeds, imbedded in a glutinous blackish pulp.* According to Jagor ^
the shrub is abundant near Basey, in the south-western part of the
island of Samar, on the straits of San Juanico ; its seeds are met with
as a medicine in many houses in the Philippines.
History — It is stated by Murray^ and later writers that this seed
was introduced into Europe from the Philippines by the Jesuits, who,
on account of its virtues, bestowed upon it the name of Ignatius, the
founder of their order. However this may be, the earliest account of
the drug appears to be that communicated by Camelli, Jesuit mis-
sionary at Manila, to Ray and Petiver, and by them laid before the
Royal Society of London in 1099.'^ Camelli proclaimed the seed to be
the Nux Vomica legitima of the Arabian physician Serapion, who
flourished in the 9th century; but in our opinion there is no warrant
whatever for supposing it to have been known at so remote a period.^
Camelli states that the seed, which he calls Nux Pepita seu Faha Sancti
Ignatii, is much esteemed as a remedy in various disorders, though he
was well aware of its poisonous properties when too freely administered.
In Germany, St. Ignatius' Bean was made known about the same
period by Bohn of Leipzig."
The drug is found in the Indian bazaars under a name which is
evidently corrupted from the Spanish ^jcj^ito. It is met with in the
drugshops of China as Leu-sun g-kwo, i.e. Luzon fruit.
Description — St. Ignatius' Beans are about an inch in length ;
their form is ovoid, yet by mutual pressure it is rendered very irre-
gular, and they are 3-, 4-, or 5-sided, bluntly angular, or flattish, with a
conspicuous hilum at one end. In the fresh state, they are covered
with silvery adpressed hairs : portions of* a shaggy brown epidermis
are here and there perceptible on those found in commerce, but in
the majority the seed shows the dull grey, granular surface of the
albumen itself.
Notwithstanding the different outward appearance, the structure of
St. Ignatius' Beans accords with that of nux vomica. The radicle how-
ever is longer, thicker, and frequently somewhat bent, and the cotyle-
dons are more pointed. The horny brownish albumen is translucent.
^ Flora Cochinchinensis, ed. Willd. i.
(1793) 155.
- Flora de Filipinas, ed. 2. 1845. Gl.
^ London Med. and Phys. Journ.
January 1832.
■* The only specimen of the fruit I have
seen was in the possession of my late
friend Mr. Morson. It measured exactly
4 inches in diameter, and when opened
(15 January 1872) was found to contain 17
mature, well-formed seeds, with remnants
of dried pulp. — D.H. I have seen another
one in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. — F. A. F.
' Reisen in den PhiUppinen, Berlin, 1873.
213.
^ Apparatus Medica,minnm,Y\. (1792)2G.
T Phil. Trans, xxi. (1699) 44. 87; Ray,
Hist. Plant, iii. lib. 31. 118.
^ The Philippines were unknown to the
Europeans of the Middle Ages. They were
discovered by Magellan in 1521, but their
conquest by the Spaniards was not efiec-
tually commenced until 1565. Previous
to tlie Spanish occupation, they were
governed by petty chiefs, and were fre-
quented for the purposes of commerce by
Japanese, Chinese, and Malays.
Martiny, Encyklopiidie der Roliwaaren-
I'lindc; i. (1843) 576.
RADIX SPIGELI^.
433
very hard, and difficult to split. The whole seed swells considerably
by prolonged digestion in warm water, and has then a heavy, earthy
smell. The beans are intensely liitter and highly poisonous.
Microscopic Structure — The hairs of the epidermis are of an
analogous structure, but more simple than in nux vomica. The albumen
and cotyledons agree in structural features with those of the same parts
in nux vomica.
Chemical Composition — Strychnine exists to the extent of about
15 per cent. ; the seeds also contain O o per cent, of brucine. Dried
over sidphuric acid and burnt with soda-lime, it yielded us an average
of r78 per cent, of nitrogen, which would answer to about 10 per cent,
of albuminoid matter.
Commerce — We have no information as to the collection of the
drug. The seeds are met with irregularly in English trade, being
sometimes very abundant, at others scarcely obtainable.
Uses — The same as those of nux vomica. When procurable at a
moderate price, the seeds are valued for the manvifacture of strychnine.
RADIX SPIGELI^.
Radix Spigelice Marilandicce ; Indian Pink Root, Carolina Pink
Root, Spigelia}
Botanical Origin — Spigelia marilandica L., an herbaceous plant
about a foot high, indigenous in the woods of North America, from
Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and southward. According to Wood and
Bache, it is collected chiefly in the Western and South-western States.
History — The anthelminthic properties of the root, discovered by the
Indians, were brought to notice in Europe about the year 1754 by
Linning, Garden, and Chalmers, physicians of Charleston, South Carolina.
The drvig was admitted to the London Pharmacopoeia in 1788.
Description — Pink root has a near resemblance to serpentary, con-
sisting of a short, knotty, dark brown rhizome emitting slender wiry
roots. It is quite wanting in the peculiar odour of the latter drug, or
indeed in any aroma; in taste it is slightly bitter and acrid. Sometimes
the entire plant with its quadrangular stems a foot high is imported.
It has opposite leaves about 3 inches long, sessile, ovate-lanceolate,
acuminate, smooth or pubescent.
Microscopic Structure — The transverse section of the rhizome,
about -fjj of an inch in diameter, shows a small woody zone enclosing a
large pith of elliptic outline, consisting of thin-walled cells. Usually
the central tissue is decayed. In the roots, the middle cortical layer
predominates; it swells in water, after which its large cells display fine
spiral markings. The nucleus-sheath observable in serpentary is
wanting in spigelia.
Chemical Composition — Not satisfactorily known: the vessels of
the wood contain resin, the parenchyme starch; in the cortical part of
the rhizome some tannic matters occur, but not in the roots. Feneulle
^ Pink Root is sometimes erroneously latinized in price-lists, "Radix cari/ophylli."
2 E
4:14
GENTIANE^.
(1828) asserts that the drug yields a little essential oil. The experi-
ments of Bureau' show that spigelia acts on rabbits and other animals
as a narcotico-acrid poison.
Uses — Spigelia has long been reputed a most efficient medicine for
the expulsion of Ami)-i>i lmnh)-tcoklePi, but according to Stille,'-^ its real
value for this purpose has probably been over-estimated. This author
speaks of it as possessing alterative and tonic properties. In Eiigland, it
is rarely prescribed by the I'egular practitioner, but is used as a household
medicine in some districts. It is much employed in the United States.
GENTIANE^.
RADIX GENTIANiE.
Gentian Root; F. Bacive de Gent'ume ; G. Enz'mvvmrzel.
Botanical Origin — GcntidiKi luted L., a handsome perennial herb,
growing 'i feet high indigenous to open grassy places on the mountains
of Middle and Southern Europe. It occurs in Portugal, Spain, the
Pyrenees, in the i,slands of Sardinia and Corsica, in the Apennines, the
mountains of Auvergne, the Jura, the Vosges, the Black Forest, and
throughoiit the chain of the Alps as far as Bosnia and the Danubian
Principalities. Among the mountains of Germany, it is found on tlie
Suabian Alps near Wurzburg, and here and there in Thuringia, but not
further north, nor does it occur in the British Islands.
History — The name Gentiana is said to be derived from Gentius, a
king of the Illyi-ians, living B.C. 180-107, by whom, according to both
Pliny and Dioscorides, the plant was noticed. Whether the species
thus named was Gent land Intea is doubtful. Durino- the middle ag-es,
gentian was commonly employed for the cure of disease, and as an
antidote to poison. Tragus in 1552 mentions it as a means of diluting
wounds, an application which has been resorted to in modern medical
practice.
Description — The plant has a cylindrical, fleshy, simple root, of
pale colour, occasionally almost as much as 4 feet in length by 1| inches
in thickness, producing 1 to 4 aerial stems.
The dried root of commerce is in irregular, contorted pieces, several
inches in length, and J to 1 inch in thickness; the pieces are much
wrinkled longitudinally, and marked transversely, especially in their
upper portion, with numerous rings. Very often they are split
to facilitate drying. They are of a yellowish brown; internally of a
more orange tint, spongy, with a peculiar, disagreeable, heavy odoiu-,
and intensely bitter taste. The crown of the root, which is somewhat
thickened, is clothed with the scaly bases of leaves. The root is tough
and flexible, — brittle only immediately after drying. We found it to
lose in weight about 18 per cent, by complete drying in a water- bath;
it regained IG per cent, by being afterwards exposed to the air.
' De la famille des Lo(janiacees, 185G.
130.
- TherapeutkH and Matfiikt Mexlica,
Philadelphia, ii. (18G8) Col.
RADIX GENTIANS.
485
Microscopic Structure — A transverse section shows the bark
separated by a dark cambial zone from the central colnnin ; the radial
arrangement of the tissues is only obvious in the latter part. In the
bark, liber fibres are wanting ; and in the centre there is no distinct
pith. The fibro-vascular bundles are devoid of thick-walled ligneous
prosenchyme ; this may explain the consistence, and the short even
fracture of the root. It is moreover remarkable on account of the
absence both of starch and oxalate of calcium; the cells appear to
contain chiefiy sugar and a little fat oil.
Chemical Composition — The bitter taste of gentian is due to a
substance called Gentiopicrln ov Gentian-hitter, C'"H''"0''. Several
chemists, as Henry, Caventou, Trommsdorff, Leconte and Dulk have
described the bitter principle of gentian in an impure state, under the
name of Gentidnin, but Kromayer in 18(j2 first obtained it in a state
of purity. Gentiopicrin is a neutral body crystallizing in colourless
needles, which readily dissolve in water. It is soluble in spirit of wine,
but in absolute alcohol only when aided by heat; it does not dissolve
in ether. A solution of caustic potash or soda forms with it a yellow
solution. Under the influence of a dilute mineral acid, gentiopicrin is
resolved into glucose, and an amorphous, yellowish-brown, neutral sub-
stance, named Gentiogenin. Fresh gentian roots yield somewhat more
than y\ per cent, of gentiopicrin ; from the dried root it could not be
ol)tained in a crystallized state. The medicinal Tincture of Gentian,
mixed with solution of caustic potash, loses its bitterness in a few days,
probably in consequence of the destruction of the gentiopicrin.
Anotlier constituent of gentian root is Gentianin or gentisin
CUHioQ-' or (OH)2C«H^.CO.C«H2 ^ O . It forms tasteless yellowish
prisms, sparingly soluble in alcohol, reqiiiring about 5000 parts of
water for solution. With alkalis it yields intensely yellow crystalliz-
able compounds, which, however, are easily decomposed already by
carbonic acid. Gentianin may be sublimed if carefully heated at 250° C.
By melting it with caustic potash, acetic acid, phloroglucin,
C'^H3(0H)», and oxysalicylic acid, C«H'YPH)2C00H, are produced, as
shown in 1875 by Hlasiwetz and Habermann. The name of gentianic
(icid or gentisinic acid had been applied to the oxysalicylic acid obtained
by the above decomposition before it was identified with oxysalicylic
acid from other sources.
Gentian root abounds in pectin ; it also contains, to the extent of 12
to 15 per cent., an uncrystallizable sugar, of which advantage is taken
in Southern Bavaria and Switzerland for the manufacture by fermenta-
tion and distillation of a potable spirit.' This use of gentian and its
consumption in medicine have led to the plant being almost extirpated
in some parts of Switzerland where it formerly abounded.
The experiments of Maisch (187G) and Ville (1877) have shown
tannic matters to be absent from the root.
Commerce — Gentian root finds its way into English commerce
through the German houses ; and Some is shipped from Mai'seilles. The
quantity imported into the United Kingom in 1870 was 1100 cwt.
'Th. Martins, Pharm. Journ. xii. (1853) 371.
436
GENTIANEyE.
Uses — Gentian is much used in medicine as a bitter tonic. Grounc
to powder, the root is an ingredient in some of the compositions sold foi
feeding cattle.
Substitutes — It can hardly be said that gentian is adulterated, yei
the roots of several other species possessing similar properties are occa
sionally collected ; of these we may name the following : —
1. Gentiana pur2yurea L. — This species is found in Alpine meadow;
of the Apennines, Savoy and Switzerland, in Transylvania, and in South
western Norway ; a variety also in Kamtchatka.^ The root is frequently
collected f it attains at most 18 inches in length and a diameter o:
about 1 inch at the summit, from which arise 8 to 10 aerial stem!^
clothed below with many scaly remains of leaves. The top of th(
root has thus a peculiar branched appearance, never found in the roo
of G. hitea, with which in all other respects that of G. 'purpurea agrees
The latter is perhaps even more intensely bitter.
2. G. punctata L. — Nearly the same description applies to thi
species, which is a native of the Alps of South-Eastern France, Savoj
the southern parts of Switzerland, extending eastward to Austris
Hungary and Roumelia.
3. G. pannonica Scop. — a plant of the mountains of Austria, un
known in the Swiss Alps, has a root which does not attain the lengtl
or the thickness of the root of G. j^urjmrea, with which it agrees ii
other respects. It is officinal in the Austrian Pharmacopoeia.
4. G. Cateshaii Walter (G. Saponaria L.) — indigenous in the Uiiite'
States. Its root, usually not exceeding 3 inches in length by \ inch i:
diameter, has a very thin woody column within a spongy whitis'
cortical tissue and a bright yellow epidermis. This root is less bitte
than the above enumerated drugs ; the same remark applies also t
those European Gentianae which like G. Cateshaii are provided wit
blue flowers.
HERBA CHIRATiE.
Herha Chirettce vel Chiraytcv ; Chiretta or Chirayta.
Botanical Origin — Ophelia^ Chirata Grisebach (Gentiana Chii
ayita Roxb.), an annual herb of the mountainous regions of Norther
India from Simla through Kumaon to the Murung district in South
eastern Nepal.
History — Chiretta has long been held in high esteem by th
Hindus, and is frequently mentioned in the writings of Susruta. ]
is called in Sanscrit Kirdta-tikta, which means the hitter plant c
the Kirdtus, the Kiratas being an outcast race of mountaineers in th
north of India. In England, it began to attract some attention abou
^Grisebach (Die Vegetation' der Erde, i.
1872. 223) gives very interesting particulars
relating to the area of growth of Oentiatta
jiurpurea, G. punctata and G, pannonica.
He is decidedly of the opinion that they
are distinct species.
* In Norway it is, strange to say, called
sweetroot, "iS'o^roi," according to Schiibele
PJlanzenioelt Norweoens, 1873-1875, p. 25£
3 'O-pLWtiu, to bless, in allusion to tl
medical virtues of the herb. — Fig. i
Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, part
(1876),
MERBA chirat^.
437
the year 1829 ; and in 1839 was introduced into the Edinburgh Pharma-
copoeia. The plant was first described by Roxburgh in 1814.
Chiretta Avas regarded by Guibourt as the Cahtmus aromaticus of
the ancients, but the improbability of this being connect was well
pointed out by Fee' and by Royle, and is now generally admitted.
Description— The entire plant is collected when in flower, or more
comuionly when the capsules are fully formed, and tied up with a slip
of bamboo into fiattish bundles of about 3 feet lona:,^ each weiffbino: when
dry from li to 2 lb. The stem, j% to of an inch in thickness, is of
an orange-brown, sometimes of a dark purplish colour ; the tapering
simple root, often much exceeding the stem in thickness, is 2 to 4 inches
long and up to \ an inch thick. It is less frequently branched, but
always provided with some rootlets. In stronger specimens, the root is
somewhat oblique or geniculate ; perha,ps the stem is in this case the
product of a second year's growth and the plant not strictly annual.
Each plant usually consists of a single stem, yet occasionally two
or more spring from a single root. The stem rises to a height of 2 to 3
feet, and is cylindrical in its lower and middle "portion, but bluntly
quadrangular in its upper, the four edges being each marked with a
prominent deciuTent line, as in Erythrcea Centaurium and many other
plants of the order. Tlie decussate ramification resembles that of other
gentians ; its stems are jointed at intervals of li to 3 or 4 inches,
bearing opposite semi-amplexicaul leaves on their cicatrices. The stem
consists in its lower portion of a large woody column, coated with a
very thin rind, and enclosing a comparatively lai-ge pith. The upper
parts of the stem and branches contain a broad ring of thick-walled
woody parenchyme. The numerous slender axillary and opposite
branches are elongated, and thus constitute a dense umbellate panicle.
They are smooth and glabrous, of a greenish or brownish grey colour.
The leaves are ovate-acuminate, cordate at the base, entire, sessile,
the largest 1 inch or more in length, 3- to 5- or 7-nerved, the midrib
being strongest. At each division of the panicle there are two small
bracts. The yellow corolla is rotate, 4-lobed, with glandular pits above
the base ; the calyx is one-third the length of the petals, which are
about half an inch long. The one-celled, bivalved capsule contains
numerous seeds.
The flowers share the intense bitterness of the whole drug. The
wood of stronger stems is devoid of the bitter principles.
Chemical Composition— A chemical examination of chiretta has
been made at our request under the direction of Professor Ludwig of
Jena, by his assistant Mr. Hohn. The chief results of this careful and
elaborate investigation may be thus described.^
Among the bitter principles of the drug, Ophelic Acid, C^H'^O",
occurs in the largest proportion. It is an amorphous, viscid, yellow
substance, of an acidulous, persistently bitter taste, and a faint gentian-
like odour. With basic acetate of lead, it produces an abundant yellow
precipitate. Ophelic acid does not form an insoluble compound with
tannin ; it dissolves in water, alcohol and ether. The first solution
^ Conrs (V Ilistoire vat. pharmo.ceutiquo,
ii. (1828) 395.
^ The other kinds of chiretta to be named
presently are usually much shorter.
■' For full details, see Archiv der Phar-
mack, 189 (1869) 229.
438
CONVOLVULAOE^.
causes the separation of protoxide of copper from an alkaline tartrate of
that metal.
A second bitter principle, Chimtin, C^^H^^O^^ may be removed by
means of tannic acid, with which it forms an insoluble compound.
Chiratin is a neutral, not distinctly crystalline, light yellow, hygro-
scopic powder, soluble in alcohol, ether and in warm water. By boiling
hychx)chloric acid, it is decomposed into Chiratogenm, C^^H'-^O"*, and
ophelic acid. Chiratogenin is a brownish, amorphous substance, soluble
in alcohol but not in water, nor yielding a tannic compound. No
sugar is formed in this decomposition.
These results exhibit no analogy to those obtained in the analysis
of the European gentians. Finally, Hohn remarked in chiretta a
crystallizable, tasteless, yellow substance, but its quantity was so
minute that no investigation of it could be made.
The leaves of chiretta, dried at 100° C, atibrded 7"5 percent, of ash
the stems 3"7 ; salts of potassium and calcium prevailing in both.
Uses.- — Chiretta is a pure bitter tonic, devoid of aroma and astrin-
gency. In intense bitterness it exceeds gentian, Erythnm and other
European plants of the same order. It is nuich valued in India, but \h
not very extensively used in England, and not at all on the Continent.
It is said to be employed when cheap, in place of gentian, to impari
flavour to the compositions now sold as Cattle Foods.
Substitutes and Adulteration — Some other species of Ophelia
namely, 0. angustifolia Don, 0. de7)sifoli(i Griseb., 0. elegans Wight
0. pulchella Don, and 0. viultijiora Dalz, two or three species ol
Exacum, besides Androgmphis jmniculata Wall., are more or lese
known in the Indian bazaars by the name of GJiiretta^ and posses?
to a greater or less degree the bitter tonic properties of that drug
Another Gentianacea, Slevogtia oriental is Griseb., is called Chota
Chiretta, i.e. small chiretta. It wovUd exceed due limits were we tc
describe each of these plants : we have therefore given a somewhat
detailed description of the true chiretta, which will suffice for its identi-
fication. We have frequently examined the chiretta found in the
English market, but have never met with any other than the legitimate
sort.'-^ Bentley noticed in 1874 the substitution of Ophelia angustofolia
which he found to be by far less bitter than true chiretta.
CONVOLVULACE^.
SCAMMONIUM.
Scammony ; F. Scammone'e ; G. Scavimoniu'in-.
Botanical Origin — Con volvidus Scaimnovia L., a twining plant
much resembling the common C. arvensis of Europe, but differing
from it in being of larger size, and having a stout tap-root. It occur.^
^ Moodeen Sheriff, Suppl. to the, Phnrma-
copma of India, 1869. pp. 138. 189.— Con-
.sult also Phaniiar()p(i:i(t "f India, 1868. pp.
148-9.
- Mr. E. A. Webb has pointed out a cast
of false-packing in which the roots ol
Ruhid cordifo/ia L. (Muujit) had been en-
closed in the bundles of chiretta.
SCAMMONIUM.
4:3!)
ill waste bushy places in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, the Greek Islands,
extending northward to the Crimea and Southern Russia, hut appears
to be wanting in Northern Africa, Italy, and in all the western parts
of the Mediterranean basin.
History — The dried milky juice of the scammony plant has been
known as a medicine from very ancient times. Theophrastus in the 3rd
century B.C. was acquainted with it; it was likewise familiar to
Dioscorides, Pliny, Celsus, and Rufus of Ephesus, each of whom has
given some account of the manner in which it was collected. Scam-
mony used then also to be called Dtdjjrydiov, from the Greek word
Sc'iKpu. tear. The media3val Arabian physicians also knew scannnony
and the plant from which it is derived. The drug was used in Britain
in the 10th and 11th centuries, and would appear to be one of the
medicines recommended to King Alfred the Great, by Helias, patriarch
of Jerusalem.' It is repeatedly named in the medical writings in use
prior to the Norman conquest (a.d. 106G), in one of which directions
are given for recognizing the goodness of the drug by the white
enuxlsion it pi'oduces when wetted.
The botanists of the 16th and I7th centuries, as Brunfels, Gesner,
Matthiolus, DodonjBus, and the Bauhins, described and figured the
plant partly under the name of Scamraonia syriaca. The collecting
of the drug was well described by Russell, an English physician of
Aleppo (l7o2), whose account- is accompanied by an excellent figure
representing the plant and the means of obtaining its juice.
Scammony was formerly distinguished by the names Alej^po and
Smi/i'ua, the former sort being twice or thrice as costly as the latter ;
at the present day Aleppo scannnony has (piitc lost its pre-eminence.
Localities producing the drug — Scannnony is collected in Asia
Minor, from Brussa and Boli in the north, to Macri and Adalia in the
south, and eastward as far as Angora. But the most productive
localities within this area are the valley of the Mendereh, south
of Smyrna: and the districts of Kirkagach and Demirjik, north of that
town. The neighbourhood of Aleppo likewise affords the drug. A
little is obtained further south in Syria, from the woody hills and
valleys about the lake of Tiberias and Mount Carmel.
Production — The scammony plant has a long woody root, which
throws off downwards a few lateral branches, and produces from its
knotty summit numerous twining stems which are persistent and
woody at the base. In plants of three or four years old, the root may
be an inch or more in diameter ; in older specimens it sometimes
acquires a diameter of three or four inches. In length, it is from two
to three feet, according to the depth of soil in which it grows. When
the root is wounded, there exudes a milky juice which dries up to a
' Such is the opinion expressed by the
Rev. O. Cockayne. The letter of Helias to
Alfred is imperfect, and mentions only bal-
sam, petroleum, theriaka, and a white stone
used as a charm. But from the reference
to these four articles in another part of the
MS., in connection with scammonj', amnio-
niacum, tragacanth, and galhanum, there
is ground lor believing that tlie latter
(Syrian and Persian) drugs were included
in the lost part of the patriarch's letti )■.
— See Leeclnlom^. Wortritntiini/ mid Stur-
crnft. of Eorli/ Ennkinil, edited by Coc-
kayne (Master of the Rolls Series), vol. ii.
pages xxiv. 289. 17o, also 273. 281.
- Medical Oh.^ercaiions and Injiiirie--; i.
(1757) 12.
440
CONVOLVULACE^.
golden-brown, transparent, gummy-looking substance : — this is
scammony}
The method followed in collecting scammony for use appears to be
nearly the same in all localities. It has been thus described to ns by
two eye-witnesses, both long resident in the East.^ Operations com-
mence by clearing away the bushes among which the plant is commonly
found ; the soil arovmd the latter is then removed, so as to leave 4 or 5
inches of the root exposed. This is then cut off in a slanting direction
at 2 to 4 inches below the crown, and a mussel-shell is stuck into it just
beneath the lowest edge, so as to receive the milky-sap which instantly
flows out. The shells are usually left till evening, when they are col-
lected, and the cut part of the root scraped with a knife, so as to remove
any partially dried drops of juice. These latter are called by the
Smyrna peasants, kaimnk or cream, the softer contents of the shell being
called gcila or milk.
Sometimes the scammony is allowed to dry in the shell, and such
must be regarded as representing the drug in its utmost perfection.
But scammony in shells is not brought into commerce, though a little
of it is reserved by the peasants for their own use.
The contents of the shells and the scraped-ofl* drops are next emptied
into a covered copper pot or a leathern bag, carried home, made homo-
genous by mixing with a knife, and at once allowed to dry. In this
way a form of scammony is obtained closely approaching that dried in
the shell. But it is a quality of exceptional goodness. Usually the
peasant does not dry off the juice promptly, l»ut allows his daily gather-
ings to accumulate ; and when he has collected a pound or two, he
places it in the sunshine to soften, and then kneads it, sometimes with
the addition of a little water, into a plastic mass, which he lastly allows
to dry. By this long exposure to heat, and retention in a liquid state,
the scammony juice undergoes fermentation, acquires a strong cheesy
odour and dark colour, and when finally dried, exhibits a more or less
porous or bubbly structure, never observable in shell scammony.
Scammony is very extensively adulterated. The adulteration is
often performed by the peasants, who mix foreign substances into the
drug while it is yet soft ; and it is also effected by the dealers, some of
whom purchase it of the peasants in a half-dried state. The svibstances
used for sophistication are numerous, the commonest and most easily
detected being, according to our experience, carbonate of lime and flour.
Woodashes, earth (not always calcareous), gum arabic, and tragacanth
are also employed ; more rarely, wax, yolk of egg, pounded scammony
roots, rosin, or black-lead.
Description — The pure juice of the root, simply dried by exposure
to the sun and air, is an amorphous, transparent, brittle substance, of
resinous aspect, a yellowish-brown colour, and glossy fracture. Scam-
mony possessing these characters is occasionally met with in the form
of flattish irregular masses, about ^ to f of an inch in thickness, very
brittle by reason of internal fissures, yet Avith but few air-cavities. In
' Named probably from ^hun/ia, a trench
or in allusion to the excavation made
around the root.
- The one was the late Mr. S. H. Maltass
of Smyrna, whose interesting paper may be
found in Pharm. Jonrn. xiii. (1854) 264 ;
the other is Mr. Edward T. Rogers, formerly
of Caiffa, now (1874) British Consul at
Cairo.
SCAMMONIUM.
44-1
mass, it is of a chesnvit-brown, but in small fragments it is seen to be
very pale yellowish-brown and transparent, with the freshly fractured
surface vitreous and shining. When powdered it is of a very light
buff'. Rubbed with the moistened finger it forms a white emulsion.
Treated with ether it yields 88 to 90 per cent, of soluble matter, and a
nearly colourless residuum. This scammony, as well as the pure juice
in the shell, is very liable to become mouldy ; but besides this, it throws
out, if long kept, a white, mammillated, crystalline efflorescence, the
nature of which we have not been able to determine. But if scammony
is kept quite dry, neither mouldiness nor efflorescence makes its
appearance.
The ordinary fine scammony of commerce, known as Virgin Scam-
movy, is also in large flat pieces or irregular flattened lumps and frag-
ments, which in mass have a dark-grey or blackish hue. Viewed in
thin fragments, it is seen to be translucent and of a yellowish-brown.
It is very easily broken, exhibits a shining fracture, gives an ashy grey
powder, and has a peculiar cheesy odour. Some of the pieces have a
porous, bubbly structure, indicative of fermentation ; the more solid
often show the efflorescence already mentioned. Scammony has not
much taste, but leaves an acrid sensation in the throat.
Chemical Composition — Scannnony owes its active properties as
a medicine to a resin shown (18G0) by Spirgatis to be identical with
that found in the root of the Mexican Ipomcea orizabensis, known in
commerce as Male Jdlap: this resin Jala pin will be described in
the next article. The other constituents of pure scammony are not well
known. One of them is the substance which, as already stated, makes
its appearance as small masses of cauliflower crystals on the surface of
pure scammony, when the latter is kept in air not perfectly dry.
Whether the odour observable in commercial scammony is due to a
volatile fatty acid developed by fermentation, is a question still to be
investigated.
Commerce — The export of scammony from Smyrna amounted in
1871 to 278 cases, valued at £8320 ; in 1872 to 185 cases, value £6100.
According to a report of Consul Skene on the trade of Northern Syria,^
737 cases of scammony were exported from the province of Aleppo in
1872, — six-sevenths of the quantity being for England. Li 1873
Aleppo exported by way of Alexardretta to England 46,500 kilo-
grammes of scammony root and 900 kilogrammes of the resin, the
latter being valued at 36,000 francs (£1444).
An establishment at Brussa, founded by Delia Sudda, of Constanti-
nople, is stated to export since 1870 a very good scammony resin
extracted by alcohol.^
Uses — Employed as an active cathartic, often in combination with
colocynth and calomel.
Adulteration — Scammony is very of ten imported in an adulterated
state, but the adulteration is so clumsily effected, and is so easily dis-
coverable by simple tests, or even by ocular examination, that druggists
have but little excuse for accepting a bad article.
We have already named the substances used in the sophistication of
' Presented to Parliament, July 1873.
-Dragendorff's /«/(jTsZ'er/c/i<, 1876. 158.
U2
CONVOLVULACEvli.
.scainniony : of these, the most frequent are carbonate of lime and
farinaceous matter. The lirst may generally be recognized by examining
the fractured surfaceof tliedrug witha good lens^ when thewhite particles
of the carbonate will be perceived. If the surface is then touched
(while still sub lenti') witli hydrochloric acid, effervescence will prove the
presence of a carbonate. Other earthly adidterants can be discovered
by incineration, or by examining the residue of the drug after treatment
with ether. Starchy substances, the presence of which may be surmised
by the scauunony being difficult to break, are detectable by the micro-
scope or l)y solution of iodine, a cold decoction of scammony not being
affected by that reagent. Scammony that is ponderous, didl and clayey,
not easily broken in the fingers, or which when broken does not exhibit
a clean, glossy surface, or which does not afford at least 80 per cent, of
matter soluble in ether, should be rejected. That which is made up in
the form of hard, dark, circular cakes is widely difi'erent from pure
scammony.
Scammony may be distinguished from Renin of Saiiiimony by its
property of forming an emulsion when wetted. The resin is also more
glossy and almost entirely soluble in ether.
Radix Scammoniae.
The frauds commonly practised on the scauunony of commerce have
given rise to various schemes for obtaining the drug in a purer form, as
well as at a more moderate price.^
So far back as 18-39, the Edinbiu-gh College prescribed a ResiiKi
Saimmonil, which was prepared by exhausting scammony withasjiirit
of wine, distilling off the spirit, and washing the residue with water.
Such an extract was manufactured by the late Mr. Maltass of Smyrna,
and occasionally shipped to London.
In consequence of a suggestion made by Mr. Clark, manufacturer of
liquorice at Sochia near Scala Nuova, south of Smyrna, a patent was
taken out (18.5()) by Prof. A. W. Williamson of London, for preparing this
resin dii'ectly from the dried root by means of alcohol. The same
chemist shortly aftei'wards devised an improved process, which consists
in boiling the roots first with water and then with dilute acid, so as to
deprive them of all matters soluble in those menstrua, and afterwards
extracting the resin by alcohol.
Resin of Scammony, obtained either from scammony or from the
dried root, is ordered in the British P/uirmacoixeia of 18G7, and is
manufactured by a few houses. It is a brown, translucent, brittle sub-
stance of resinous fracture, entirely soluble in ether, and not forming
an emulsion when wetted with water.
Scammony root is occasionally bi-ought into the London market,
sometimes in rather lai'ge quantity,'^ but it is not generally kept by
druggists, nor do we find it quoted in price-currents. Its collection is
even opposed in some parts of Turkey by the local authorities.^
' Scammony was quoted in a London
price-current, April 1874, at 8.s'. to .3!)s.
per Ih , Kesiii of .Scammony at 14.s. per 11).
- Thus 100 1) lies were offereil in a drug
sale, 3 July 1873.
Such was the case at Alejipo, as we
know by a private letter from Mr. CVmsul
Skene.— D. H.
RADIX JALAPS.
443
The root consists of stout, woody, cylindrical pieces, often spirally
twisted, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, covered with a rough, furrowed,
greyish-brown bark. They are internally pale brown, tough and resin-
ous, with a faint odour and taste resembling jalap. A good sample
yielded us a^, per cent, of resin; Kingzett and Farries (1877) showed
the root to be devoid of an alkaloid.
RADIX JALAPiE.
Tuber JalapLii ; Jalap, Ver(t Cruz Jalap; F. Racine <le Jalap;
G. Jalape.
Botanical Origin — Ipomoia Punja Hayne {Convulvulu.s Panja
Wenderoth, Ejxxjun'nim Purga Bentham), a tuberous-rooted plant,
throwing out herbaceous, twining stems, clothed with cordate-acuminate
sharply auricled leaves, and bearing elegant salver-shaped, deep pink
flowers. It grows naturally on the eastern declivities of the Mexican
Andes, at an elevation above the sea of 5000 to <S000 feet, especially about
C'liiconcjuiaco and the adjacent villages, and also around San Salvador
on the eastern slope of the Cofre de Perote. In these localities where
rain falls almost daily, and where the divu'nal teinperatiire varies from
15° to 24° C. (60° to 75° F.), the plant occurs in shady woods, flourishing
in a deep rich vegetable soil.
The jalap grows freely in the south of England, if planted in a
sheltered border, but its flowers are produced so late in autumn that
they rarely expand, and the tubeivs, which develope in some abundance,
are liable to be destroyed in winter unless protected from frost.
The plant has been introduced on the INeilgherry Hills in the south
of India ; it succeeds there remarkably well,' and might be extensively
propagated if there were any adequate inducemeiit.
History — The use as a purgative of the tuber of a convolvulaceous
plant of Mexico, was made known by the early Spanish voyagers ; and
so highly was the new drug esteemed that large quantities of it reached
Europe during the IGth century.
Monardes, writing in 1565, says the new drug was called Ruyharho
de las Indias or Ruybai ho de Mec/ioaca/ii, the latter name being given in
allusion to the province of Michoacan whence the supplies were derived.
Some writers have advanced the opinion that mechoacan root was the
modern jalap, but in this we do not concur, for the description given of
mechoacan and the place of its production do not apply well to jalap.
Both drugs were moreover well known about 1610 ; they were perfectly
distinguished by Colin, an apothecary of Lyons (1619), who mentions
jalap (" racine de lalap ") as then newly brought to France." They were
however often confounded, or at least only distinguished by their differ-
ence of tint. Thus jalap, which at that period used to be imported cut
into transverse slices,^ was termed, from its darker colour, Black
' Thus at Ootacainund, Air. Broiighton,
ill a lettei' to one of us (15 January 1870),
speaks of receiving "a cluster of tubeis "
weighing over 9 lb., and remarks that tlie
plant grows as easily as yam.
Monardes, Hint, des Medicament, trad,
par Colin, ed. 2. 16. — The 'first edi-
tion of this work seems to be unknown.
^ Hill, llktonj of the Mat. Mnl. Lond.
1751. 549.
444
CONVOLVULACEiE.
Mechoacan ; and on the other hand, the paler mechoacan was in later
times known as White Jahip.
Mechoacan root is now known to consist (at least in part) of the large
thick tuber of Tpomoea Jalapa Pursh {Batatas Jalapoj Choisy), a plant
of the Southern United States and Mexico. As a drug it has been long
obsolete in Europe, having given place to jalap, which is a more active
and efficient purgative.
The botanical source of jalap was not dehnitely asccertained until
about the year 1829, when Dr. Coxe of Philadelphia published a
description and coloured figure, taken from living plants sent to him
two years previously from Mexico.'
Manner of Growth — Though we have cultivated the jalap plant
for many years, we have had no opportunity of examining the seedling,
but judging from analogy suppose that it has at first a small tap-root
which gradually thickens after the manner of a radish. A root of jalap,
called by some tuber and by others tuhercule, throws out in addition to
aerial stems, slender, prostrate, underground shoots which emit roots at
intervals. These roots while but an inch or two long become thickened
and carrot-shaped, gradually enlarging into napiform tuber-like bodies,
which emit a few rootlets from their surface and taper off" below in long,
slender ramifications. The thickened roots have no trace of leaf-organs;
the aerial stems grows from the shoot from which they originated.
Fresh jalap roots (tubers) are externally rough and dark brown,
internally white and fleshy.
Collection — Jalap is said to be dug up in Mexico during the whole
year.' The smaller roots are dried entire; the larger are cut transvei'sely,
or are gashed so that they may dry more easily. As drying by sun-heat
would be almost impracticable owing to the wetness of the climate, the
roots are placed in a net, and suspended over the almost constantly
burning hearth of the Indian's hut, where they gradually dry, and at the
same time often contract a smoky smell. Much of the jalap that has of
late arrived has been more freely sliced than usual, and has obviously
been dried with less difficulty.
According to Schiede, whose account was written in 1829,^ the Indians
of Chiconquiaco were at that period commencing the cultivation of jalap
in their gardens.
Description — The jalap of commerce consists of irregular, ovoid
roots, varying fi'om the size of an egg to that of a hazel-nut, but occa-
sionally as large as a man's fist. They are usually pointed at the lower
end, deeply wrinkled, contorted and furrowed, and of a dark-brown hue,
dotted over with numerous little, elongated, lighter coloured scars,
running transversely. The large roots are incised lengthwise, or cut
into halves or quarters, but the smaller are usually entire. Some of
the small roots are spindle-shaped or cylindrical ; others can be found
which are nearly globular, smooth and pitchy-looking, but these latter
are seldom solid. Good jalap is ponderous, tough, hard and often horny,
becoming brittle when long kept, and breaking with a resinous non-
' Amcrkan Joitriud of Med. Sckiu-e.-^, v.
(1829) 300. pi. 1-2.
^ It is plain that such a proceeding is
irrational. The roots should be dug up
when the aerial stems have died down.
3 Linnofa, iii. (1830)473; Pharm. Journ.
viii. (1SG7) 6.'i2. — We are not aware of any
more recent account.
RADIX JALAP.E.
445
fibrous fracture; internally it is of a pale dingy brown or dirty white.
It has a faint smoky, rather cotfee-like odour, and a mawkish taste,
followed by acridity.
Microscopic Structure — Seen in transverse section, jalap exhibits
no radiate structure, but numerous small concentric rings, which in
many pieces are very regularly arranged. They are due to the latici-
ferous cells, differing from the surrounding parenchyme only by their
contents and rather large size. These laticiferous cells traverse the
tissue in a vertical direction, constituting vertical bands, as may be
observed on a longitudinal section; the single cells are simply placed
one on the other, and do not form elongated ducts as in Laduca or
Taraxacum.
The fibro-vascular bundles of jalap are neither numei'ous nor large ;
they are accompanied by thin-walled cells, so that firm woody rays do
not occur. Parenchymatous cells are abundant, and, on a longitudinal
fracture especially, if subsequently moistened, are seen to constitute con-
centric layers. The laticiferous cells are always foimd in the outer part
of each layer. The suberous coat with which the drug is covered is
made up of the usual tabular cells.
The parenchyme of jalap is loaded with starch grains; in the pieces
which have been submitted to heat in order to dry them, the starch
appears as an amorphous mass, and the drug then exhibits a horny
consistence and greyish fracture, instead of being mealy. Crystals of
calcium oxalate are frequently met with. The laticiferous cells contain
the resin of jalap in a semi-fluid state, even in the dry drug; drops of
the resinous emulsion flow out of the cells, if thin slices are moistened
by any watery liquid.
Chemical Composition — Jalap owes its medicinal efficacy to a
resin, which is extractable by exhausting the drug with spirit of wine,
concentrating the alcoholic solution to a small bulk, and pouring it into
water. The resin precipitated in this manner is then washed and dried ;
it is contained in jalap to the extent of 12 to 18 per cent.'
From this crude resin, which is the Resma jalajKu of the pharma-
copoeias, ether or chloroform extracts 5 to 7 (12, Umney) per cent, of a
resin which, according to Kayser,"^ partially solidifies when in contact with
water in crystalline needles. We can by no means confirm Kayser's state-
ment. The residue (insoluble in ether) is one of the substances to which
the name Jalapin has been applied.'' W. Mayer, 1852-1855, who desig-
nated it Convolvuliv,* found it to have the composition C^'H^^O'". When
purified, it is colourless; it dissolves easily in ammonia as well as in the
fixed alkalis, and is not re-precipitated by acids, having been converted by
assumption of water into amorphous Convolvulic Acid, which is readily
soluble in water. Both convolvulin and convolvulic acid are resolved by
moderate heating with dilute acids, or with emulsin, into crystallizable
' Guibourt obtained of it 17 per cent.,
Umney 21-5, Squibb 11 to 16, T. and H.
Smith "not more than 15," D. Hanbury 1 1
to 15 8. Jalap grown in Bonn afforded to
Marqiiart 12 per cent. ; a root cultivated at
Munich gave Widnmann 22 per cent. ; from
plants produced in Dublin W. G. Smith
got 9 to 12 per cent. ; and fine tubers from
Ootacamund in India yielded to one of us liS
per cent, of resin. Broughton is of opinion
that exposure of the sliced tuber to the air in
the process of drying, favours the formation
of resin, by the oxidation of a hydrocarbon.
- Gmelin, Chemistry, xvi. (1864) 159.
As by Pereira, EUm. of Mat. Med, ii,
(1850) 1403.
Gmelin, oil cit. xvi. 154.
446
CONVOLVULACEiE.
Covvolral Iriol, C'"H'*"0', and sugar. Convolvulinol in contact with
a(|ueoiLs alkalis is converted into ConvolvalluoUc Acid, C^'^H^^'O",
which is slightly soluble in water and crystallizable.
When convolvulin or its derivatives is treated with nitric acid, it
yields several acids, one of which is the Sebacic Acid, C^H-
which is to be obtained by treating castor oil or other fatty substances
in the same manner. Sebacic acid forms crystalline scales, soluble in
boiling water, melting at 12(S°. That from jalap was first thought to
be a peciijiar acid, and therefore termed ijunnic or 'ipoimeic acid. Its
identification is due to Neison and Bayne (1874).
Convolvulin (dry) melts at 150° C., but a small amount of water
renders it fusible below 100° C. It is insoluble in oil of turpentine and
in anunonia. It dissolves in dilute nitric acid without becoming coloured
or evolving gas. Convolvulin possesses in a high degree the purgative
property of jalap, but this is not the case with convolvulinol.
The other constituents of jalap include starch, uncrystallizable sugar,
gum, and colouring matter. The sugar, according to Guibourt, exists to
the extent of 1!) per cent.
Commerce — We have no means of knowing to what extent jalap
is produced in Mexico. The imports of the drug into the United King-
dom amounted in LSTO to 109,951 lb. Very considerable quantities
have of late (1873) appeared in the London drug-sales.
Uses — Jalap is employed as a brisk cathartic.
Other kinds of Jalap.
Besides true jalap, the roots of certain other Convolvulacr<e of Mexico
have been employed in Europe, either in the form of jalapin, or as adul-
terants of the more costly, legitimate drug. The two following have
been extensively imported and have been traced to their botanical
source ; but there are others, of more occasional occurrence, the origin
of which has not been ascertained.'
1. Light, Fumform, or Woody J(dap, M(de J<dap, Orizaba Root,
Jalaj) Tops or Stcdks, Piuyo macho of the Mexicans.
This drug is derived from Lpomoe-a onzabenais Ledanois,- a plant of
Orizaba, which is but imperfectly known. It is described as a pubescent
climber, having a spindle-shaped root about two feet long of woody
and fibi'ous texture. The drug occurs in irregfular rectano-ular or block-
like pieces, evidently portions of a very large root, divided transversely
and longitudinally. Sometimes it is more like true jalap, being in entire
roots, of smaller size, spindle-shaped, not spherical. It has a somewhat
lighter colour than jalap, and nuich deeper longitudinal wrinkles. The
larger pieces often exhibit deep cuts from an axe or knife ; transverse
slices are of rare occurrence. Although generally less ponderous than
jalap, the Orizaba drug is nevertheless of a compact and often horny
texture. From jalap it is easily distinguished by its radiated transverse
section, and the numerous thick bundles of vessels which project as
woody fibres from the fractured surface.
^ For information about some of these, -Joiini. de Chhnie med. x. (1834) 1-22.
consult (iiiibourt, Histoire des Di-oi/iC'^, ii. pi. 1. 2. (with unsatisfactory figures).
(1809) 523.
jCOOH
1 COOH,
RADIX JALAPyE.
447
In chemical constitution Orizaba root is closely parallel to jalap.
The resin was named by Mayer Jalapln ; it is the Jalapin of Gmelin's
Chemistry (xvi. 40.>), and perhaps the jalapin of English pharmacy. '
In the pure state it is a colourless amorphous translucent resin, dis-
sidrhuj perfi'dly in ctli<n\^ t\\n^ diifering from convolvulin the corres-
ponding resin of jalap. We find that it is readil}^ soluble also in acetone,
amylic alcohol, benzol and phenol, not in bisulphide of carbon. It has
the composition of C'"H"'0"', so that it is homologous with convoh^^din ;
the decomposition-products of jalapin obtained by similar treatment,
namely jalapic acid, jalapinol, and jalapinolic acid, are likewise homo-
logous with the corresponding substances obtained from convolvulin.
All these bodies when treated with nitric acid yield ipomoeic acid.
Jalapin has the same fusing point as convolvulin, and behaves in the
same manner with alkalis.
The root afforded us ITS per cent, of resin dried at 100" C. When
perfectly washed, tlecolorized and dissolved in two parts of alcohol, this
I'esin tuT'ued the plane of polarization of a ray of light 9\S" to the left,
in a column of oO nun. long. Convolvulin under the same conditions
turned it only o'8°. The resin of Orizaba root is held by chemists to
be identical with that of scammony, of which it has the drastic action.
2. Tam])ico Jahip, — Parga de Sierni Gordd of the Mexicans. — The
plant which affords this drug has been described by one of us (18C9)
luider the name of IjM))n(i'<i sim itldiis.^ It is closely related to /. Pargit
Ha^'ne, from which by its foliage it cannot be distinguished, but it has
a bell-sJinped corolla and pendulous fio tve rhad^, which are veiy different.
/. simidiws Hanbury grows in Mexico along the mountain range of the
Sierra Gorda in the neighbourhood of San Luis de la Paz, from which
town and the adjacent villages its roots are carried down to Tampico.
It has also l)een found on the lofty Cordillera near Oaxaca, but whether
there collected we know not.
The drug, to which in trade the name Tampico Jalap is commonly
applied, has been imported during the last few years in considerable
(piantities. In appearance it closely approaches ti'ue jalap, but the roots
are o-enerallv smaller, more elono-ated or finger-like, more shrivelled and
corky-looking, wanting in the little transverse scars that are plentif ally
scattei'ed over the roots of true jalap. Many pieces occur however which
it is impossible to distinguish by the eye from true jalap, with -which it
agrees also in odour and taste.
Tampico jalap yielded to one of us 10 per cent, of 'purified resin,
entii'ely soluble in ether. Umney^ obtained 12 to 15 per cent, of resin
almost wholly soluble in ether ; Evans got 13 per cent., but found only
about half of this to be soluble in ether.^ According to Andouard^ the
resin of Tampico jalap is not deficient in purgative powers.
1 The name is ill-chosen and misleading,
but having been adopted in standard works,
it might occasion greater confusion to
attempt to supersede it, and its several
derivatives.
- It is at least a fact, that of numerous
samples of jalapin that we have examined
(1871), every one is comph'tili/ soluble in
ellier.
■* Hanbury, On a species of Jpomaa,
affording Tampico Jalap, Jimrn. of Linn.
S'jc, Bot. xi. (1871) 279, tab. 2 ; Phann.
Jouni. xi. (187(!) 848 ; Avierlran Jovrn. of
Pharm, xviii. (1870) 330 ; Science Papers,
1876. 349.
* Pharm. Jouru. ix. (1868) 282.
^ I hid. ix. (1868) 330.
''Etude .■iur les Ciinro/rtduc/'es purtjaiires
(these) Paris, 1864. 31.
448
CONVOLVULACE^.
SEMEN KALADANiE.
Semen Pharbitidis ; Kaladmia.
Botanical Origin — Ipomcea iV/Z^ Roth (Pharbltis Nil Choisy,
Convolvidus Nil L.), a twining annual plant, with a large blue corolla,
much resembling the Major Convolvulus (Pharbitis hispida Choisy) of
Eno^lish o-ardens, but having three-lobed leaves.^ It is found throuo-hout
the tropical regions of both hemispheres, and is common in India,
ascending the mountains to a height of 5000 feet.
History — The seeds of this plant were employed in medicine by the
Arabian physicians under the name H<djban-n il ; and they have pro-
bably been long in use among the natives of Hindustan. In recent
times they have been recommended by O'Shaughnessy, Kirkpatrick,
Bidie, Waring^ and many other European practitioners in India as
a safe and efficient cathartic.
Description — The shape of the seeds is that which would resixlt if
a nearly spherical body were divided perpendicularly around its axis
into 6 or 8 almost equal segments, only that the back is less regularly
vaulted. The seeds are \ of an inch high and nearly as much broad ;
100 of theni weigh on an average about 6 grammes. There is a smaller
variety imported from Calcutta, of which 100 seeds weigh but little over
3 grammes ; in every other respect the two sorts are identical. Both
are of a dull black, excepting at the umbilicus, which is brown and
somewhat hairy. The adjacent parts of the thin shell (testa) crack in
various directions, if the seed is kept for a short time in cold water. If
it is removed from the upper part of the vaulted back, the radicle be-
comes visible, surrounded l)y the undulated folds of the cotyledons,
which join perpendicularly, but cannot be easily unfolded by reason of
the thin seminal integument. Cut transversely, the cotyledons show
the same curled structure. Throughout their tissue, small bright
glands in considerable number are observable, even without a lens.
The kernel, which is devoid of albumen, has at first a nutty taste, with
subsequently a disagreeable persistent acridity. When bruised in a
mortar, the seeds evolve a heavy earthy smell.
Microscopic Structure — The seed is covered with a dark blackish
cuticle, formed of a densely packed tissue, the cells of which show
zigzag outlines. The dark brown epidermis is composed of very close
cylindrical cells, about 70 mkm. in length and 5 to 7 mkm. in diameter ;
they require to be treated with chromic acid in order that their structure
may be distinctly seen.
The tissue of the kernels is made up of thick-walled cells. Between
this tissue and the shell there is a colourless layer, about 70 mkm.
thick, of thin-walled corky parenchyme. The cotyledons contain in
their narrow tissue numerous granules of albuminous matter, mucilage,
a little tannic acid, crystals of oxalate of calcium, and a few starch
o-ranules. The aflands or hollows, before alluded to as occurring- through-
' In Hindustani Nil signifies hliw, and
Kala-dana, black seed.
- Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, M<d.
Fhihts, part 22 (1877).
3 Pharm. Journ. vii. (186C) 496.
SEMEN KALADAN^.
449
out the tissue of the cotyledons, are about 70 mkm. in diameter, and
contain an oily liquid.
Chemical Composition — By exhausting the seeds dried at 100° C.
with boilino- ether, we obtained a thick lip-ht-brownish oil having; an
acrid taste and concreting below 18' C. The powdered seeds yielded
of this oil 14 4 per cent. Water removes from the seeds a considerable
amount of mucilage, some albuminous matter and a little tannic acid.
The first is soluble to some extent in dilute spirit of wine, and may be
precipitated therefrom by an alcoholic solution of acetate of lead.
The active principle of kaladana is a resin, soluble in alcohol, but
neither in benzol nor in ether. From the residue of the seeds after
exhaustion by ether, treatment with absolute alcohol removed a pale
yellowish resin in quantity equivalent to 8*2 per cent, of the seed.
Kaladana resin, which has been introduced into medical practice in
India under the name of P/iaj'bitishi,^ has a nauseous acrid taste and an
unpleasant odour, especially when heated. It melts about 160° C. The
following liquids dissolve it more or less freely, namely, spirit of wine,
absolute alcohol, acetic acid, glacial acetic acid, acetone, acetic ether,
methylic and amylic alcohol, and alkaline solutions. It is on the other
hand insoluble in ether, benzol, chloroform, and sulphide of carbon.
With concentrated sulphuric acid, it forms a brownish yellow solution,
quickly assuming a violet hue. This reaction however requires a very
small quantity of the powdered resin. If a solution of the resin in
ammonia, after having been kept a short time, is acidulated, no precipi-
tate is formed ; but the solution is now capable of separating protoxide
of copper from an alkaline solution of the tartrate, which originally it
did not alter. Heated with nitric acid, the resin affords sebacic acid
(see p. 446).
From these reactions of kaladana resin, we are entitled to infer that
it agrees with the resin of jalap or Convolvulin. To prepare it in
quantity, it wovild probably be best to treat the seeds with common
acetic acid, and to precipitate it by neutralizing the solution. We have
ascertained that the resin is not decomposed when digested with glacial
acetic acid at 100° C, even for a week.
We have had the opportunity of examining a sample of kaladana
resin manufactured by Messrs. Rogers and Co., chemists of Bombay and
Poona, which we found to agree with that prepared by ourselves. It
is a light yellowish friable mass, resembling purified jalap resin, and
like it, capable of being perfectly decolorized by treatment with animal
charcoal.
Uses — Kaladana seeds have cathartic powers like jalap. Besides
the re.sin, an extract, tincture and compound powder have been in-
troduced into the Pharmacopceia of India. In many parts of India
the natives take the roasted seeds as a purgative.
^ Pharmacopceia of India, 1868, 156.
2 ]^
450
SOLANACEiE.
SOLANACEJE.
STIPES DULCAMARiE.
Gaules Dulcamara} ; Bitter-sweet, Dulcamara, Woody NightsJiade ;
F. Douce amere, Morelle grimpante ; G. Bittersiisfi.
Botanical Origin — Solanum Dulcamara L., a perennial shrubby
plant, having small purple flowers and red berries, occurring throughout
Europe, except in the extreme north. It is also found in Northern
Africa, and in Asia Minor, and has become naturalized in North America.
It is common in moist, shady hedges and thickets.^
History — Bitter nightshade, " manyglog," was an ingredient,
together with wild sage and betony, of a drink which the Welsh
" Physicians of Myddfai" in the 13th century prepared for the bite of
a mad dog.'^ The stalks of bitter-sweet were also used in the medical
practice by the German physicians and botanists of the IGth century,
one of whom, Tragus (1552), has figured and described it, vmder the
name of Dulcis amara or Didcamarum.
Description — The older stems are woody; the upper and younger
are soft and green, long and straggling, attaining by the support of other
plants a height of G feet or more, and dying back in the winter. For
medicinal use, the shoots of a year or two old should be gathered, either
late in the year, or early in the spring before the leaves come out.
These shoots are several feet long, by about + of an inch thick, of a light
greenish-brown, sometimes cylindrical, at others indistinctly 4- or 5-
sided, slightly furrowed longitudinally, or somewhat warty.
The thin, shining cork-bark easily exfoliates, showing beneath it the
mesophhevnn which is rich in chlorophyll. The stalks are mostly
hollow, and partially filled with a whitish pith. The wood when dried
is about half or one-third as broad as the hollow centre, and the green
bark considerably narrower than the wood: the latter has a radiate
structure, and in older stems exhibits two or three sharply-defined
annual rings. The stems are usually cut into short lengths before being-
dried for use.
The odour, which is rather foetid and vmpleasant, is to a great extent
dissipated by drying. The taste, at first slightly bitter, is afterwards
sweetish. The bitter appears to be more predominant in the spring
than in the autumn.
Microscopic Structure — The epidermis of younger shoots consists
of tabular thick-walled cells, many of them being elevated from the
surface as short blunt hairs. The older stems are covered with the usual
suberous envelope. The boundary between the mesophloeum and the
endophloeum is marked by a ring of strong liber fibres, some of which
also occur in the pith. The woody part is rich in large vessels. In
the parenchymatous tissue of bitter-sweet, small crystals of oxalate of
' Solanum nhjrinn L. which slightly re-
sembles dulcamara, is a low-growing animal
or biennial, with herbaceous stems, and ber-
ries usually black.
- Meddyifon Myddvai (see Appendix) 185.
293. 375. "
STIPES DULCAMARiE.
45]
calcium, not of a well-defined outline, and minute starch granules are
deposited.
Chemical Composition— The taste of bitter-sweet appears due,
according to Schoonbroodt (1807), to a bitter principle yielding by de-
composition, sugar and Svhniive, — the latter in very small amount.
Solanine is an alkaloid; it was first prepared in 1820 by Desfosses, a
pharniacien at Besan(;on, from the berries of Sohmmn nigrum L., and
was subsequently detected by the same chemist in the leaves and stalks
of >S'. Dulcanui I'd, and by Peschier in the berries. Winckler (1841)
observed that the alkaloid of dulcamara stems can be obtained only in
an amorphous state, and that it behaves to platinic and mercuric
chlorides differently from the solanine of potatoes. Moitessier (1856)
confirmed this observation, and obtained only amorphous salts of the
solanine of bitter-sweet.
Zwenger and Kind on the one hand, and O. Gmelin on the other
(1859 and 1858), found that solanine, C'^H'^^'NO"' (or C-'-ff'NO^=, accord-
ing to Hilger, 1879), is a conjugated compovmd of sugar and a peculiar
crystallizable alkaloid, HolankVme, C^^H'^'NO (or C'^H^NO''?). The
latter, under the influence of strong hydrochloric acid, gives up water,
and is converted into the amorphous and likewise basic compound,
Solnaicine.
Wittstein (1852) stated another alkaloid, dulcamarine, to be present
in the stems of bitter-sweet. But Geissler (1875j proved that this
substance, when perfectly pure, contains no nitrogen, and is not an
alkaloid. Geissler obtained his Dtdcamarin by warming an aqueous
decoction of the drug with charcoal, which he dried and exhausted with
boiling alcohol. This on evaporation attbrded a yellowish amorphous
matter, which was dissolved in water and mixed with a very little
annnonia; a substance containing nitrogen then separated. The liquid
was evaporated, the residue again dissolved in alcohol, and tlie alcohol
distilled. Dulcamarin thus obtained is a yellowish powder of at first
bitter and subsequently permanently sweet taste. It dissolves in water
or alcohol, not in ether, chloroform, bisulphide of carbon. By boiling
dulcamarin with dilute acids it splits up according to the following-
equation: —
C^W'O^^ + 2 0H2 = C«ff20« . C"H2«0«.
Dulcamarin. Sugar. Dulcamaretin.
Dulcamaretin, a dark -brown, tasteless mass, is soluble in alcohol, not in
water or ether.
U"ses — Dulcamara is occasionally given in the form of decoction, in
rheumatic or cutaneous affections; but its real action, according to
Garrod, is unknown. This physician remarks^ that it does not dilate
the pupil or produce dryness of the throat like belladonna, henbane or
stramonium. He has given to a patient 3 pints of the decoction jjer
diem without any marked action, and has also administered as much as
half a pound of the fresh berries with no ill effect.
1 Essentials of Materia Medka, 1855. 196.
452
SOLANACE^.
FRUCTUS CAPSICI.
Pod Pep-per, Red Pepper, Giihiea Pepper, Chillies, Capsicum ; F.
Piment on Corail des Jardins, Poivre d'Inde ov, de Guine'e ; G.
Spcmisclier Pfeffer.
Botanical Origin — The plants, the fruits of which are known as
Pod Pepper, have for a long period been cultivated in tropical countries,
and are now found in such numerous varieties that an exact determina-
tion of the original species is a point of great difficulty. Of several
species having pungent fruits, the two following are those which supply
the spice found in British connnerce: —
1. Cdpsicum fastigiatum Blume,' a small ramous shrub, with 4-sided,
fastigiate, diverging branches; fruit-bearing peduncles sub-geminate,
slender, erect; fruit very small, subcylindrical, oblong, straight, with
calyx obconical and truncate. It occurs apparently wild in Southern
India, and is extensively cultivated in Tropical Africa and America.
Roxburgh, who describes this plant under the name C. minimumi,
terms it East Indian Bird Chilly or Cayenne Pepper Capsicinn. Wight
says that it is consumed by the natives of India, but that it is not the
sort preferred. It is this species that the authors of the British Phar-
macopoeia have cited as the source of the Ft' actus Caps id to be used in
medicine, and it certainly furnishes the greater part of the Pod Pepper
now found in the London market.
2. C. annimm L., an herbaceous (sometimes shrubby?) plant, with
fruit extremely variable in size, form, and colour, in some varieties erect,
in others pendulous. According to Naudin, in whose opinion we concur,
C. longum DC.^ and C. grossuni Willd. are not specifically distinct from
this plant. It furni.shes the larger kinds of Pod Pepper and, as we
believe, much of the Cayenne Pepper which is imported in the state of
powder.
History — All species of Capsicum appear to be of American origin;
no ancient Sanskrit or Chinese name for the genus is known, and the
Latin and Greek names that have been referred to it are extremely
doubtful'
The earliest reference to the fruit as a condiment that we have met
with, occurs in a letter written in 1494 to the Chapter of Seville by
Chanca, physician to the fleet of Columbus in his second voyage to the
West Indies. The writer in noticing the productions of Hispaniola,
remarks that the natives live on a root called Age, which they season
with a spice they term Agi, also eaten with fish and meat.^ The first
of these words signifies yam, the second is the designation of Red
Pepper, and still the common name for it in Spanish. Capsicum and
1 Wight, Icones Plant. Indice Orient, iv.
(1850) tab. 1617; Capsicum minimum 'Roxh.
Flor. Ind. i. (1832) 574. Farre has ascer-
tained that this is the Capsicum frutescens of
tlie Species Plantarum of Linnajus, but not
that of the Hortus Clifforttanus of the same
botanist, to which latter the name C.fro-
iescms ia usually applied.
^ Thechief distinction between C. annuum
and C. longum is that the former has an
erect, the latter a pendulous fruit.
' Dunal in De Cand. Prodromus, xiii. i.
412.
■* Letters of Christopher Columbus, trans-
lated by Major (Hakluyt Society), 1870. 68.
FRUCTUS CAPSICI.
453
its uses are more particularly described by Fernandez, who reached
Tropical America from Spain in A.D. 1514.^
In the Hidoria Stirpium of Leonhard Fuchs, published at Basle
in 1542, fol. 733, may be found the first and excellent figures of
Capsicum longmn DC. under the name of SUiquastrurn or Calicut
Pepper ; the author states that the plant has been introduced into
Gennany from India a few years previously. From this might be
infeiTed an Indian origin ; but on the other hand, Clusius asserts that
the plant was brought from Pernambuco by the Portuguese, whose
commercial intercourse with India wovild easily explain it being
carried thither at an early period. He further states, that the Ameri-
can capsicum had been generally introduced into the gardens at Castille,
and that it was used all the year round, green or dried, as a condiment
and as pepper. He also saw it cultivated in abundance at Brlinn in
Moravia in 1585.'
Cajmicuni Ju'ii</mii DC. was grown in England by Gerarde (1597 et
avtea), who speaks of the pods as well known, and sold " in the shops
at Billingsgate by the name of Ginnie Pepper."
Description — As already indicated, the Pod Pepper of commerce is
of two kinds, namely : —
1. Fruits of Capsicum fast i (j i at am— Thtine are ^ to f of an inch
in length, by about -fix of an inch in diameter, of an elongated, sub-
conical form, tapering to a blunt point, and slightly contracted towards
the base. The cal^'x, which is not always present, is cup-shaped,
5-toothed, 5-sided, supported on a slender, straight pedicel, f to 1 inch
long. The fruits, which are somewhat compressed and shrivelled by
drying, and also brittle when old, have a leathery, smooth, shining
translucent, thin, dry pericarp, of a dull orange-red, enclosing about 18
seeds, attached in two cells to a thin central partition. The seeds have
the form of roundish or ovate discs, about ^ of an inch in diameter,
somewhat thickened at the edges ; the embryo is curved, almost into
a ring. The taste of the pericarp, and likewise of the seeds, is ex-
tremely pungent and hery. The dried fruit has an odour by no means
feeble, which we cannot compare to that of any other substance.
2. Fruits of Capsicu7ii annuwru of the commonest variety resemble
those of C. fastigiatum, except that they are of longer size, being from
2 to 3 or more inches in length, often rather more tapering towards
the extremity. The seeds scarcely surpass in size those of C.
fastigiatum.
Microscopic Structure — The pericarp consists of two layers, the
outer being composed of yellow thick-walled cells. The inner layer is
twice as broad and exhibits a soft shrunken parenchyme, traversed by
thin fibro-vascular bundles. The cells of the outer layer especially are
the seat of the fine granular colouring matter. If it is removed by an
alcoholic solution of potash, a cell-nucleus and drops of fat oil make
their appearance. The structural details of this fruit afford interesting-
subjects for microscopical investigation.
Chemical Composition — Bucholz in 1816, and about the same
time Braconnot, traced the acridity of capsiciun to a substance called
1 Historia de las Indias, Madrid, i. (1851) ' Caroli ClusiiCurcejjosienores, Antverij.,
275. 1611. 95.
454
SOLANACEJi.
Gapsicin. It is obtained by treating the alcoholic extract of ether,
and is a thick yellowish red liquid, but slightly soluble in water.
When gently heated, it becomes very fluid, and at a higher tenipera-
tvire is dissipated in fumes which are extremely irritating to respiration.
It is evidently a mixed substance, consisting of resinous and fatty
matters.
Felletar in 18G9 exhausted capsicum fruits with dilute sulphuric
acid, and distilled the decoction with potash. The distillate, which
was strongly alkaline and smelt like conine, was saturated M'ith
sulphiiric acid, evaporated to dryness, and exhausted with absolute
alcohol. The solution, after evaporation of the alcohol, was treated
with potash, and yielded by distillation a volatile alkaloid having the
odour of conine.
From experiments made by one of us (F.) we can fully confirm the
observations of Felletar. We have obtained the volatile base in
question, and find it to have the smell of conine. It occurs both in the
pericarp and in the seeds, but in so small proportion that we were
unsuccessfid in isolating it in suflftcient quantity to allow of accurate
examination.
Dragendortf states (1871) that petroleum ether is the best solvent
for the alkaloid of capsicum ; he obtained crystals of its hydrochl orate,
the aqueous solution of which was precipitated by most of the usual
tests, but not by tannic acid.
The colouring matter of capsicum fruits is sparingly soluble in
alcohol, but readily in chloroform. After evaporation, an intenselyred soft
mass is obtained, which is not much altered by potash; it turns first blue,
then black with concentrated sulphuric acid, like many other yellow
colouring substances. By alcohol chieiij 2>ttlmttic acid is extracted
from the fruit, as shown by Thresh in 1877.
The fruits of Caj)sicum fastigiatmn have a somewhat strong odour;
on distilling consecutively two quantities, each of 50 lb., we obtained a
scanty amount of flocculent fatty matter, which possesses an odour
suggestive of parsley. Both this matter, as well as the distilled water,
were neutral to litmus paper, and the water tasteless. We separated the
latter, and exposed the remaining greasy mass to a temperature of
about 50° C, when it for the most part melted. The clear liquid on
cooling solidified, and now consisted of tufted crystals, which we further
purified by recrystallization from alcohol. Thus about 2 centigrannnes
were obtained of a neutral white stearoptene, having a decidedly
aromatic, not very persistent taste, by no means acrid, but rather like
that of the essential oil of parsley. The crystals melted at 38° C. On
keeping them for some days at the temperature of the water-bath,
covered with a watch-glass, some drops of essential oil were volatilized,
which had the same taste and did not solidify ; the crystals were con-
sequently accompanied by a liquid oil. When kept for some days
more in that condition, the crystals themselves began to be volatilized,
and the part remaining behind acquired a brownish hue. This no
doubt points out another impurity, as we ascertained by the following
experiment. With boiling solution of potash, the stearoptene produces
a kind of soap, which on cooling yields a transparent jelly. If this is
dissolved and diluted, it becomes turbid by addition of an acid. This
probably depends upon the presence of a little fatty matter, a suggestion
RADIX BELLADONNA.
455
which is confirmed by the somewhat offensive smell given off" by our
stearoptene if it is heated in a glass tube.
Buchheim's " Capsicol"' is in our opinion a doubtful substance.
Thresh (187G-1877) succeeded in isolating a well defined, highly
active principle, the Capsaicin, from the extract which he obtained by
exhausting Cayenne pepper with petroleum. From the red liquor
dilute caustic lye removes capsaicin, which is to be precipitated in
minute crystals by passing carbonic acid through the alkaline solution.
They may be purified by recrystallizing them from either alcohol, ether,
benzine, glacial acetic acid, or hot bisvdphide of carbon ; in petroleum
capsaicin is but very sparingly soluble, yet dissolves abundantly on
addition of fatty oil. The latter being present in the pericarp is the
cause why capsaicin can be extracted by the above process.
The crystals of capsaicin are colourless and answer to the formula
C"H"0" ; they melt at 59° C. and begin to volatilize at 115° C, but
decomposition can only be avoided by great care. The vapours of
capsaicin are of the most dreadful acridity, and even the ordinaiy
manipulation of that substance requires much precaution. Capsaicin
is not a glucoside ; it is a powerful rubefacient, and taken internally
produces very violent burning in the stomach.
Commerce — Chillies or Pod Pepper are shipped fr.)m Zanzibar,
Western Africa and Natal, but no general statistics of the quantity
imported into Great Britain are accessible.
The exports from Sierra Leone in 1871 reached 7258 Ib.^ The
colony of Natal, which produces Cayenne Pepper in the county of
Victoria, where sugar-cane and coffee are also grown, shipped in the
same year 9072 Ib.-^
Official returns^ show that in 1871 Singapore imported 1071 cwt.
(119,952 lb.) of chillies, chieffy from Penang and Pegu. The spice is
largely consiuned by the Chinese.
Bombay imported of dried chillies in the year 1872-8, 55G7 cwt.
(()23,504 lb.) principally from the Madras Presidency, and exported
3328 cwt.'
Uses — Capsicum on account of its pungent properties is often ad-
ministered as a local stinudant in the form of gargle, and occasionally
as a liniment ; and internally to promote digestion. In all warm
countries it is much employed as a condiment.
RADIX BELLADONNA.
Belladonna Hoot; F. Racine de Belladone ; G. Belladonnatvarzel.
Botanical Origin — Atropa Belladonna L., a tall, glabrous or
slightly downy herb, with a perennial stock, native of central and
Southern Europe, where it grows in the clearings of woods. The plant
extends eastward to the Crimea, Caucasia and Northern Asia Minor.
^Jahi-p.'iherkltt of Wiggersand Husemann,
1873. 5G7 ; also Yearbook of Pharm. 1876.
2.51.
'- Blue Booh of the Colony of Sierra Leone
for 1871.
3 Do. of Natal for 1871.
* Do. of the Straits Settlements for 1871.
•'' Statement of the Trade and JS'avii/atioii
of Bombay for 1872-73, pt. ii. 58. 91.'
45G
SOLANACEJi:.
In Britain it is chiefly found in the sovithern counties, but even of
these it is a doubtful native.
In a few localities in England and France, as well as in North
America, the plant is cultivated for medicinal use.
History — Although a plant so striking as belladonna can hardly
have been luiknown to the classical authors, it cannot with certainty be
identified in their writings.
Saladinus of Ascoli,' who wrote an enumeration of medicinal plants
about A.D. 1450, names the leaves of both Soldtrum furiale and Sola-
trum minus, the former of which is probably Belladonnd. However
this may be, the first indubitable notice of it that we have met with, is
in the Gi-and Herbler printed at Paris, probably about 1.504.^ The
plant is also mentioned about this period as 8olatrum vtoiiale or
Doliuiirtz, in the writings of Hieronymus Brunschwyg.''
In 1542 belladonna was well figured as Solanum somni feriim or
DoUlcraut by the German botanist Leonhard Fuchs, who fully recog-
nized its poisonous properties.* Yet it was confounded by other writers
of this period as Tragus,'"' who reproduced Fvichs' figure as " Solanum
hortense !" Strygimn and Strychnov were other names not unfrequent-
ly applied to Atropa during the IGth and I7th centuries.
Matthiolus, who terms the plant Solatruni majus, states^ that it is
commonly called by the Venetians Herha Bella donna, from the cir-
cumstance of the Italian ladies using a distilled water of the plant as a
cosmetic. Gesner'^ was also familiar with the name Belladonna. The
introduction of the root of belladonna into British medicine is of recent
date, and is due to Mr. Peter Squire of London, who recommended it
as the basis of a useful anodyne liniment, about the year 1860.
Description — Belladonna has a large, fleshy, tapering root, 1 to 2
inches thick, and a foot or more in length, from which divero;e stout
branches. Externally the fresh roots are of an earthy brown, rough
with cracks and transverse ridges. The bark is thick and juicy, and as
well as the more fibrous central portion, is internally of a dull creamy
white. A transverse section of the main root shows a distinct radiate
structure. The root has an earthy smell with but very little taste at
first, but a powerfully acrid after-taste is soon developed.
Dried root of Belladonna is sold in rough irregular pieces of a
dirty greyish colour, whitish internally, breaking easily with a short
fracture, and having an earthy smell not unlike that of liquorice root.
The bark being probably the chief seat of the alkaloid, roots not ex-
ceeding the thickness of the finger shovdd be preferred. The drug is
for the most part imported from Germany, and is often of doubtful
quality. English-grown root purchased in a fresh state (the large and
old being rejected), then washed, cut into transverse segments and dried
by a gentle heat, furnishes a more reliable and satisfactory article.
^ Compendium Aromatariorum, 1488.
Le Grant Herhier en f rrnicoys, conlenat
/f>,s qiiaJitfz, vertiis et proprietez des herhcs
etc., Paris (no date) 4°. cap. De Solasfro
rustico.
^ Dn-i dest'dlier Buck (sub voce Nachl-
schet Waxser). Strassburg, 1521, fol. 93 h.
The figure probably refers to Atropa, but
that given in the edition of tlie same
work of the year 1500 shows Solanum
ni(jrum.
llidoria Stirpiuvi, Basil. 1542. G89.
^ De Slirpium .... hintoria, Argentorati,
1552. 301.
" Comment, in lib. vi. Dioscoridi^, Vene-
tiis, 1558. 533.
'' De hortia Germaniie, Argentorat. 1561,
fol. 282.
RADIX BELLADONNA.
Microscopic Structure — There is a considerable structural differ-
ence between the main root and its branches, the former alone contain-
ing a distinct pith. This pith is included in a woody circle, traversed
by narrow medvdlary rays. In the outer part of the woody circle,
parenchymatous tissue is more prevalent than vascular bundles. The
transverse section of the branches of the root exhibits a central vascular
bundle instead of a medullary column. The outer vascular bundles
show no regular arrangement ; and medullary rays are not clearly
obvious in the transverse section.
The woody parts, both of the main root and its branches, contain
very large dotted vessels accompanied by a prosenchymatous tissue.
The cells of the latter, however, are always thin-walled ; the absence of
proper so-called ligneous tissue explains the easy fracture of the root.
iSometimes the prosenchyme in which the vessels ,are imbedded assumes
a brownish hue and a waxy appearance, and such parts exhibit a very
irregular structure.
In the cortical portion of belladonna root, many of the cells of the
middle layer, and likewise some of the central parts of the root, are
loaded with extremely small octahedric crystals of calcium oxalate.
But most of the parenchymatous cells are filled up with small starch
granules.
O
Chemical Composition — In 1833 Mein prepared from the root,
and Geiger and Hesse from the herb, the crystallizable alkaloid
Atropine. The researches of Lefort (1<S72) have proved that the roots
contain it in very variable proportions, the young being much richer
in alkaloid than the old.' The maximum proportion obtained was 0 6
per cent. ; this was from root of the thickness of the finger. Large old
roots, 7 or 8 years of age, afford from 0 25 to 0"31 per cent. They have
besides a smaller proportion of bark than young roots, and it is chiefly
in the bark that the alkaloid appears to reside. Manufactvn-ers of
atropine employ exclusively the root.
Ludwig andPfeiffer (1861), by decomposing atropine with potassium
chromate and sulphuric acid, obtained benzoic acid and propylamine.
Other products are formed when atropine is treated with strong hydro-
chloric acid, baryta water or caustic soda, thus — Ativjnvc, C'"H"'NO''
+ H-'O = Trojnc Acid, C'WO' + Tropme, Cff'^NO.
( QJJ3
Tropic acid, C'H^C (OH) | qqqj^ > being further boiled with the
f CH'
same agents is converted into atropic acid, C"H'C qqqjj, which,
especially by using hydrochloric acid, is gradually transformed into
isotropic acid. Both these acids are isomeric to cinnamic acid, C^H^O",
but otherwise remarkably dissimilar.
Tropine is a strongly alkaline body, readily soluble both in water
and alcohol, and furnishing tabular crystals by the evaporation of its
solution in ether. Neither tropine nor tropic acid, it is stated by
Kraut (1863), is present in the leaves and root of belladonna.
Hlibschmann (18.58) detected in belladonna root a second but un-
ci-ystallizable alkaloid, called BelladonvAne ; it has a resinous aspect,
is distinctly alkaline, and when heated emits, like atropine, a peculiar
odour.
' For Lefort's process for estimating atropine, see p. 4.58.
458
SOLANACE^.
)
The root f mother contains, according to Richter (1837) and Hubsch-
niann, a fluorescent substance, as well as a red colouring matter called
Atrosin} The latter occurs in greatest abundance in the fruit, and
would probably repay further investigation.
Uses — Belladonna root is chiefly used for the preparation of atro-
pine, which is employed for dilating the pupil of the eye. A liniment
made with belladonna root is used for the relief of neuralgic pains.
Adulteration — We may point out that the roots of Mandnujont
iiiicroca rj)(i, 71/. offichtaruin, and M. fernalis Bertoloni are very nearly
allied to the root under notice, both in external appearance and in
their structure. They are not likely to be confounded with Belladonna
root, their mother plants being indigenous in the South of Europe.
FOLIA BELLADONNA.
Belladonvd Leaves; F. Feidlles de Belladoiie ; G. Tollkraat.
Botanical Origin — Atropa Bellad.omia L. (p. 455).
History — Belladonna Leaves and the extract prepared from them
were introduced into the London Pharmacopoeia of 1809. For further
particulars regarding the history of belladonna, see the preceding
article.
Description — Belladonna or Deadly Nightshade produces thick,
smooth herbaceous stems, which attain a height of 4 to 5 feet. They
are simple in their lower parts, then usually 3-forked, and afterwards
2-forked, producing in their upper branches an abundance of bright
green leaves, arranged in unequal pairs, from the bases of which spring
the solitary, pendulous, purplish, bell-shaped flowers, and large shining
black berries.
The leaves are 3 to 6 inches long, stalked, broadly ovate, acuminate,
attenuated at the base, soft and juicy ; those of barren roots are alter-
nate and solitary. The young shoots are clothed with a soft, short
pubescence, which on the calyx is somewhat more persistent, assuming
the character of viscid, glandular hairs. If bruised, the leaves emit a
somewhat offensive, herbaceous odour which is destroyed by drying.
When dried, they are thin and friable, of a brownish green on the upper
surface and greyish beneath, with a disagreeable, faintly bitter taste. Of
fresh leaves 100 lb. yield 16 lb. of dried (Squire).
Chemical Composition — The important constituent of belladonna
leaves is Atrojmte. Lefort (1872)"- estimated its amount by exhausting
the leaves previously dried at 100° C. by means of dilute alcohol, con-
centrating the tincture, and throwing down the alkaloid with a solution
of iodo-hydrargyrate of potassium. The precipitate thus obtained was
calculated to contain 33'25 per cent, of atropine. Lefort examined
leaves from plants both cultivated and growing wild in the environs of
Paris, and gathered either before or after flowering. He found cultiva-
tion not to aflect the percentage of alkaloid, — that the leaves of the
young plant were rather less rich than those taken at the period of full
Gmelin, Chemistrii, xvii. (1866) 1.
-Journ. lie P/iarm. xv. (1872) 269. 341.
HERBA STRAMONII.
459
inflorescence, — and that the latter (dried) yielded 0 44 to 0'48 per cent,
of atropine.
Larger percentages are recorded by DragendorfF as much as 0"95
per cent, of atropine as obtained from the dried unripe fruits, 083
from the dried leaves, 0"21 from the root. The estimation was per-
formed in nearly the same way as that followed by Lefort.
Belladonna herb yields Asparagiv , which according to Biltz (1839)
crystallizes out of the extract after long keeping. The crystals found
in the extract by Attfield (18G2) were however chloride and nitrate
of potassium. The same chemist obtained by dialysis of the juice
of belladonna, nitrate of potassium, and square prisms of a salt of
magnesium containing some organic acid ; the juice likewise affords
ammonia.- The dried leaves yielded us 14"5 per cent, of ash con-
sisting mainly of calcareous and alkaline carbonates.
Uses — The fresh leaves are used for making Extractiim Belhidornia',
and the dried for preparing a tincture. They should be gathered while
the plant is well in flower.
HERBA STRAMONII.
IStraiiionliiiii, Thvnuqyple; F.Herhe de Stravwine ; G. Steckapfelbldtter.
Botanical Origin — Datura'^ Stnimoniiim L., a large, quick-growing,
upright annual, with white flowers like a convolvidus, and ovoid spiny
fruits. It is now found as a weed of cultivation in almost all the
temperate and warmer regions of the globe. In the south of England
it is often met with in rich waste ground, chiefly near gardens or
habitations.
History — The question of the native countiy and early distribution
of D. Stramoni am has been much discussed by botanical wa-iters.
Alphonse De CandoUe,^ who has ably reviewed the arguments advanced
in favour of the plant being a native respectively of Europe and America
or Asia, enounces his opinion thus: — that D. Stvannmiatii L. appears
to be indigenous to the Old World, probably the borders of the Caspian
Sea or adjacent regions, but certainly not of India ; that it is very
doubtful if it existed in Europe in the time of the ancient Roman
Empire, but that it appears to have spread itself between that period
and the discovery of America.
Stramonium was cultivated in London towards the close of the IGth
century by Gerarde, who received the seed from Constantinople and
freely propagated the plant, of the medicinal value of which he had a
high opinion. The use of the herb in more recent times is due to the
experiments of Storck.''
Description — Stramonium produces a stout, upright, herbaceous
' WerthJiestimmuixj xtarh wirlc'emler Dro-
ijum, Petersburg, 1876. 28.
- The fresh juice kept for a few days has
been known to evolve red vapours (nitrous
acid ? ) when the vessel containing it was
opened. — H. S. Evans in Phnrm. Jouni. ix.
(18.50) 2(50.
•* Datum from the Sanskrit name D'hnx-
titra, applied to D. fagtuona L. The origin
of the word Stramonium is not known to
us.
^ Geoijrnpliie Botnnique, ii. (1855) 731.
' Libellus quo demonstratur W)-<7»(o»««/;>,
Hyoscyamum, Aconitum . . esse remedia,
V^indob. 1762.
460
SOLANACEvE.
green stem, which at a short distance from the ground, throws out
spreading forked brandies, in the axil of each fork of which arises a
solitary white flower, succeeded by an erect, spiny, ovoid capsule. At
each furcation and directed outwards is a large leaf. This arrangenient
of parts is repeated, and as the plant grows vigorously, it often becomes
much branched and acquires in the course of the summer a considerable
size.
The leaves of stramonium have long petioles, are unequal at the
base, oval, acuminate, sinuate-dentate with large irregular pointed teeth
or lobes, downy when young, glabrous at maturity. When fresh they
are somewhat firm and juicy, emitting when handled a disagreeable
foetid smell. The larger leaves of plants of moderate growth attain a
length of G to 8 or more inches.
For medicinal purposes, the entire plants are pulled up, the leaves
and younger shoots are stripped oft", quickly dried, and then broken and
cut into short lengths, so as to be conveniently smoked in a pipe, that
being the method in which the drug is chiefly consumed in England.
The offensive smell of the fresh plant is lost by drying, being replaced
by a rather agreeable tea-like odour. The dried herb has a bitterish
saline taste.
Chemical Composition — The leaves of stramoniimi contain, in com-
mon with the seeds, the alkaloid Dat urine (see p. 401), but in extremely
small proportion, not exceeding in fact V'o to Vo per mille. They are
rich in saline and earthy constituents; selected leaves dried at 100" C.
yielded us 17 4 per cent, of ash.
Uses — Scarcely employed in any other way than in smoking like
tobacco for the relief of asthma. — Col. Grant (1871) found the herb
to be smoked in pipes by the Nubians for chest-complaint.
Substitute — Datura Tatula L. — This plant is closely allied to D.
Strainonium L., propagating itself on rich cultivated ground with nearly
the same facility; but it is not so generally diffiised.
De Candolle is of opinion that it is indigenous to the warmer parts
of America, whence it was imported into Europe in the 16th century,
and naturalized first in Italy, and then in South-Western Europe.
By many botanists it has been united to D. Stramonium, but Naudin,'
who has studied both plants with the greatest attention, especially with
reference to their hybrids, is decidedly in favour of considering them
distinct. D. Tatula differs from D. Stramonium in having stem,
petiole, and nerves of leaves 'jm rpli^/t instead of green; and corolla and
anthers of a, violet colour instead of white,- — characters which, it must be
admitted, are of very small botanical value.
D. Tatula has been recommended for smoking in cases of asthma,
on the ground of its being stronger than D. Stramonium ; but we are
not aware of any authority as to the comparative strength of the two
species.
1 Cowptes Retulus, Iv. (1862) 321.
SEMEN STRAMONII.
461
SEMEN STRAMONII.
Strnmonixim Seeds; F. Seynences de Stramoi ae ; G. Stechapfelsamev .
Botanical Origin — Datura Stmmcmium L., see preceding article.
Description — The spiny, ovoid capsule of stramonium opens at the
summit in four regular valves. It is bilocular, with each cell incom-
pletely divided into two, and contains a large nundjer (about 400) of
flattened, kidney-shaped seeds. The seeds are blackish or dai'k brown,
about 2 lines long and \ a line thick, thinning off towards the hilum
which is on the straighter side. The surface of the seed is finely pitted
and also marked with a nnich coai'ser series of shallow reticulations or
rugosities. A section parallel to the faces of the seed exhibits the
long, contorted embryo, following the outline of the testa, and bedded
in the oily white albumen. The cylindrical form of the embryo is seen
in a transverse section of the seed.
The seeds have a bitterish taste, and when bruised a disagreeable
odour. When the entire seeds are immersed in dilute alcohol, they
afford a tincture displaying a beautiful green fluorescence, turning-
yellow on addition of ammonia.
Microscopic Structure — The testa is formed of a row of radially
extended, thick-walled cells. They are not of a simply cylindrical
form, but tlieir walls are sinuously bent in and out in the direction of
their lencfth. Viewed in a direction tangential to the surface, the cells
appear as if indented one into the other. Towards the surface of the
seed the cell-walls are elevated as dark brown tubercles and folds,
giving to the seed its reticulated and pitted surface. The albumen and
embryo exhibit the usual contents, namely fatty oil and albuminoid
substances.'
Chemical Composition — The active constituent of stramonium
seeds is the highly poisonous alkaloid D(dit vine, of which they aflbrd only
about yV psi' cent., while the leaves and roots contain it in still smaller
proportion.' Daturine was discovered in 1833 by Geiger and Hesse,
and regarded as identical with atropine by A. von Planta (1850), who
found it to have the same composition as that alkaloid. The two bodies
exhibit the same relations as to solubility and fusing point (88-90° C.) ;
and they also agree in crystallizing easily. The experiments of Schroff
(1852), tending to show that althougii daturine and atropine act in the
same manner, the latter has twice the poisonous energy of the former,
raised a further question as to the identity of the two alkaloids. Poehl
(1876) also stated solutions of daturine to be levogyrate, those of atro-
pine being devoid of rotatory power. From the observations of Erhard
(1866), it would appear that the crystalline form of some of the salts
of atropine and daturine is different. In stramonium seeds daturine
appears to be combined with malic acid. The seeds yielded to Cloez
(1865) 2"9 per cent, of ash and 25 per cent, of fixed oil.
Uses — Stramonium seeds are prescribed in the form of extract or
tincture as a sedative or narcotic.
^ We have not seen W. (i. Mann, Omler- Gilnther in Wiggers and Hiiseinami's
zoek ran het zand vail Datum Stramonium, JaJiref<t>erifht for 54,
Enschede, 1875.
462
SOLANACEiE.
SEMEN ET FOLIA DATURA ALB^.
Seedft avd Leaves of the Indian or White-ffoivered Datura.
Botanical Origin — Datura alba Nees, a large, spreading annual
plant, 2 to 6 feet high, bearing handsome, tubular, white flowers 5 to G
inches long. The capsules are pendulous, of depressed globular form,
rather broader than high, covered with sharp tubercles or thick short
spines. They do not open by regular valves as in D. Stramonium, but
split in different directions and break up into irregular fragments.
D. alba appears to be scarcely distinct from D. fantuosa L.
Both are conniion in India, and are grown in gardens in the south of
Europe.^
History — The mediaeval Arabian physicians were familiar with
Datura <tlba, which is well described by Ibn Baytar- under precisely
the same Arabic name (Jouz-masal) that it bears at the present day;
they were also fully aware of its poisonous properties.
Garcia de Orta' (1503) observed the plant in India, and has narrated
that its flowers or seeds are put into food to intoxicate persons it was
designed to rob. It was also described by Christoval Acosta, who in his
book on Indian drugs'* mentions two other varieties, one of them with
yellow flowers, the seeds of either being very poisonous, and often
administered with criminal intent, as well as for the cure of disease.
Graham* says of the plant that it possesses very strong narcotic
properties, and has on several occasions been fatally used by Bombay
thieves, who have administered it in order to deprive their victims of
the power of resistance.
The seeds and fresh leaves have a place in the Pharmacopoeia of
India, 1808.
Description — The seeds of D. alba are very different in appearance
from those of D. Stramonium, being of a light yellowish-brown, rather
larger size, irregular in shape and somewhat shrivelled. Their form has
been likened to the human ear; they are in fact obscurely triangular or
flattened-pearshaped, the rounded end being thickened into a sinuous,
convoluted, triple ridge, while the centre of the seed is somewhat de-
pressed. The hilum runs from the pointed end nearly half-way up the
leno;th of the seed. The testa is marked with minute rvigosities, but is
not so distinctly pitted as in the seed of the D. Stramonium; it is also
more developed, exhibiting in section large intercellular spaces to which
are due its spongy texture. The seeds of the two species agree in internal
structvire as well as in taste ; but those of D. alba do not give a fluorescent
tincture.
The leaves, which are only employed in a fresh state, are 6 to 10
inches in length, with long stalks, ovate, often unequal at the base.
^ Seeds of D. alba sent to us from Madras
by Dr. Bidie, were sown by our friend M.
Naudin of Collioure (Pyrenees Orientales),
and produced the plant under tliree forms,
viz. : — 1. The true Z>. alba as figured in
Wight's [cones. — 2. Plants with flowers,
violet without and nearly white within (D.
/astuosa). — 3. Plants with double corollas
of large size and of a yellow colour.
^ Sontheimer's translation, i. 269.
^ Aromatum Imtoria, 1574, lib. 2. c. 24.
Tractado de las Dro(jas . . . de las
Indias Orientales, Burgos, 1578. 85.
^ Catalogue of Bombay Plants, 1839. 141,
J^OLIA HYOSCYAMI.
463
acuminate, coarsely dentate with a few spreading teeth. They evolve an
offensive odour when handled.
Microscopic Structure — The testa is built up of the same tissues as
in 1). Stramoriiani, hut the thick-walled cells constituting the spongy
part are far larger, and distinctly show numerous secondary deposits,
making a tine object for the microscope.
Chemical Composition — Neither the seeds nor the leaves of D.
alba have yet been examined chemically, but there can scarcely be any
doubt that their very active properties are due to Datwrhie, for the pre-
paration of which the former would probably be the best source.
Uses — The seeds in the form of tincture or extract have been em-
ployed in India as a sedative and narcotic, and the fresh leaves, bruised
an(i made into a poultice with flour, as an anodyne application.
FOLIA HYOSCYAMI.
Henbane Leaves; F. Feuillen de Jusquiame; G. Bilseril-rdiit.
Botanical Origin — Hyoscy(imus vujcv L., a coarse, erect herb, with
soft, viscid, hairy foliage of unpleasant odour, pale yellowish flowers
elegantly marked with purple veins, and 5-toothed bottle-shaped calyx.
It is found throughout Europe from Portugal and Greece to Central
Norway and Finland, in Egypt, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Persia,
Siberia and Northern India. As a weed of cultivation it now grows
also in North America' and Brazil. In Britain it occurs wild, chiefly
in waste places near buildings; and is cultivated for medicinal use.
Henbane exists under two varieties, known as (i d mial and biennial,
but scarcely presenting any other distinctive character.
B'lerrnial Hcnlxtnc {H ijoscyamuH iiiger var. a. biennis) is most es-
teemed for pharmaceutical preparations. It is raised by seed, the plant
producing the flrst year only a rosette of luxuriant stalked leaves, 12
or more inches in length. In the second, it throws up a flower stem of
2 to 3 feet in height, and the whole plant dies as the fruit matures.
Annual Bcnbane (H. niger var. /S. annua, vel agrestis) is a smaller
plant, coming to perfection in a single season. It is the usual wild form,
but it is also grown by the herbalists.-
History— Hyoscyamus, under which name it is probable the nearly
allied South European species, H. albus L., was generally intended, was
medicinal among the ancients, and particularly commended by Dios-
corides.
In Europe, henbane has been employed from remote times. Bene-
dictus Crispus, archbishop of Milan, in a work written shortly before
A.D. 681, notices it under the name of Hyoscyamus and Syniplioniaca?
In the 10th century, its virtues were particularly recorded by Macer
Floridus'' who called it Jusquiamus.
' It had become naturalized in North
America prior to 1G72, as we find it men-
tioned by Jossel3'n in his JVew Jinglaiura
Rarities discovered (Lond. 1672) among the
plants "sprung up since the English planted
and kept cattle in New England."
■- Pharni. Journ. i. (1860) 414.
•' S.de Renzi, Collect io Salernitana, Na-
poli, i. (1852) 74. 84.
■* De Virilms Herharum, edited by Chou-
lant, Lips. 1832. 108.
464f
SOLANACEi^C.
Frequent mention is made of it in the Anglo-Saxon works on
medicine of" the 11th century/ in which it is called Hevhell, and some-
times BeJene, the latter word perhaps traceable in ^iXivovvTia, which
Dioscorides^ gives as the Gallic designation of the plant. In the
13th century henbane was also used by the Welsh " Physicians of
Myddvai."
The word Hennihone, with the Latin and Frentih synonyms
Jusqwiamus and Chenille, occurs in a vocabulary of the 13th cen-
tury; and Hennebane in a Latin and English vocabulary of the 15tl\
century.' In the Arholayre, a printed French herbal of the loth
centuiy/ we find the plant described as Hdvlhdne ov Navebave with
the following explanation- — ■" Elle est aultrement appeler cassilago et
aultrement simphoniaca. La semence ])ropi'ement a nom jusquiame ou
hauebane, et herbe a nom cassilago. . . ." Both H yimydmus and
Jusquiamus are from the (Jreek 'YocrKva/uLo^, i.e. Hog-bean.
Though a remedy undeniably potent, henbane in the first half of the
last century had fallen into disuse. It was omitted from the London
pharmacopoeias of 1746 and 1788, and restored only in 1809. Its
re-introduction into medicine was chiefly due to the experiments and
recommendations of Storck.^
During the middle ages the seeds and roots of henbane were also
much used.
Description — The stems of henbane, whether of the annual or
biennial form, are clothed with soft, viscid, hairy leaves, of which the
upper constitute the large, sessile, coarsely-toothed bracts of the
unilateral flower-spike. The middle leaves are more toothed and
subamplexicaul. The lower leaves are stalked, ovate-oblong, coarsely
dentate, and of large size. The stems, leaves, and calyces of henbane
are thickly beset with long, soft, jointed hairs ; the last joint of many
of these hairs exudes a viscid substance occasioning the fresh plant to
feel clammy to the touch. In the cultivated plant, the hairiness
diminislies.
After drying, the broad light-coloured midrib becomes very con-
spicuous, while the rest of the leaf shrinks much and acquires a greyish
green hue. The di ug derived from the flowering plant as found in
commerce is usually much broken. 'J'he fcetid, narcotic odour of the
fresh leaves is greatly diminished by drying. The fresh plant has but
little taste.
Dried henbane is sold under three forms, which are not however
generally distinguished by druggists. These are 1. Annual planit,
foliage and Green tops. 2. Biennial plaint, leaves of the flrst yeai',
3, Bienrtial -plant, foliage and green tops. The third form is always
regarded as the best, but no attempt has been made to determine with
accuracy the relative merits of the three sorts.
Chemical Composition — Hyoscyamine, the most important among
the constituents of henbane, was obtained in an impure state by Geiger
and Hesse in 1833. Hohn in 1871 first isolated it from the seeds,
' Leechdoms etc. of Early England, iii.
(1866) 313.
- Lib. iv. c. 69. (ed. Sprengel).
^Wright, Volxme of Vocalndarien, ]8i>7,
141. 265.
■* See p. 148, note 3, also Brunet, Manuel
du Libraire, i. (1860) 377.
vSee p. 459, note 5.
FOLIA HYOSCYAML
4G5
which are far richer in it than the leaves.^ The seeds are deprived of
the fatty oil (2G per cent.) and treated with spiiit of wine containing
sulphuric acid, which takes out the hyoscyaniine in the form of sul-
phate. The alcohol is then evaporated and tannic acid added ; the
precipitate thus obtained is mixed with Jime and exhausted with
alcohol. The hyoscyamine is again converted into a sulphate, the
aqueous solution of which is then precipitated with carbonate of
sodium, and the alkaloid dissolved by means of ether. After the evapo-
ration of the ether, hyoscyamine remains as an oily liquid which after
some time concretes into wart-like tufted crystals, soluble in benzol,
chloroform, ether, as well as in water. Hohn and Reichardt assign
to hyoscyamine the formula The seeds yield of it only 0 05
l)er cent.
Hyoscyamine is easily decomposed by caustic alkalis. By boiling
with baryta in aqueous solution, it is split into Hyoscine, C"H''N, and
Hyoscinic Acid, G^WOl\ The former is a volatile oily liquid of a
narcotic odour and alkaline reaction. By keeping it over sulphuric acid
it crystallizes and also yields crystallized .salts; hyo.scine may be closely
allied to conine, Cff'^N. Hyoscinic acid, a crystaUizable substance
having an odour resembling that of euipyreumatic benzoic acid.- It
melts, according to Hohn, at ]05°; tropic acid (see p. -^57), melting at
118°, agrees so very nearly with hyoscinic acid that further researches
will probably prove these acids to be identical.
Another process for extracting hyoscyamine is due (1875) to
Thibaut. He removes by bisulphide of carbon the fatty oil from the
powdered seeds, and exhausts them with alcohol slightly acidulated by
tartaric acid. The alcohol being distilled off, the author precipitates
the alkaloid by means of a solution containing G per cent, of
iodide of potassium and 3 per cent, iodine. By decomposing the
precipitate with sulphurous acid, hydroiodic acid and sulphate of
hyoscyamine are formed. The latter is dried up at 35° with magnesia
and the hyoscyamine extracted by alcohol or chlorofoi'm. The crystals
melt at 90°. Thibaut found the alkaloid thus prepared from seeds
differing from that yielded by the leaves, the latter having a somewhat
strong odour.
Attfield^ has pointed out that extract of henbane is rich in nitrate
of potassium and other inorganic salts. In the leaves, the amount of
nitrate is, according to Thorey,^ largest before flowering, and the same
observation applies to hyoscyamine.
Uses — Henbane in the form of tincture or extract is administered
as a sedative, anodyne or hypnotic. The impropriety of giving it in
conjunction with free potash or soda, which render it perfectly inert,
has been demonstrated by the experiments of Garrod." Hyoscyamine,
like atropine, powerfully dilates the pupil of the eye.
Substitutes — Hyoscyamus albus L., a more slender plant than H.
' From the experiments of Schoonbroodt said chemists. — F. A. F. July 1871.
(1868), there is reason to believe that the ^ Pharm. Journ. iii. (1862) 447.
active principle of henbane can be more ■* Wiggers and Husemann, Jahreshericht,
easily extracted from the fresh than from 1869. 50.
the dried plant. ^ Pharm. Journ. xvii. (1858) 462 ; xviii.
^ I ha ve had the opportunity of examining ( 1 859} 174.
the above substances as prepared by the
2 G
4G6
SOLANACE^.
niger L., with stalked leaves and bracts, a native of the Mediterranean
region, is sometimes used in the south of Europe as medicinal henbane.
H. insanus Stocks, a plant of Beluchistan, is mentioned in the Phar-
macopoeia of India as of considerable virulence, and sometimes used
for smoking.
FOLIA TABACI.
Herha Nicotiance; Tobacco ; F. Tdhac; G. Tabakbldtter.
Botanical Origin — Nicotiana Tabacum L. — The common Tobacco
plant is a native of the New World, though not now known in a wild
state. Its cultivation is carried on in most temperate and sub-tropical
countries.
History — It is stated by C. Ph. von Martins^ that the practice of
smoking tobacco has been widely diffused from time immemorial among
the natives of South America, as well as among the inhabitants of the
valley of the Mississippi as far north as the plant can be cultivated.
The Spaniards became acquainted with tobacco when they landed
in Cuba in 1492, and on their return introduced it into Europe for the
sake of its medicinal properties. The custom of inhaling the smoke of
the herb was learnt from the Indians, and by the end of the IGtli
century had become generally known thi'oughout Spain and Portugal,
whence it passed into the rest of Europe, and into Turkey, Egypt, and
India, notwithstanding that it was opposed by the severest enactments
both of Christian and Mahommedan governments. It is commonly
believed that the practice of smoking tobacco was much promoted in
England, as well as in the north of Europe generally, by the example
of Sir Walter Raleigh and his companions.
Tobacco was introduced into China, probably by way of Japan or
Manila, during the IGth or 17th century, but its use was prohibited by
the emperors both of the Ming and Tsing dynasties. It is now culti-
vated in most of the provinces, and is universally employed.^
The first tolerably exact description of the tobacco plant is that
given by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, governor of St.
Domingo, in his Historia general de las Indias,^ printed at Seville in
153-5. In this work, the plant is said to be smoked through a
branched tube of the shape of the letter Y> which the natives call
Tabaco.
It was not until the middle of the 16th century that growing
tobacco was seen in Europe, — first at Lisbon, whence the French
ambassador, Jean Nicot, sent seeds to France in 1560 as those of a
valuable medicinal plant, which was even then diffused throughout
Portugal.^
Monardes,' writing in 1571, speaks of tobacco as brought to Spain a
few years previously, and valued for its beauty and for its medicinal
^ Beitriige zur Ethnographie und Sprachen-
hutide Americas, zumal Bras'diens, i. (1867)
719.
2 Mayers in Hong Konq Notes and Queries,
May, 1867 ; F. P. Smith, Mat. Med. and
Nat. Hist, of China, 1871. 219.
3 Lib. V. c. 2.
Nicot, Thrisor de la langue Frangoyse,
Paris, 1606. 429.
^ Segimda parte del libra de las cosas que
se traen de nuestras Indias occidentales, que
sirven al uso de medicina. Do se trata del
Tabaco . . . . , Sevilla, 1571, 3.
FOLIA TABACI.
467
virtues. Of the latter he gives a long account, noticing also the
methods of smoking and chewing the herb prevalent among the
Indians. He also supplies a small woodcut representing the plant,
which he states to have white flowers, red in the centre.
J acques Gohory,' who cultivated the plant in Paris at least as early
as 1.572, describes its flowers as shaded with red, and enumerates
various medicinal preparations made from it.
In the Mdison Rastique of Charles Estienne, edition of 1583, the
author gives a "Discoui's sur la Nicotkme ou Petwtn muscle" in which
he claims for the plant the first place among medicinal herbs, on
account of its singular and almost divine virtues.
The cultivation of tobacco in England, except on a veiy small scale
in a physic garden, has been prohibited by law- since IGGO.
Description — -Amongst the various species oi Nicot 'uma cultivated
for the manufacturing of smoking tobacco and snuff", N. Tahaaum is by
far the most frequent, and is almost the only one named in the pharma-
copoeias as medicinal. Its simple stem, bearing at the summit a
panicle of tubular pink flowers, and growing to the height of a man,
has oblong, lanceolate simple leaves, with the margin entire. The
lower leaves, more broadly lanceolate, and about 2 feet long by 6
inches wide, are shortly stalked. The stem-leaves are semi-amplexi-
caul, and decurrent at the base. Cultivation sometimes produces
cordate-ovate forms of leaf, or a mai'gin more or less uneven, or nearly
revolute.
All the herbaceous parts of the plant are clothed with long soft
hairs, made up of broad, ribbon-like, striated cells, the points of which
exude a glutinous liquid. Small sessile glands are situated here and
there on the sui'face of the leaf The lateral veins pi'oceed from the
thick midrib in straight lines, at angles of 40'' to 75°, gently curving
upwards only near the edge. In drying, the leaves become brittle and
as thin as paper, and always acquire a brown colour. Even by the
most careful treatment of a single leaf, it is not possible to preserve
the green hue.
The smell of the fresh plant is narcotic; its taste bitter and nauseous.
The characteristic odour of dried tobacco is developed during the
process of curing.
Chemical Composition — The active principle of tobacco, first
isolated in 1828 by Posselt and Reimann, is a volatile, highly poisonous
alkaloid termed Nicotine, C'°H'^N'l It is easily extracted from tobacco
by means of alcohol or water, as a malate, from which the alkaloid can
be separated by shaking it with caustic lye and ether. The ether is
then expelled by warming the liquid, which finally has to be mixed
with slaked lime and distilled in a stream of hydrogen, when the
nicotine begins to come over at about 200° C.
Nicotine is a colourless oily liquid, of sp. gi\ 1"027 at 15° C,
deviating the plane of polarization to the left; it boils at 247° and
^ Instruction sur I 'herhe Petum ditte en
France I'herbe de la Royne ou MMicie . . .
Paris 1572
l-i Car.' 11. e. 34; 15 Car. II. c. 7.—
For further information on the history of
tobacco, see Tiedemann, Geschichte des
Tabaks, Frankfurt, 1854.— We have not
consulted Fairholt, Tobacco, its History,
Lond. 1859.
3 Microscopic structure of tobacco leaves.
See Pocklington, Pharm, Journal, v. (1874)
301.
468
SOLANACE.E.
does not concrete even at - 10° C. It has a strongly alkaline reactioi
an unpleasant odour, and a burning taste. It quiclcly assumes a brow
colour on exposure to air and light; and ap])ears even to undergo a
alteration by repeated distillation in an atmosphere deprived (
oxygen. Nicotine dissolves in water, but separates on addition (
caustic potash ; it occurs in the dried leaves to the extent of about
per cent., but is subject to great variation. The seeds of tobacco ai
stated by Kosutany^ as grown in Hungary to contain from 0 28 to () ()
per cent, of the alkaloid.
It ha.s not been met with in tobacco-smoke by Vohl and Eulenbei
(1871), though other chemists assert its occurrence. The vapours wei
found by the former to contain numerous basic substances of tli
picolinic series, and ceded to caustic potash, hydrocyanic acid,^ su
phuretted hydrogen, several volatile fatty acids, phenol and creasot
There was further observed in the imperfect combustion of tobacco tl
formation of laminae fusible at 94° C, and having a composition C'H
Oxide of carbon is also largely met with.
Tobacco leaves, whether fresh or dried, yield when distilled wit
water a tui'bid distillate in which, as observed by Hermbstadt in 182:
there are formed, after some days, crystals of Nicotianin or Tobaa
Camphor. Accoi'ding to J. A. Barral, nicotianin contains 712 per cen
of nitrogen (?). By submitting 4 kilogrammes of good tobacco of t\
previous year to distillation with much water, we obtained nicotiani]
floating on the surface of the distillate, in the form of minute acicuU
crystals, which we found to be devoid of action on polarized ligh
The crystals have no peculiar taste, at least in the small quantity "w
tried ; they have a tobacco-like smell, perhaps simply due to the wat(
adhering to them. When an attempt was made to separate them by
filter, they entirely disappeared, being probably dissolved by an accon
panying trace of essential oil. The clear water showed an alkalir
reaction partly due to nicotine ; this was proved by adding a solutic
of tannic acid, which caused a well-marked turbidity. Nicotianine
in our opinion a fatty acid contaminated with a little volatile oil as i
the case of Capsicum (see page 454), or Iris (see article Rhizome Iridis
Among the ordinary constituents of leaves, tobacco contains albumi:
resin and gum. In smoking, these substances, as well as the cellulof
of the thick midrib, would yield products not agreeable to the coi
sumer. The manufacturer therefore discards the midrib, and endei
vours by further preparation to ensure at least the partial destructic
of these unwelcome constituents, as well as the formation of certai
products of fermentation (ferment-oils), which may perhaps contribui
to the aroma of tobacco, especially when saccharine substances, liquoric
or alcohol, are added in the maceration to which tobacco is subjected.
Tobacco leaves are remarkably rich in inorganic constituents, tl
proportion varying from 16 to 27 per cent. According to Boussingaul
they contain when dry about 1 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and froi
3 to 5 per cent, of potash, together with 2| to 4| per cent, of nitrogt
partly in the form of nitrate, so that to enable the tobacco plant i
flourish, it must have a rich soil or continual manuring.^
1 DragendorfF's Jahre.tbericht, 1874. 98.
- Poggiale and Marty (1870) stated hydrO'
cyanic acid to be absent.
3 For further particulars on the chem
try of tobacco cultivation see Boussingau
AitH, de Chim. et de P/iys. ix. (1866) 50.
FOLIA DIGITALIS.
469
The lime, umonnting to between a quarter and a half of the entire
quantity of ash, is in the leaf combined with organic acids, especially
malic, [)erhaps also citric. Tiie proportion of potash varies greatly, but
may amount to about 30 per cent, of the ash.
Commerce — There were imported into the United Kingdom in the
year 1872, 45,549,700 lb. of unmanufactured tobacco, rather more than
half of which was derived from the United States of America. The
total value of the commodity thus imported was £1,563,382; and the
duty levied upon the quantity retained for home consumption amounted
to £6,694,037. In 1876 the consumption of tobacco had increased to
47,000,000 lb., ?'. e. 1^ lb. per head of the population.
In the United States 559,049 acres of land being in 1875 under
cultivation with tobacco yielded a crop of 367,000,000 lb.
Uses — Tobacco has some reputation in the removal of alvine ob-
structions, but it is a medicine of great potency and is very rarely used.
Substitutes — Of the other species of Nicotiana cultivated as
Tobacco, iY. rudica L. is probably the most extensively grown. It is
easily distinguished by its greenish yellow flowers, and its stalked
ovate leaves. In spite of their coarser texture, the leaves dry more
easily than those of Tabacum, and with some care may even be
made to retain their green colour. N. rustica furnishes East Indian
Tobacco, also the kinds known as Latakia and Turkish Tobacco.
iY. 2)ei'sica, Lindl. yields the tobacco of Shiraz. N. quadrivalvis
Pursh, N. mtdticalois Lindl. and iY rcpanda Willd. are also cultivated
plants, the last named, a plant of Havana, being used in the manufac-
ture of a much valued kind of cigar.
SCROPHULARIACE^.
FOLIA DIGITALIS.
Foa:glove Leaves; F. Feuilles cle Digitale; G. Fingerhutbldtter.
Botanical Origin — Digitalis |)Zfrpx7-ea L., an elegant and stately
plant, common throughout the greater part of Europe, but preferring
siliceous soils and generally absent from limestone districts. It is found
on the edges of woods and thickets, on bushy ground and commons,
becoming a mountain plant in the warm parts of Europe. It occurs in
the island of Madeira, in Portugal, Central and Southern Spain, Nor-
thern Italy, France, Germany, the British Isles and Southern Sweden,
and in Norway as far as 63° N. lat.; it is however very unequally dis-
tributed, and is altogether wanting in the Swiss Alps and the Jura.^
As a garden plant it is well known.
History — The Welsh " Physicians of Myddvai " appear to have
frequently made use of foxglove for the preparation of external medi-
cines.' Fuchs ^ and Tragus ^ figured the plant ; the former gave it the
^ Dr. R. Cunningham found (1868) Digi-
talis purpu7-ea completely naturalized about
San Carlos in the Island of Chiloe in
Southern. Chili.
- Mcddrjgon Myddfai (see Appendix) in
many places.
3 De Hint. Siirpium, 1542. 892.
* De Stirpium . . . nonicnclaturis, etc.
1552 — ' ' Campaiiida sylvestj-is seu Digitalis."
470
SCROPHULARIACE^.
name of Digitalis, remarking that up to the time at which he v
there was none for the plant in either Greek or Latin. At that p
it was reo-arded as a violent medicine. Parkinson recommended
O
1640 in the "Theatrum botanicum," and it had a place in the Lo
Pharmacopceia of 1650 and in several subsequent editions. The i:
tigatioii of its therapeutic powers (1776-9) and its introduction
modern practice are chiefly due to Withering, a well-known En
botanist and physician.^
The word fox-glove is said to be derived from the Anglo-S
Foxes-glexv, i.e. fox-music, in allusion to an ancient musical in.stru
consisting of bells hung on an arched support.'^ In the Scaudin;
idioms the plant bears likewise the name of foxes hell.
Description — Foxglove is a biennial or perennial, the leav
which ought to be taken from the plant while in full flower,
lower leaves are ovate with the lamina running down into a long f.
those of the stem become gradually narrower, passing into o
lanceolate with a short broadly-winged stalk, or are sessile. All
tlie margin crenate, crenate-dentate, or sub-serrate, are more oi
softly pubescent or nearly glabrous on the upper side, much palei
densely pubescent on the under, which is marked with a prom
network of veins. The principal veins diverge at a very acute
from the midrib, which is thick and fleshy. The lower leave:
often a foot or more long, by 5 to 6 inches broad ; those of the stei
smaller.
When magnified, the tip of each crenature or serrature of the 1
seen to be provided with a small, shining, wart-like gland. The
of the lower surface are simple, and composed of jointed cells \
flatten in drying ; those of the upper surface are shorter.
In preparing foxglove for medicinal use, it is the custom of
druggists to remove the whole of the petiole and the thicker ps
the midrib, retaining only the thin lamina, which is dried with a g
heat.'' The fresh leaf has when bruised an unpleasant hei-baceous s
which in drying becomes agreeable and tea-like. The dried leaf
very bitter taste.
Chemical Composition — Since the beginning of the pr
century, numerous attempts have been made to prepare the a
principle of foxglove, and the name Digitalin has been success
bestowed on widely diflerent substances.
Among the investigators engaged in these researches, we
point out Walz (1846-1858), Kosmann (1845-46, 1860), Hoi
partly with Quevenne (1845-61), Nativelle (1872), and espe(
Schmiedeberg (1874).'' The latter has prepared a new, well-del
crystal! izable principle, Digitoxin, from Digitalis. He exha
with water the leaves previously dried and powdered, and
extracted them repeatedly with dilute alcohol, 50 per cent.;
^ Withering (William), Account of the
Fox-(jlove, Birmingham, 1785. 8°.
- Frioi', Pupului-Nam.es of British Plants,
ed. 2. 1870. 84.
' This method of preparing the leaf was
directed in the London Pharmacopceia of
1851, but it had long been in use. No
particular directions are given i
British Pharmacopoeia.
■* For further particulars on Scfe
berg's very elaborate researches, the
may consult my abstract of them in /-
Journ. V. (1875) 741.— F.A.F.
FOLIA DIGITALIS.
471
tincture thus obtained was then mixed with basic acetate of lead as
long as it produced a precipitate. The latter being separated, the
filtered liquid was concentrated and the deposit now formed, after
some days, removed from the aqueous liquid. It was then washed
with a dilute solution of carbonate of sodium, by which a yellow matter
(chi'ysophan?) was partly removed. The substance was then dried, and
yielded to chloi'oform a brownish mass, which after the chloroform had
been driven off, was purified by benzin. . This liquid dissolved the
remainder of the yellow or orange matter, and a little fat, leaving crude
digitoxin, which is to be purified by recrystallization from warm
alcohol, 80 per cent., adding a little charcoal. This purification still
yields yellowish crystals, which ought to be washed again with car-
bonate of sodium, ether or benzin, and then recrystallized from warm
absolute alcohol, containing a little chloroform. This process, however,
will only afford colourless crystals provided it be so performed as to
cause the separation of digitoxin on account of the cooling of the
solution, not by the evaporation of the solvent. If the liquid is instead
allowed to evaporate it will soon assume a dai'ker coloration. In
the way just pointed out, perfectly colourless scales or needle-
shaped crystals of pure digitoxin are at length formed, the yield
being not more considerable than about one part from 10,000 of dried
leaves.
Digitoxin is insoluble in water, to which it does not even impart
its intensely bitter taste as displayed in the alcoholic solution. It is
likewise insoluble in benzin or bisulphide of carbon, very sparingl}'-
soluble in ether, more abundantly so in chloroform, the latter liquid
however acting but very slowly on digitoxin. Its best solvent is
alcohol, either cold or warm. The composition of digitoxin answers to
the formula, C'^H^^Ol
Digitoxin warmed with concentrated hydrochloric acid assumes a
yellow or greenish hue, the same which is commonly attributed to
commercial " digitalin." Digitoxin is not a saccharogenous matter ; in
alcoholic solution it is decomposed by dilute acids, and then affords
Toxiresin, an uncrystallizable, yellowish substance, which may easily
be separated on account of its ready solubility in ether ; it appears to
be produced also if digitoxin is maintained for some time in the state
of fusion at about 240° C. Toxiresin proved to be a very powerful
poison, acting energetically on the heart and muscles of frogs. The
very specific action of foxglove is due — not exclusively — to digitoxin ;
it is so highly poisonous that Schmiedeberg thinks it not at all fit for
medicinal use, which might rather be confined to other constituents of
foxglove, as, for instance, to those obtained from the seeds under the
names of digitalin and digitalein. The latter, however, are of more
difficult extraction than digitoxin.
The preparation of digitoxin is similar to that of JSfativelle's crystal-
lized " digitalin ; " the former as well as paradigitogenin^ are largely
found in Nativelle's digitalin.
The Digitalin of Nativelle — The researches on digitalis of this
chemist, for which the Orfila prize of 6000 francs was awai*ded in
1872, have resulted in the extraction of a crystallized preparation
' A derivative of diijitoxin as extracted by Schmiedeberg from the seeds of foxglove.
472
ACANTHACEiE.
possessing active medicinal properties. It may be obtained by tli(3
following process : —
The leaves, previously exhausted by water, ai-e extracted by means
of alcohol, sp. gr. HSO. The tincture is concentrated until its weight is
equal to that of the leaves used, and then diluted by adding thrice its
weight of water. A pitch-like deposit is then formed ; digitalein and
other substances remaining in solution. The deposit dried on blotting
paper is boiled with double its weight of alcohol, sp. gr. '907; on cooling,
crystals are slowly deposited during some days. They should be washed
with a little diluted alcohol ('DoS) and dried: to purify them, they should
be first recrystallized from chloroform, and subsequently from boiling
alcohol sp. gr. '828, some charcoal being used at the same time. Digi-
talin is thus obtained in colourless needle-sliapcd crystals. It assumes
an intense emerald green colour when moistened with hydrochloric
acid, and has an extremely bitter taste. On the animal economy, it
displays all the peculiar effects of digitalis, the dose of a milligramme
taken by an adult person once or twice a day occasioning somewhat
alarming symptoms, but smaller doses exhibiting the sedative power of
the herb.
Another body occurring in foxglove is the crystallizable sugar
called Inosite, which was detected by Marmd in the leaves, as well as
in those of dandelion (p. 394). Pectic matters are also present in fox-
glove leaves.
Uses — Foxglove is a very potent drug, having the effect of reducing
the frequency and force of the heart's action, and hence is given in
special cases as a sedative ; it is also employed as a diuretic.
Adulteration — The dried leaves of some other plants have occa-
sionally been supplied for those of foxglove. Such are the leaves
of Verhaseum, which are easily recognized by their thick coat of
branched stellate hairs; of Inula Conyza DC. and /. Heleniura L.,
which have the margin almost entire, and in the latter plant the veins
diverging nearly at a right angle from the midrib ; in both plants the
under side of the leaf is less strongly reticulated than in foxglove. But
to avoid all chance of mistake, it is desirable that druggists should
purchase the fresh flo%oeriv(j 'plxmt, which cannot be confounded with
any other, and strip and dry the leaves for themselves.
ACANTHACE^.
HERBA ANDROGRAPHIDIS.
Kar'iydt or Creyat.
Botanical Origin — Andvographis^ imniculata Nees ab E. {.Justicia
Burm.j, an annual herb, 1 to 2 feet high, common throughout India,
growing under the shade of trees. It is found likewise in Ceylon and
Java, and has been introduced into the West Indies. In some districts
of India it is cultivated.
^ Attdrorjrapldf! from nvSfp and ypnrfiU, filament. — Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's
ill allusion to the brash-like anther and lied. Plants, part 23 (1877).
OLEUM SESAMI
473
History — It is probable that in ancient Hindu medicine this plant
was administered indiscriminately with chiretta, wliich, with several
other species of Ophelia, is known in India by nearly the same vernacular
names. Ainslie asserts that it was a component of a famous bitter
tincture called by the Portuguese of India Dvoga amara ; but on con-
sulting the authority he quotes^ we find that the bitter employed in
that medicine was Galumha. Andro(jra2)Jtis is known in Bengal as
Mahd-tita, literally king of bitters, from the Sanskrit tikta, " bitter," a
title of which it has been thought so far deserving that it has been
admitted to a place in the Pharmacopoeia of India.
Description — The straight, knotty branch stems are obtusely
quadrangular, about of an inch thick at the base, of a dark green
colour and longitudinally furrowed. The leaves are opposite, petiolate,
lanceolate, entire, the largest | an inch or more wide and 3 inches long.
Their upper surface is dark green, the under somewhat lighter, and as
seen under a lens finely granular. The leaves are very thin, brittle, and,
like the stems, entirely glabrous.
In the well-dried specimen before us, for which we are indebted to
Dr. G. Bidie of Madras, flowers are wanting and only a few roots are
present. The latter are tapering and simple, emitting numerous thin
rootlets, greyish externally, woody and whitish within. The plant is
inodorous and has a persistent pure bitter taste.
Chemical Composition — The aqueous infusion of the herb exhibits
a slight acid reaction, and has an intensely bitter taste, which appears
due to an indifferent, non-basic principle, for the usual reagents do not
indicate the presence of an alkaloid. Tannic acid on the other hand
produces an abundant precipitate, a compound of itself with the bitter
principle. The infusion is but little altered by the salts of iron ; it
contains a considerable quantity of chloride of sodium.
Uses — Employed as a pure bitter tonic like quassia, gentian, or
chiretta, with the last of which it is sometimes confounded.
SESAMEiE.
OLEUM SESAMI.
Sesame Oil, Gingeli, Gingili or Jinjili Oil, Til or Teel Oil, Benne Oil;
F. Huile de Sesame; G. Sesamol.
Botanical Origin — Sesamum indicum DC, an erect, pubescent
annual herb, 2 to 4 feet high,^ indigenous to India, but propagated by
cultivation throughout the warmer regions of the globe, and not now
found anywhere in the wild state. In Europe, Sesamum is only grown
in some districts of Turkey and Greece, and on a small scale in Sicily
and in the islands of Malta and Gozo. It does not succeed well even
in the South of France.
History — Sesame is a plant which we find on the authority of the
1 Paolino da San Bartolomeo, Voyage to - Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Med.
the End Indies (1770-1789), translated from Plants, part 23 (1877).
the German, Loud. 1800. pp. 14. 409.
474
SESAMES.
most ancient documents of Egyptian, Hebrew/ Sanskrit, Greek, and
Roman literature, has been used by mankind for the sake of its oily seeds
from the earliest times. The Egyptian name Semsemt already occurring
in the Papyrus Ebers, is still existing in the Coptic Semsem, the Arabic
Simsim, and the modern Sesamum. The Indian lano-ua^es have their
own terms for it, the Hindustani from the Sanskrit Tila, being one
of the best known.^ Tila already occurs in the Vedic literature. In
the days of Pliny the oil was an export from Sind to Em-ope by way
of the Red Sea, precisely as the seeds are at the present day.
During the middle ages the plant, then known as Suseman or
Semjjsen, was cultivated in Cyprus, Egypt and Sicily ; the oil was an
article of import from Alexandria to Venice. Joachim Camerarius gave
a good figure of the plant in his " Hortus medicus et philosophicus "
1588 (tab. 44). In modern times sesame oil gave way to that of olives,
yet at present it is an article which, if not so renowned, is at least of
far greater consumption.
Production — The plant comes to perfection within 3 or 4 months ;
its capsule contains numerous flat seeds, which are about of an inch
long by o-V thick, and weigh on an average yV of a grain. To collect
them, the plant when mature is cut down, and stacked in heaps for a
few days, after which it is exposed to the sun during the day, but
collected again into heaps at night. By this process the capsules
gradually ripen and burst, and the seeds fall out.^
The plant is found in several varieties affording respectively white,
yellowish, reddish, brown or black seeds. The dark seeds may be de-
prived of a part of their colouring matter by washing, which is some-
times done with a view to obtain a paler oil.*
We obtained fi-om yellowish seeds 56 per cent, of oil ; on a large
scale, the jdeld varies with the variety of seed employed and the pro-
cess of pressing, from 45 to 50 per cent.
Description — The best kinds of sesame oil have a mild agreeable
taste, a light yellowish colour, and scarcely any odour ; but in these
respects the oil is liable to vary with the circumstances already men-
tioned. The Avhite seeds produced in Sind are reputed to yield the
finest oil.
We prepared some oil by means of ether, and found it to have a
sp. gr. of 0 919 at 23° C; it solidified at 5° C, becoming rather turbid
at some degrees above this temperature. Yet sesame oil is more fluid
at ordinary temperatures than ground-nut oil, and is less prone to
change by the influence of the air. It is in fact, when of fine quality,
one of the less alterable oils.
Chemical Composition — The oil is a mixture of olein, stearin and
1 Isaiah xxviii. 27.
-' The word Giiujdi (or Gert/elim), which
Eoxburgh remarks was (as it is now) in
common use among Europeans, derives from
the Arabic clnddudun, denoting sesame
seed in its husks before being reaped (Dr.
Eice). The word Benni is, we believe, of
West African origin, and has no connection
with Ben, tlie name of Morinija.
For further particulars see Buchanan,
JournKij from Madras tliroiKjh Mijsore, etc.
i. (1807) 95. and ii. 224.
■* This curious process is described in the
Beportx of Juries, Madras ExhibiJion, 1856,
p. 31. — That the colouring matter of the
seeds is actually soluble in water is con-
firmed by Lepine of Pondicherry as we have
learnt from his manuscript notes presented
to the Musee des Produits des Colonies
de France at Paris. The seeds may even
be used as a dye.
OLEUM SESAMI.
475
other compounds of glycerin with acids of the fatty series. We pre-
pared with it in the usual way a lead plaster, and treated the latter
with ether in order to remove the oleate of lead. The solution was
then decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen, evaporated and exposed to
hyponitric vapours. By this process we obtained 72'6 per cent, of
Elaidic Acid. The specimen of sesam^ oil prepared by ourselves con-
sequently contained 7(3"0 per cent, of olein, inasmuch as it must be
supposed to be present in the form of ti'iolein. In commercial oils the
amount of olein is certainly not constant.
As to the solid part of the oil, we succeeded in removing fatty acids,
freely melting, after repeated crystallizations, at 67° C, which may con-
sist of stearic acid mixed with one or more of the allied homologous
acids, as palmitic and myristic. By precipitating with acetate of
magnesium, as proposed by Heintz, we finally isolated acids melting at
62-5 to 53°, 62 to 63°, and 69-2° C, which cori'espond to myristic,
palmitic and stearic acids.
The small proportion of solid matter which separates from the oil on
congelation cannot be removed by pressure, for even at many degrees
below the freezing point it remains as a soft magma. In this respect
sesame oil differs from that of olive.
Sesame oil contains an exti'emely small quantity of a substance,
perhaps resinoid, which has not yet been isolated. It may be obtained
in solution by repeatedly shaking 5 volumes of the oil with one of
glacial acetic acid. If a cold mixture of equal weights of sulphuric
and nitric acids is added in like volume, the acetic solution acquires a
greenish yellow hue. The same experiment being made with spirit of
wine substituted for acetic acid, the mixtui-e assumes a blue colour,
quickly changing to greenish yellow. The oil itself being gently shaken
with sulphuric and nitric acids, takes a fine green hue, as shown in
1852 by Behrens, who at the same time pointed out that no other oil
exhibits this reaction. It takes place even with the bleached and per-
fectly colourless oil. Sesame oil added to other oils, if to a larger
extent than 10 per cent., may be recognised by this test. The reaction
ought to be observed with small quantities, say 1 gramme of the oil and
1 gramme of the acid mixture, previously cooled.
Commerce — The commercial importance of Sesam^ May be at once
illustrated by the fact that Finance imported in 1870, 83 millions ; in
1871, 57^ millions; and 1872, 50 millions of kilogrammes (984,693
cwt.) of the seed.^
The quantity shipped from British India in the year 1871-72 was
565,854 cwt., of which France took no less than 495,414 cwt.^ The
imports of the seed into the United Kingdom in 1870 were to the value
of only about £13,000.
Sesame is extensively produced in Corea and in the Chinese island of
Formosa, which in 1869 exported the exceptionally large quantity of
46,000 peculs^ (1 pecul = 133 lb.). Zanzibar and Mozambique also fur-
nish considerable quantities of sesame, whilst on the West Coast of
^ Documents Statistiques rdunis par I'Ad-
ministraiion des Douanes sur le commerce de
la France, annee 1872.
^ Statement of the Trade and Navhjation
of Brifish India, tvith Foreirjn Countries,
Calcutta, 1872. 62.
^ Reports on Trade at Ike Treatii Ports in
China fur 1870, Shanghai, 1871. 81.
476
LABIATiE.
Africa the staple oil-seed is Ground-nxit (Arachis hypo(jcm L. )). IfSti).
The chief j)lace for the manufacture of sesamd oil is Marseilles.
Uses — Good sesame oil might be employed without disadvantage
for all the purposes for which olive oil is used.^ As its congealing
point is some degrees below that of olive oil, it is even more fitted for
cool climates. Sesam^ seeds are largely consumed as food both in India
and Tropical Africa. The foliage of the plant abounds in mucilage, and
i^i the United States is sometimes used in the form of poultice.
LABI AM.
FLORES LAVANDULA.
Lavender Flowers; F. Fleurs de Lavande ; G. Lavendelblumen.
Botanical Origin — Lavandula vera DC, a shrubby plant growing
in the wild state from 1 to 2 feet high, but attaining 3 feet or more
under cultivation. It is indigenous to the mountainous regions of the
countries bordering the western half of the Mediterranean basin. Thus
it occurs in Eastern Spain, Southern France (extending northward to
Lyons and Dauphiny), in Upper Italy, Corsica, Calabria and Northern
Africa, — on the outside of the olive region.^ In cultivation it grows
very well in the open air throughout the greater part of Germany and
as far north as Norway and Livonia; the northern plant would even
appear to be more fragrant, according to Schiibeler.^
History — There has been much learned investigation in order to
identify lavender in the writings of the classical authors, but the result
has not been satisfactory, and no allusion has been found which
unquestionably refers either to L. vera or to L. Spica* whereas L.
Stoichas was perfectly familiar to the ancients.
The earliest mention of lavender that we have observed, occurs in
the writings of the abbess Hildegard,^ who lived near Bingen on the
Rhine during the 12th century, and who in a chapter De LMvendula
alludes to the strong odour and many virtues of the plant. In a poem
of the school of Salerno entitled Flos Medicince'^ occur the following
lines : —
"Salvia, castoreiim, lavendula, primula veris.
Nasturtium, athanas hsec sanant paralytica membra. "
In 1387 cushions of satin wei'e made for King Charles VI. of France,
to be stutfed with " lavende."'^ Its use was also popular at an early
period in the British isles, for we find " Llafant" or " Llafanllys"
mentioned among the remedies of the " Physicians of Myddvai."** And
^ For pharmaceutical uses, the larger
proportion of olein and consequent lesser
tendency to solidify, should be remem-
bered.
^ On Mont Ventoux near Avignon, the
region of Lavandula vera is comprised, ac-
cording to Martins, between 1500 and 4500
feet above the sea-level. — Ann. dvs Sc.
Nat.. Bot. X. (1838) 145. 149.
3 Pflanzcnwdt A''orwe(jens, Christiania
(1873-1875) 200.
■* F. de Gingins-Lassaraz, Hist, dcs La-
vandcs, Geneve et Paris, 1826.
^ Opera Omnia, accurante J. P. Migne,
Paris, 1855. 1143.
* S. de Renzi, CoUcctio Salernitana, Na-
poli, i. 417-516.
' Douiit d'Arcq, Comjifes de VArcjenterie
des rots de France, ii. (1874) 148.
Meddyrjon Alydclfai (see Appendix)
287.
FLORES LAVANDULA.
477
in Walton's "Description of an inn," about the year 1G8() to 1(390, we
tind the walls stuck round with ballads, where the sheets smelt of
lavender. . . . ^
Lavender was well known to the botanist of the 16th century.
Description — The flowers of Common Lavender are produced in a
lax terminal spike, supported on a long naked stalk. They are arranged
in 6 to 10 whorls (verticillasters), the lowest being generally far remote
from those above it. A whorl consists of two cymes, each having, when
fully developed, about three flowers, below which is a rhomboidal
acuminate bract, as well as several narrow smaller bracts belonging to
the particular flowers. The calyx is tubular, contracted towards the
mouth, marked with 13 nerves and 5-toothed, the posterior tooth much
larger than the others. The corolla of a violet colour is tubular, two-
lipped, the upper lip with two, the lower with three lobes. Both corolla
and calyx, as well as the leaves and stalks, are clothed with a dense
tomentum of stellate hairs, amongst which minute shining oil-glands
can be seen by the aid of a lens.
The flowers emit when rubbed a delightful fragrance, and have
a pleasant aromatic taste. The leaves of the plant are oblong-
linear, or lanceolate, revolute at the margin and very hoary when
young.
For pharmaceutical use or as a perfume, lavender flowers are stripped
from the stalks and dried by a gentle heat. They are but seldom
kept in the shops, being grown almost entirely for the sake of their
essential oil.
Production of Essential Oil — Lavender is cultivated in the
parishes of Mitcham, Carshalton and Beddington and a few adjoining
localities, all in Surrey, to the extent of about 300 acres. It is also
grown at Market Deeping in Lincolnshire; also at Hitchin in Hertford-
shire, where lavender was apparently cultivated as early as the year
1568.°
At the latter place there were in 1871 about 50 acres so cropped.
The plants which are of a small size, and grown in rows in dry
open fields, flower in July and August. The flowers are usually cut
with the stalks of full length, tied up in mats, and carried to the
distillery there to await distillation. This is performed in the same
large stills that are used for peppermint. The flowers are commonly
distilled with the stalks as gathered, and either fresh, or in a more or
less dry state. A few cultivators distill only the flowering heads, there-
by obtaining a superior product. Still more rarely, the flowers are
stripped from the stalks, and the latter rejected in toto.^ According to
the careful experiments of Bell,^ the oil made in this last method is of
exceedingly fine quality. The produce he obtained in 1846 was 26-i
ounces per 100 lb. of flowers, entirely freed from stalks ; in 1847, 25i
ounces ; and in 1848, 20 ounces : the quantities of flowei-s used in the
respective years were 417, 633, and 923 lb. Oil distilled from the stalks
alone was found to have a peculiar rank odour. In the distillation of
^ Macaulay, Hist, of England, i. ch. 3,
Inns.
2 Perhs, Proc. American Pharm. Associa-
tion, 1876. 819.
^ For more particulars see the interesting
account of Holmes, Pharm. Journ. viii.
(1877) 301. The author describes also the
disease which is affecting the lavender
since about the year 1860.
* Pharm. Journ. viii. (1849) 276.
478 LABIATiE.
I
lavender, it is said that the oil which comes over in the earlier part of
the operation is of superior flavour.
We have no accurate data as to the produce of oil obtained in the
ordinary way, but it is universally stated to vary extremely with the
season. Warren^ gives it as 10 to 12 lb., and in an exceptional case as
much as 24 lb. from the acre of ground under cultivation. At Hitchin,^
the yield would appear to approximate to the last-named quantity.
The experiments performed in Bell's laboratory as detailed above, show
that the flowers deprived of stalks afforded on an average exactly li
per cent, of essential oil.
Oil of Lavandula vera is distilled in Piedmont, and in the
mountainous parts of the South of France, as in the villages about
Mont Ventoux near Avignon, and in those some leagues west of
Montpellier (St. Guilhen-le-d^sert, Montarnaud and St. Jean de Fos) —
in all cases from the wild plant. This foreign oil is off'ered in com-
merce of several qualities, the highest of which commands scarcely
one-sixth the price of the oil produced at Mitcham.^ The cheaper sorts
at least are obtained by distilling the entire plf^mt.
Chemical Composition — The only constituent of lavender flowers
that has attracted the attention of chemists is the essential oil {Oleum
Lavandula). It is a pale yellow, mobile liquid, varying in sp. gr. from
0"87 to 0'94! (Zeller), having a very agreeable odour of the flowers and a
strong aromatic taste. The oil distilled at Mitcham (1871) we find to
rotate the plane of polarization 4"2° to the left, in a column of 50 mm.
Oil of lavender seems to be a mixture in variable proportions of
oxygenated oils and stearoptene, the latter being identical, according to
Dumas, with common camphor. In some samples it is said to exist to
the extent of one-half, and to be sometimes deposited from the oil in
cold weather ; we have not however been able to ascertain this fact.
The oil according to Lallemand (1859) appears also to contain compound
ethers.
Commerce — Dried lavender flowers are the object of some trade
in the south of Europe. According to the official Tableau general du
Commerce de la France, Lavender and Orange Flowers (which are not
separated) were exported in 1870 to the extent of 110,958 kilo.
(244,741 lb.), — chiefly to the Barbary States, Turkey and America.
There are no data to show the amount of oil of lavender imported into
England.
Uses — Lavender flowers are not prescribed in modern English
medicine. The volatile oil has the stimulant propei'ties common to
bodies of the same class and is much used as a perfume.
Other Species of Lavender.
1. Lavandula Spica DC. is a plant having a very close resemblance
to L. vera, of which Linneeus considered it a variety, though its dis-
tinctness is now admitted. It occurs over much of the area of L. vera,
but does not extend so far north, nor is it found in such elevated situa-
1 Pharm. Journ, vi. (186.5) 257. Chester quarts " of oil. — One Winchester
2 Ibid. i. (1860) 278. The statement is quart = 282 litres.
that an acre of land yields " about 6 Win- ^ The Mitcham oil fetches 30s. to GOs.
per lb. , according to the season.
HEUBA MENTHA VIRIDIS.
479
tions, or beyond the limit of the ohve. It is in fact a more southern
plant and more susceptible to cold, so that it cannot be cultivated in the
open soil in Britain except in sheltered positions. In Languedoc and
Provence, it is the common species from the sea-level up to about 2000
feet, where it is met by the more hardy L. vei-a.^
Lavandula Sjnca is distilled in the south of France, the flowering
wild plant in its entire state being used. The essential oil, which is
termed in French Essence d' Aspic, is known to English druggists as
Oleavi Lavandidm spicoi, Oleum Spiccc, or Oil of Spike. It resembles
true oil of lavender, but compared with that distilled in England it
has a much less delicate fragrance. This however may depend upon the
frequent adulteration, for we find that flowers of the two plants (L.
vera and L. Sjjica) grown side by side in an English garden, are hardJ-y
distinguishable in fragrance. Porta already even, in speaking of the
oil of lavender flowers, stated:^ "e sjnca fvagrantior excipitur, ut
illud quod ex Gallia provenit . . . ." — Lallemand (1859) isolated
from oil of spike a camphor which he believes to be identical with
common camphor.
Oil of Spike is used in porcelain painting and in veterinary
medicine.
2. Lavandula Stoechas L. — This plant was well known to the
ancients ; Dioscorides remarks that it gives a name to the Stoechades,
the modern isles of Hieres near Toulon, where the plant still abounds.
It has a wider range than the two species of Lavandula already
described, for it is found in the Canaries and in Portugal, and eastward
throughout the Mediterranean region to Constantinople and Asia
Minor. It may at once be known from the other lavenders by its
flower-spike being on a short stalk, and terminating in 2 or 3 con-
spicuous purple bracts.
The flowers, called Flores Stoechados or Stoechas arabica,^ were
formerly kept in the shops, and had a place in the London Pharma-
copoeia down to 1746. We are not aware that they are, or ever were
distilled for essential oil, though they are stated to be the source of
True Oil of Spiked
HERBA MENTHyE VIRIDIS.
Spearmint.
Botanical Origin — Mentha viridis Jj. is a fragrant perennial })lant,
chiefly known in Europe, Asia and North America, as the Common
Mint of gardens, and only found apparently wild in countries where it
has long been cultivated. It occurs occasionally in Britain under such
circumstances.^
^ On the high land between Nice and
Turbia, I have observed the two species
growing together, and that L. vera is in
flower two or three weeks earlier than L,
Spica. — D. H.
2 De distillatione, Roma', 1608. 87.
* The incorrectness of the term Arabica
is noticed by Pomet. How it came to be
applied we know not.
^Pereira, Elem. of Mat. Med. ii. (1850)
1.368. — Nor do we know if L. lanata Boiss.,
a very fragi-ant sjjecies closely allied to L.
tSpka DC. , and anative of Spain, is distilled
in that country.
^Bentham, Handbook of the British Flora,
1858. 413.— Parkinson (1640) remarks of
SpeareMint that it is "onely found planted
in gardens with us."
480
LABIATiE.
Mentha viridis is regarded by Bentliaui as not improbably a variety
of M. silvestris L., perpetuated through its ready propagation by suckei's.
J. G. Baker remarks, that while these two plants are sufficiently distinct
as found in England, yet continental forms occur which bridge over their
differences.^
History — Mint is mentioned in all early medipeval lists of plants,
and was certainly cultivated in the convent gardens of the 9th century.
Turner, who has been called " the father of English botany," states in
his HerhalP that the garden mint of his time was also called " Spere
Mynte." We find spearmint also described by Gerarde who terms it
Mentha Romana vel Sarracenica, or Common Garden Mint, but his
statement that the leaves are white, soft, and hairy does not well apply
to the plant as now found in cultivation.
Description — Spearmint has a perennial root-stock which throws
out long runners. Its stem 2 to 3 feet high is erect, when luxuriant
bi-anched below with short erecto-patent branches, firm, quadrangular,
naked or slightly hairy beneath the nodes, often brightly tinged with
purple. Leaves sessile or the lower slightly stalked, lanceolate or ovate-
lanceolate, rounded or even cordate at the base, dark green and glabrous
above, paler and prominently veined with green or purple beneath, rather
thickly glandular, but either quite naked or hairy only on the midrib
and principal veins, the point narrowed out and acute, the teeth sharp
but neither very close nor deep, the lowest leaves measuring about 1
inch across by 3 or 4 inches long. Inflorescence a panicled arrange-
ment of spikes, of which the main one is 3 or 4 inches long by f inch
wide, the lowest whorls sometimes ^ an inch from each other and the
lowest bracts leafj^. Bracteoles linear-subulate, equalling or exceeding
the expanded flowers, smooth or slightly ciliated. Pedicels about f line
long, purplish glandulai", but never hairy. Calyx also often purplish,
the tube campanulato-cj'lindrical, f line long, the teeth lanceolate-
subulate, equalling the tube, the flower part of which is naked, but the
teeth and of"ten the upper part clothed more or less densely with erecto-
patent hairs. Corolla reddish-purple, about twice as long as the calyx,
naked both within and without. Not smooth.
The plant varies slightly in the shape of its leaves, elongation of
spike and hairiness of calyx. The entire plant emits a most fragrant
odour when rubbed, and has a pungent aromatic taste.
Production — Spearmint is grown in kitchen gardens, and more
largely in market gardens. A few acres are under cultivation with it
at Mitcham, chiefly for the sake of the herb, which is sold mostly in a
dried state.
The cultivation of spearmint is carried on in the United States in
precisely the same manner as that of peppermint, but on a much smaller
scale. Mr. H. G. Hotchkiss of Lyons, Wayne County, State of New
York, has informed us that his manufacture of the essential oil amounted
in 1870 to 1162 lb. The plant he employs appears from the specimen
with which he has favoured us, to be identical with the spearmint of
English gardens, and is not the Curled Mint (Mentha crispa) of
Germany.
1 Seemann's Journal of Botany, Aug. ful description of Mentha viridis.
1865. p. 239. We borrow Mr. Baker's care- ^ Part 2. (1568) 54.
HERBA MENTHA PIPERITiE.
481
Chemical Composition — Spearmint yields an essential oil (Oleum
Menthce viridis) in which reside the medicinal virtues of the plant.
Kane,^ who examined it, gives its sp. gr. as 0'914, and its boiling point
as 160° C. The oil yielded him a considerahle amount of steai'optene.
Gladstone 2 found spearmint oil to contain a hydrocarbon almost
identical with oil of turpentine in odour and other physical properties,
mixed with an oxidized oil to which is due the peculiar smell of the
plant. The latter oil boils at 225° C. ; its sp. gr. is O'Ool, and it was
found to be isomeric with carvol, C'"ff^O. According to our experi-
ments the oil, distilled from Curled Mint grown in Germany, deviates
the plane of polarization 37°'4 to the left when examined in a column of
100 millimetres. We prepared from it the crystallized compound
(C'''H'^0)\SH-, and isolated from it the liquid C^oH^O, which differs from
carvol (see Fructus Carui, page 30G) by its levogyrate power.''
Uses — Spearmint is used in the form of essential oil and distilled
water, precisely in the same manner as peppermint. In the United
States the oil is also employed by confectioners and the manufacturers
of perfumed soap.
Substitutes — -Oil of spearmint is now rarely distilled in England,
its high cost^ causing it to be nearly unsaleable. The cheaper foi-eign
oil is offered in price-currents as of two kinds, namely J riieric<tn and
German. Of the first we have already spoken : the second, termed in
German Kr a itsemimol, is the produce of Mentha aquatlca Jj.yar. y cris^xi
Bentham, a plant cultivated in Northern Germany. Its oil seems to
agree with the oil of spearmint.
HERBA MENTHiE PIPERIT2E.
Peppermint; F. Mentlie poivree ; G. Pfefermmze.
Botanical Origin — Mentha pijierita Hudson (non Linn.), an erect
usually glabrous perennial, much resembling the Common Spearmint of
the gardens, but differino- from it in havino; the leaves all stalked, the
flowers larger, the upper whorls of flowers somewhat crowded togeUier,
and the lower separate. In the opinion of Bentham it is possibly a mere
variety of M. hirsiUa L., with which it can be connected by numerous
intermediate forms.
Peppermint rapidly propagates itself by runners, and is now found
in wet places in several parts of England, as well as on the Continent.
It is cultivated on the large scale in England, France, Germany, and
North America.
History — Mentha piperita was first observed in Hertfordshire by
Dr. Eales, and communicated to Ray, who in the second edition of his
Sy^iojJsis Stirpium Britannicariivi, 1096, noticed it under the name of
Mentha spicis hreviorihus et habitioribus, folUs Menthce fuscoi, sa'pore
fervido piperis; and in his Historia Plantarum^ as " Mentha palmtris
PhilosopJiical iJarjazine, xm. (18:^8) Ui. ■* Price from 1824 to 1839, 40s. to 48^.
- Journ of Chemical Society, ii. (1854) per lb.
11. 5 Tomus iii. (1704) 284.
Fluckiger, Pharm. Journ. vii. (1876) 75.
2 H
482
LABIATE.
. . . Peper-Mint."^ Dale, who found the plant in the adjoining county
of Essex, states'^ that it is esteemed a specific in renal and vesical cal-
culus; and Ray, in the third edition of his Synopsis, declares it superior
to all other mints as a remedy for weakness of the stomach and for
diarrhoea. Peppermint was admitted to the Loudon Pharmacopoeia in
1721, under the designation of Mentlia piperitis sapore.
The cultivation of peppermint at Mitcham in Surrey dates from about
1750,^ at which period only a few acres of ground were there devoted to
medicinal plants. At the end of the last century, above 100 acres were
croi:)ped with peppermint. But so late as 1 805 there were no stills at
Mitcham, and the herb had to be carried to London for the extraction of
the oil. Of late years the cultivation has diminished in extent, by reason
of the increased value of land and the competition of foreign oil of
peppermint.
On the Continent Mentha Piperitis was grown as early as 1771 at
Utrecht; Gaubius'' appears to have been the first to notice " Gamphora
Europaxi Menfhce Piperitidis," i.e. Menthol (see page 483).
In Germany peppermint became practically known in the latter
half of the last century, especially through the recommendation of
Kniofffe.'
Description — The rootstock of peppermint is perennial, throwing
out runners. The stem is erect, 3 to 4 feet high, when luxuriant some-
what branched below with erecto-patent branches, firm, quadrangular,
slightly hairy, often tinged with purple. Leaves all stalked, the stalks of
the lower ^ to | of an inch long, naked or nearly so, the leaf lanceolate,
narrowed or rather rounded towards the base, the point narrowed out and
acute, the lowest 2 to 3 inches long by about f of an inch broad, naked
and dull green above, paler and glandular all over, but only slightly hairy
upon the veins beneath; the teeth sharp, fine, and erecto-patent. Inflor-
escence in a loose lanceolate or acutely conical spike, 2 to 3 inches long by
about f of an inch broad at the base, the lowest whorls separate, and usually
the lowest bracts leaf-like. Bracteoles lanceolate acuminate, about
equalling the expanded flowers, slightly ciliated. Pedicels 1 to 1| lines
long, purplish, glandular but not hairy. Calyx often purplish, the tube
about 1 line long and the teeth | a line, the tube campanulate-cylindrical,
purplish, not haiiy, but dotted over with prominent glands; the teeth
lanceolate subulate, furnished with short erecto-patent hairs. Corolla
reddish purple about twice as long as the calyx, naked both within and
without. Nut smooth'' (rugose, according to our observation). The
odour and taste are strongly aromatic.
In var. 2. vulgaris of Sole, M. fjiperita |8. Smith, the plant is more
hairy, with the S})ike3 bi'oader and shorter, or even bluntly capitate.
Chemical Composition — The constituent for the sake of which
peppermint is cultivated is the essential oil. Oleum Menthce 2)iperifce, a
^ I have examined the original specimen
still preserved among Ray's plants in the
British Museum and find it to agree per-
fectly with the plant now in cultivation. —
D. H.
- PJiarmacologice Supplementum, Lond.
1705. 117.
^ Lysons, Environs of London,!. (1800)254.
* Adivrsario)'um varii argumenli liber
umtx, Leidae, 1771. 99.
^ De Menthd Piperitide Commentatio,
Erianga;, 1780.
6 This description is borrowed from Mr.
Baker's paper on the English Mints, re-
ferred to at page 480, note 1.
HERBA MENTHtE PIPERITA.
483
colourless, pale yellow, or greenish liquid, of sp. gr. varying from 0"84 to
0'92. We learn from information kindly supplied by Messrs. Schimmel
and Co., Leipzig, that the best peppermint grown in Germany, carefully
dried, affords from 1 to 125 per cent, of oil. It has a strong and agree-
able odour, with a powerful aromatic taste, followed by a sensation of
cold when air is drawn into the mouth. We find that the Mitcham oil
examined by polarized light in a column 50 mm. long, deviates from
14°-2 to 10"-7 to the left, American oil 4°-3.
When oil of peppermint is cooled to -4° C, it sometimes deposits
colourless hexagonal crystals oi Pcppermmt Cavijyhor, C'"H"OH, called
also Menthol. We have never observed it, nor are we aware that
menthol has been noticed in America, but it is largely aftbrded by
eastern mints, and found in commerce under the name of Chinese or
Japanese Oil of Pepperm int^ either liquid, and easily depositing the
camphor, or also forming a crystalline mass impregnated with the liquid
oil.
Pure menthol has the exquisite odour and taste of peppei'mint; it
forms hexagonal crystals, melting at 42" C, and boiling at 212° C. By
distilling menthol with P-0^ it yields menthene, C"ff^ a levogyrate
liquid, boiling at 163°, the peculiar odour of which reminds of pepper-
mint."^ The Chinese crystallized oil of peppermint has sometimes a
bitterish after-taste and an odour similar to that of spearinint, but by
recrystallization it assumes the pure flavour.
The liquid part of the oil of peppermint has not yet been thoroughly
investigated; it appears to consist chiefl3' of the compound C"H.'*0.
Upon the liquid portions depend the remarkable colorations which
the oil of peppermint is capable of assuming. If 50 to 70 drops of the
crude oil are shaken with one drop of nitric acid, sp. gr. about 1-2, the
mixture changes from faintly yellowish to brownish, and, after an hour
or two, exhibits a bluish, violet or greenish colour; in reflected light, it
appears reddish and not transparent. The colour thus produced lasts a
fortnight. We have thus examined the various samples of peppermint
oil at our command, and may state that the finest among them assume
the most beautiful coloration and fluorescence, which, however, shows
very appreciable diffei'ences. An inferior oil of American origin was
not coloured; and a very old sample of an originally excellent English
oil was likewise not coloured by the test. Menthol is not altered when
similarly treated.' The nitric acid test is not capable of revealing-
adulterations of peppermint oil, for the coloration takes place with
an oil to which a considerable quantity of oil of turpentine has been
added.
Remarkable colorations of a different hue are also displayed by
the various kinds of oil of peppermint if other chemical agents are
mixed with it. Thus green or brownish tints are produced by means of
anhydrous chloral; the oil becomes bluish or greenish or rose-coloured
> The Chinese oil is distilled at Canton,
and was exported from Canton in 1872
to the extent of 800 lbs. ; it was valued at
about 30s. per lb. — See also Fllickiger in
Phann. Jouni. Oct. 14, 1871. 321. As to
Japan we are informed that there are large
plantations of peppermint ; the oil " Haka-
no Abura " is exported from Hiogo and
Osaka, but frequently adulterated. Mr.
Holmes informed me (1879) that he found
the mother plant coming nearest to Me.ntha
canadensis. — F. A. F.
- On Japanese Peppermint Camphor see
Beckett and Alder Wright, Yearbook of
Pharm. 1875. 605.
» Pharm. Journ. Feb. 25, 1871. 682.
484
LABIATvE.
if shaken with a concentrated solution of bisulphite of sodium. It is
worthy of note that oils of different origin, which cannot be distin-
guished by means of nitric acid, exhibit totally different colorations if
mixed with either of the liquids just named, or with vapour of bromine.
This beliaviour may be of some use in the examination of commercial
sorts of peppermint oil.
As to bisulphite of sodium, it yields a solid compound with certain
kinds of peppermint oil, which we have not yet examined.
Production and Commerce — In several parts of Europe, as well
as in the United States, peppermint is cultivated on the large scale as a
medicinal plant.
In England the culture is carried on in the neighbourhood of Mitcham
in Surrey, near Wisebeach in Cambridgeshire, Market Deeping in Lin-
colnshire, and Hitchin in Hertfordshire.
At Mitcham in 1850 there were about 500 acres under cultivation;
in 18G4 only about 219 acres.' At Market Deeping there were in 1871
about 150 acres cropped with peppermint. The usual produce in oil may
be reckoned at 8 to 12 lb. per acre. The fields of peppermint at Mitcham
are level, with a rich, friable soil, well manured and naturally retentive
of moisture. The ground is kept free from weeds, and in other respects
is carefully tilled. The crop is cut in August, and the herb is usually
allowed to dry on the ground before it is consigned to the stills. These
are of large size, holding 1000 to 2000 gallons, and heated by coal ;
each still is furnished with a condensing worm of the usual character,
which passes out into a small iron cage secured by a padlock, in which
stands the oil separator. The distillation is conducted at the lowest
possible temperature. The water that comes over with the oil is not
distilled with another lot of herb, but is for the most part allowed to
run away, a very little only being reserved as a perquisite of the work-
men. The produce is very variable, and no facilities exist for estimat-
ing it with accuracy.^ It is however stated that a ton of dried
peppermint yields from 2h to 31 pounds of oil, which equals O'll to 0"15
per cent. But we have been assured by a grower at Mitcham that the
yield is as much as U pounds from a ton, or 0'26 per cent.
At Mitcham and its neighbourhood two varieties of peppermint are
at present recognized, the one being known as White Mint, the other as
Black Mint, but the diffei-ences between the two are very slight. The
Black Mint has imrple stems ; the White Mint, green stems, and as we
have observed, leaves rather moi'e coarsely serrated than those of the
Black. The Black Mint is more prolific in essential oil than the White,
and hence more generally cultivated ; but the oil of the latter is superior
in delicacy of odour and commands a higher price. White Mint is
said to be principally grown for drying in bundles, or as it is termed
" hunching."
Peppei'mint is grown on a vastly larger scale in America, the localities
where the cultivation is carried on being Southern Michigan, Western
1 Pharm. Journ. x. (1851)297. 340 ; also
Warren in Plumn. Journ. vi. (1865) 257.
To these papers and to personal inquiries
we are indebted for most of the particulars
relating to peppermint culture at Mitcham.
- Only the larger growers have stills.
These they let to smaller cultivators who
pay so much for distilling a charge, i.e.
whatever the still can be made to contain,
without reference to weight. Hence the
dried herb is preferred to the fresh, as a
larger quantity can be distilled at one time.
HERB A MENTHA PIPERITA.
485
New York, and Ohio. In Michigan where the plant was introduced in
1855, there were in 1858 about 2100 acres devoted to its growth, all with
the exception of about 100 acres being in the county of St. Joseph, where
there are about 100 distilleries. The average produce of this district
was estimated in 1858 at 15,0001b; but the yield fluctuates enormously,
and in the exceptionally fine season of 1855 it was reckoned at 30,000 lb.
We must suppose that it is sometimes much larger, for we have been
informed by Mr. H. G. Hotchkiss, of Lyons, Wayne County, State of
New York, one of the most well-known dealers, in a letter under date
Oct. 10, 1871, that the quantity sent out by him in the previous year
reached the enormous amount of 57,365 lb. It is further stated by the
ofEcial statistics of Hamburg for the year 1876 that this port received
25,840 lb. of peppermint oil from the United States and 14,890 lb. from
Great Britain.
From the statistics quoted by Stearns ^ it would appear that the
pi'oduce of oil per acre is somewhat higher in America than in England,
but from various causes infoi'mation on this head cannot be very
reliable.
Peppermint is cultivated at Sens in the department of the Yonne in
France ^ and in Germany in the environs of Leipzig, where the little
town of CoUeda produces annually as much as 40,000 cwts. of the herb.
The annual crop of the world is supposed to yield 90,000 lb. of
peppermint oil.^
Peppermint oil varies greatly in commercial value, that of Mitcham
commanding twice or three times as high a price as the finest American.
Even the oil of Mitcham is by no means uniform in quality, certain
plots of ground affording a product of superior fragrance. A damp
situation or badly drained ground is well known to be unfavour-
able to the quantity and quality of oil.
The presence of weeds among the peppermint is an important cause
of deterioration to the oil, and at Mitcham some growers give a gratuity
to their labours to induce them to be careful in throwing out other
plants when cutting the herb for distillation. One grower of peppermint
known to us was compelled to abandon the cultivation, owing to the
enormous increase of Mentha arvensis L. Avhich could not be separated,
and which when distilled with the peppermint ruined the flavour of the
latter. In America great detriment is occasioned by the growth of
Erigeron canadensis L. Newly cleared ground planted with peppermint
is liable to the intrusion of another plant of the order Gonipositw,
Uses — -A waterjT^ or spirituous solution of oil of peppermint is a
grateful stimulant, and is a frequent adjunct to other medicines. Oil of
peppermint is extensively consumed for flavouring sweatmeats and
cordials.
^ To whose paper On the Peppermint Plan- cult tar en France, ses jirocluits, falsifications
tations of Michigan m. the Proceedings of the de I'essence ct moyens de les reconnaitre,
Americ. Pharm. Assoc. for 1858, we owe Paris, 1868. 43 pages.
s liieracifolia
4
the few particulars for which we can here
afford space. — To be further consulted, same
Proceedings, 1876. 828.
3 Todd, Proceedings Am. Ph. Ass. 1876,
828.
-Joiirn. de Pharm. viii. (1868) 130.—
Abstract from Roze, La Menthe jpoivrie, sa
* Maisch American Journ. of Pharm.
March 1870. 120.
486
LABIATE.
I
HERBA PULEGII.
FennyroyaV; F. Menthe iioidiot, Pouliot vidgaire ; G. Pole!.
Botanical Origin — Mentha Pidegimn L., a small perennial aromatic
plant, common throughout the south of Europe and extending north-
ward to Sweden, Denmark, England and Ireland, eastward to Asia
Minor and Persia, and southward to Abyssinia, Algeria, Madeira and
TenerifFe. It has been introduced into North' and South America.
For medicinal use it is cultivated on a small scale.
History — Pennyro_yal was in high repute among the ancients.
Both Dioscorides and Pliny describe its numerous virtues. In Northern
Europe it was also much esteemed, as may be inferi-ed from the frequent
reference to it in the Anglo-Saxon and Welsh works on medicine.
Gerai-de considered the plant, to be " so exceedingly well known to
all our English nation " that it needed no description. In his time
{circa 1590), it used to be collected on the commons round London,
whence it was brought in plenty to the London markets. At the
present day pennyroyal has fallen into neglect, and is not named in the
British Pharmacopoeia of 18G7.
Description — The plant has a low, decumbent, branching stem,
which in flowering rises to a height of about 6 inches. Its leaves,
scarcely an inch in length and often much less, are petiolate, ovate,
blunt, crenate at the margin, dotted with oil-glands above and below.
The flowers are arranged in a series of dense, globose whorls, extending
for a considerable distance up the stem. The whole plant is more or less
hairy. It has a strong fragrant odour, less agreeable to most persons
than that of peppermint oi' spearmint. Its taste, well perceived in the
distilled water, is highly aromatic.
Chemical Composition — The most important constituent of
pennyroyal is the essential oil, known in pharmacy as Oleum Pulegii,
to which is due the odour of the plant. It has been examined by
Kane,^ according to whom it has a sp. gr. of 0'927. Its boiling was
found to fluctuate between 183° and 188° C. The formula assigned to
it by this chemist is C^'H^^O. We ascertained that it contains no
carvel (see page 481.)
Production — Pennyroyal is cultivated at Mitcham and is mostly
sold dried ; occasionally the herb is distilled for essential oil. The oil
found in commerce is however chiefly French or German, and far less
costly than that produced in England.
Uses — The distilled water of pennyroyal is carminative and
antispasmodic, and is used in the same manner as peppermint water.
1 Penniiroijrd, in old herbals Puloil roijal
is derived from PuJeium rejium, an old
Latin name given from thesujiposed eflncacy
of the plant in destroying fleas (Prior).
* The native Pennyroyal is however a
diflerent plant, namely Hedeomn piderjl-
oides Pers., figured in part 21 (1877) of
Bentley and Trimen's iVed. Plant.
Phil. Mag. xiii. (183S) 442.
HERBA THYMI VULGARIS.
487
HERBA THYMI VULGARIS.
Garden Thyme ; F. Thymi vulgaire ; G. Thymiankraut.
Botanical Origin — Thymus vulgaris L., a small, erect, woody shrub
reaching 8 to 10 inches in height, gregarious on sterile uncultivated
ground in Portugal, Spain, Southern France and Italy, and in the
mountainous parts of Greece. On Mont Ventoux near Avignon, it
reaches an elevation above the sea of 3700 ft. (Martins). It is com-
monly cultivated in English kitchens as a sweet herb/ and succeeds as
an annual even in Iceland.
History — -We are not aware that thyme had any reputation in the
antiquity, nor do we know at what period it was hrst introduced in
northern countries. Garden thyme was commonly cultivated in Eng-
land in the IGth century, and was well figured and described by
Gerarde. It is even said to have been formerly grown on a large
scale for medicinal use in the neighbourhood of Deal and Sandwich in
Kent.'^ Gam])hor of Thyme was noticed by Neumann, apothecary to
the Court at Berlin in 1725;^ it was called Tliymol, and carefully
examined in 1853 by Lallemand, and recommended instead of phenol
(carbolic acid) in 1868 by Bouilhon, apothecary, and Paquet, M.D.
of Lille.
Description — The plant produces thin, woody, branching stems,
bearing sessile, linear-lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate leaves. These are
about \ of an inch long, revolute at the margin, more or less hoary,
especially on the under side, and dotted with shining oil-glands. The
small purple flowers are borne on round terminal heads, with some-
times a few lower whorls. The entire wild plant has a greyish tint by
reason of a short white pubescence, yet as seen in gardens the plant is
more luxuriant, greener and far less tomentose. It is extremely fragrant
when rubbed, and has a pungent aromatic taste.
Production of Essential Oil — Though cultivated in gardens for
culinary use, common thyme is not grown in England on a large
scale. Its essential oil (Oleum Thymi), for which alone it is of interest
to the druggist, is distilled in the south of France. In the neighbour-
hood of IS'imes, where we have observed the process, the entii-e plant is
used, and the distillation is carried on at two periods of the year,
namely in May and June when the plant is in flower, and again late in
the autumn. Tlie oil has a deep, reddish-brown colour, but becomes
colourless though rather less fragrant by re-distillation. The two sorts
of oil, termed respectively Htiile rouge cle TItym and Huile blanche de
Thym, are found in commerce. The yield is about 1 per cent.
Oil of thyme is frequently termed in English shops Oil of Origanum,
which it in no respect resembles, and which was never, so far as we
know, found in commerce.*
' In many of the references to thyme,
Wild J'hi/mc (Tliyinus Srrpyllum L. ) is to
be nnderstood, ami not the present species.
'- Booth in Treasury of Butantf, ii. (186(3)
» Phil. Trans. No. 389.
For a note on True Oil of Origanum,
see Hanbury, Pharm. Journ. x. (1851)
324, also Science Faj<erv, 1876, p. 46.
488
LABIATiK.
Chemical Composition — The only constituent of the herb that
has attracted any attention is tJie ahove-nanied essential oil. This
liquid by fractional distillation is resolved into two portions : the first,
more volatile and boiling below 180° C, is a mixture of two hydro-
carbons, Cymene, C'H" (see page 333), and Thymene, C'°H'^ the latter
boiling at 105° C.
The second, named Thymol, C'°H"0, which may also be extracted
from the crude oil by means of caustic lye, has been described in our
article Fructas Ajoivdn, at page 303. Commercial oil of thyme is
said to be sometimes fraudulently deprived of thymol by that
treatment.
Uses — Oil of thjane is an efficient external stimulant, and is some-
times employed as a liniment. Its chief consumption is in veterinary
medicine. Thymol has been proposed as a disinfectant in the place of
carbolic acid, in cases in which the odour of the latter is objectionable.
The herb is not used in modern English medicine, but is often employed
on the Continent.
HERBA ROSMARINI.
Herha Anthos ; Rosemary ; F. Romarin; G. Rosmarin.
Botanical Origin — Rosmarinus ojfLcinalis L., an evergreen shrub,
attaining a height of 4 feet or more, abundant on dry I'ocky hills of the
Mediterranean region, from the Spanish peninsula ^ to Greece and Asia
Minor. It generally prefers the neighbourhood of the sea, but occurs
even in the Sahara, where it is collected and conveyed by caravans to
Central Africa.^ It does not succeed well in Germany.
History — Kosemary^ is mentioned by Pliny, who ascribes to it
numerous virtues. It was also familiar to the Arab physicians of Spain,
one of whom, Ibn Baytar (13th cent.), states it to be an object of trade
among the vendors of aromatics.* In the middle ages rosemary was
doubtless much esteemed, as may be inferred from the fact that it
was one of the plants which Charlemagne ordered to be grown on the
imperial farms.
It was probably in cultivation in Britain prior to the Norman Con-
quest, as it is recommended for use in an Anglo-Saxon herbal of the
11th century.^ In the "Physicians of Myddvai " a curious chapter*'
is devoted to the virtues of Rosemary, called " Ysbwynwydd, and Rosa
Marina in Latin." The essential oil was distilled by Raymundus
Lullus'^ about a.d. 1330. John Philip de Lignamine,' a writer of the
15th century, describes Rosemary as the usual condiment of salted
meats.
1 From Galicia in Spain, stems of
Rosmarinus having 2{t inches in diameter
were to be seen at the Paris Exhibition,
1878.
- Duveyrier, Les Touarecjs du Nord, 1864.
187.
3 From rosand marhnis, — literally marine
dew. Various opinions have been held as
to the allusion conveyed by the name.
^ Sontheimer's translation, i. 73.
^ Herharimn Ajyideii — Leechdoms etc. of
Earhj Englaml, i. (18G4) 185.
^ Meddyqon MijddJ'ai (see Appendix) p.
261. 292. 440.
' Manget, Bihliotheca clicmka ciiriofa,
Genevaj, i. (1702) 829.
* Conservatorhnn Sanitatk (or also, ac-
cording to Haller, Bibliolh. hotanka, i.
237, De conservatione ncuiitatis, Bononitu,
1475) cap. 81.
HERBA ROSMAIUNI
489
Description — Roseniaiy has sessile, linear, entire, opposite leaves
about an inch in length, revolute at the margin ; they are of coriaceous
texture, green and glabrous above, densely tomentose and white beneath.
Examined under a lens, the tomentum both of the leaves and young-
shoots is seen to consist of white stellate hairs ; in that of the shoots
which is less dense, minute oil-glands are discernible. These glands are
of two kinds, large and small, and probably do not yield one and the
same oil. The flowers have a campanulate 2-lipped calyx, and a pale
blue and white corolla, the upper lip of which is emargiuate and erect,
the lower 3-lobed with the central lobe concave and pendulous. The
whole plant has a very agreeable smell and a strong aromatic taste. It
flowers in the early spring.
Production of Essential Oil — Rosemary is cultivated on a very
small scale in English herb-gardens, and though a little oil has been
occasionally distilled from it, English oil of rosemary is an article prac-
tically unknown in commerce. That with which the market is supplied
is produced in the south of France and on the contiguous coasts of Italy.
The plant, which is plentifully found wild, is gathered in summer (not
while in flower) and distilled, the operator being sometimes an itinerant
hei-balist who carries his copper alembic from place to place, erecting it
where herbs are plentiful, and where a stream of water enables him to
cool a condenser of primitive construction.
Oil of rosemary is also produced on a somewhat large scale in the
island of Lesina, south of Spalato in Da]ma.tia-, whence it is exported by
way of Trieste, even to France and Italy, to the extent of 300 to 350
([uintals annually.^
Some of the French manufacturers of essences offer oil of rosemary
at a superior price as dr&wn from the floivers, by which we presume is
meant the ffowerivg toj^s, for the separation of the actual flowers would
be impracticable on a large scale. The great bulk of the oil found in
commerce is however that distilled from the entire plant.
Chemical Composition — The peculiar odour of rosemary depends
on the essential oil, which is the only constituent of the plant that has
afforded matter for chemical research.
Lallemand (1859) by fractional distillation, resolved oil of rosemary
into two liquids, — the one a mobile hydrocarbon boiling at 1G5° C. and
turning the plane of polarization to the left ; the other, boiling between
200° and 210° C, deposits Avhen exposed to a low temperature a large
quantity of camphor. Gladstone (1864) found the oil to consist almost
wholly of a hydrocarbon, C^°H^*'. This, according to our experiments,
constitutes about 4 of the oil ; it deviates the plane of polarization to
the left, whereas a fraction boiling at 200° to 210° C. deviates to the
right. By warming the latter with nitric acid, we observed the odour
of common camphor, and may therefore infer that a compound,
QiojjisQ^ is present in the oil under examination.
From Montgolfier's investigations (1876) it would appear that the
stearoptene or camphor above alluded to is a mixtui e of a dextrogyrate
and a Itevogyrate substance.
1 Ungei", Der Rosmariii und seine Vencen-
dung in Dalmatien — Sitzi(iir/shericli/e der
Wiener Akademie, Ivi. (1867) 587 ; ab-
stracted, witli a few additions, in Pharm.
Jourii. ix. (1879) 618.
490
PLANTAGINE^.
Uses — The flowering tops and dried leaves are kept by the herbalists,
but are not used in regular medicine. The volatile oil is employed as
an external stimulant in liniments, and also as a perfume. Rosemary is
popularly supposed to promote the growth of the hair.
PLANTAGINE^.
SEMEN ISPAGHULi^:.
Ispaghul Seeds, Sjyoijel Seeds.
Botanical Origin — Phmtago decmnhens Forsk. {P. Ispaghuht
Roxb.),^ a plant of variable aspect, from an inch to a foot in height,
erect or decumbent, with linear lanceolate leaves which may be nearly
glabrous, or covered with shaggy hairs. The flower-spikes differ ac-
cording to the luxuriance of the plant, being in some specimens
cylindrical and 1^ inches long, in others reduced to a globular head.
The plant has a wide range, occurring in the Canary Islands, Egypt,
Arabia, Beluchistan, Afghanistan, and North-western India. Stewart''
says it is common in the Peshawar valley and Trans-Indus generally up
to 2000 feet ; also on the plains and lower hills of the Punjab, but that
he has never seen it cultivated in the latter region. It is said to be
cultivated at Multan and Lahore, also in Bengal and Mysore.
History — The seeds which are found in all the bazaars of India and
are held in great esteem, are generally designated by the Persian word
IspaghiU; but they also bear the Arabic name Bazre-qatund,under which
we find them mentioned by the Persian physician Alhervi^ in the 10th
century, and about the same period or a little later by Avicenna.^
Several other Oriental writers are quoted by Ibn Baytar ^ as referring to
a drug of the same name, which may possibly have included the seeds
of other species, as Flantago Psyllium L. and P. (Jynops, having similar
properties, and known to have been used from an early period.
J. H. Linck, whom we mentioned in our article on Oleum Cajuputi
(p. 278), described in 1719 the seed under notice, yet without knowing
its name ; it further attracted the notice of Europeans towards the close
of the last century,*^ and has been often prescribed as a demulcent in
dysentery and diarrhoea. It was admitted to the PJiavmacopoiia of
India of 1868.
Description — The seeds, like those of other species of PZcMi^pf (70, are
of boat-shaped form, the albumen being deeply furrowed on one side and
vaulted on the other. They are a little over of 'mc\i in length
and nearly half as broad, and so light that 100 weigh scarcely three
' After the examination of numeroiis
specimens, we adopt the course taken by
Dr. Aitchison (Calalo(jue of the Plants of
the Punjab and Sindh, Lend. 1869) of unit-
ing P. hpcKjhiila to P. (lecumbenn. The
union of species in this group may pro-
bably be carried still further. — For a fig.
see Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants,
part 21 (1877).
2 Punjab Plants, Lahore 1869. 174— also
MS. note attached to specimens in Herb.
Kew.
Liber Fundamentorum Pharmacolof/iie,
ed. Seligmann, Vindobonaj, 1830. 40.
* Lib. ii. tract. 2. c. 541. (Valgrisi edition,
1564. i. 357.)
Sontheimer's transl. i. (1840) 132.
" Fleming, Cutal. of Indian Med. Plants
and DriKjs, Calcutta, 1810. 31.
RADIX RHEI.
491
grains. Their colour is a light pinkish grey with an elongated brown
spot on the vaulted back, due to the embryo, which at this point is in
close contact with tlie translucent testa. From this brown spot the
thick radicle runs to the top of the seed. The hollow side of the seed
is also brown and partially covered with a thin white membrane.
The seeds are highly mucilaginous in the mouth, but have neither
taste nor odour. Those of the allied P. Psylli wm have nearly the same
form, but are shining and of a dark brown hue.
Microscopic Structure — This can be best investigated by immers-
ing the seed in benzol, as in this medium the mucilage is insoluble.
When thus examined, the whole surface is seen to consist of polyhedral
cells, separated by a very thin brown layer from the albumen, which on
the back of the seed is only 70 mkm. thick. The albumen is made up
of thick- walled cells, loaded with granules of matter which acquire an
orange hue on addition of iodine. The two cotyledons adhere in a direc-
tion perpendicular to the bottom of the furrow ; their tissue is composed
of thin-walled smaller cells, containing also albuminous granules and
drops of fatty oil.
If the seed is immersed in water, the cells composing the epidermis
instantly swell and elongate, and soon burst, leaving only fragments of.
their walls. When examined under glycerin, the change is more gradual,
and the outer walls of the cells yielding the mucilage display a series of
thin layers, which slowly swell and disappear by the action of water.
The mucilage is consequently not contained within the cells, but is
formed of the secondary deposits on their walls, as in linseed and
quince pips.
Chemical Composition — Mucilage is so abundantly yielded by
these seeds, that one part of them with 20 parts of water forms a thick
tasteless jelly. On addition of a larger quantity of water and hltering,
but little mucilage passes, the greater part of it adhering to the seeds.
The mucilage separated by straining with pressure does uot redden
litmus, is not affected by iodine, nor precipitated by borax, alcohol or
ferric chloride. The fat oil and albuminous matter of the seed have
not been examined.
Uses — A decoction of the seeds (1 p. to 70 p. of water) is employed
in India as a cooling, demulcent drink. The seeds powdered and mixed
with sugdr, or made gelatinous with water, are sometimes given in
chronic diarrhoea.
POLYGONACE^.
RADIX RHEI.
Rhubarb; F. Rlmbarbe ; G. Rhabavber.
Botanical Origin — No competent observer, as far as we know, has
ever ascertained as an eye-witness the species of Rhei^m which affords
the commercial rhubarb. Rheum officinale, from which it seems, at
least partly, derived is the only species yielding a rootstock which
agrees with the drug.
492 POLYaONACE/E.
i
Rheum ojjiciiia/e Baillon is a perennial noble plant resembling the
Common Garden Rhubarb, but of larger size. It differs from the latter
in several particulars : the leaves spring from a distinct crown rising
some inches above the surface of the ground ; they have a sub-cylindri-
cal petiole, which as well as the veins of the under side of the lamina
is covered with a pubescence of short erect hairs. The lamina, the
outline of which is orbicular, cordate at the base, is shortly 5- to 7-lobed,
with the lobes coarsely and irregularly dentate ; it attains 4 to 4^ feet
in length and rather more in breadth. The first leaves in spring display
before expanding the peculiar metallic red hue of copper.
The plant was discovered in South-eastern Tibet, where it is said to
be often cultivated for the sake of its medicinal root ; but it is supposed
to grow in various parts of Western and North-western China, whence
the supplies of rhubarb are derived. It was obtained by the French
missionaries about the year 1867 for Dabry, French Consul at Hankow,
who ti'ansmitted specimens to Dr. Soubeiran of Paris. From one of
these which flowered at Montmorency in 1871, a botanical description
was drawn up by Baillon.^
To what extent the rhubarb of commerce is derived from this plant
is not known. But that the latter may be a true source of the drug is
supported by the fact, that there is at least no important discrepanc}''
between it and the accounts and figures, scanty and imperfect though
they are, given by Chinese authors and the old Jesuit missionaries ;
and still more by the agreement in structure which exists between its
root and the Asiatic rhubarb of commerce.
We have engaged in 1873 Mr. Rufus Usher at Bodicott (see below,
p. 500) to cultivate Rheum ofiicinale, which is there admirably succeed-
ing ; but it must be granted that as yet the root, notwithstanding the
most careful preparation in drying it, is far from displaying the rich
yellow of the commercial drug. It is most obviously marked on the
other hand Avith the characteristic ring of stellate markings, which we
have constantly observed in many roots of Rheum officinale cultivated
by us at Clapham Common near London, as well as at Strassburg or,
by other observers, at Paris.
Rhamn 2>almatiim L., a species known as long as 1750, has always
been supposed to yield also rhubarb, and this has again been asserted
by the Russian Colonel Przewalski, who observed in 1872 and 1873 that
plant in the Alpine parts of Tangut round the Lake Kuku-nor, in the
Chinese province of Kansu, in 36°-38° North Lat. — Rheum palmatum
has been frequently cultivated in Russian Asia and in many parts of
Europe since the last century, but without producing a root agreeing
with Chinese rhubarb. Now, Przewalski states that from this species
the drug under notice is largely collected along the river Tetung-gol
(or Datung-ho), a tributary of the upper Hoang-ho, northward of
the Kuku-nor. Specimens of that root were largely brought to
St. Petersburg by Przewalski, but Dragendorff" expressly points out
in his JahreshericJtt for 1877 (p. 78) that it is dissimilar to true
rhubarb.
^AdansonktjX. 246; Association Fraiii^uise Lanessaii's French translation of the /'/;«)•-
pour V avancemeni de la Science, Comptes macograplda , ii. (Paris, 1878) 210, gives a
Rendus de la Session, 1872. 514-529. good idea of the highly ornamental cliarac-
pi. X. — The figure which is reproduced in ter of Rheum officinale.
RADIX RHEI.
493
History^ — The Chinese appear to have been acquainted with the
properties of rhubarb from a period long anterior to the Christian era,
for the drug is treated of in the herbal called Pen-king, which is
attributed to the Emperor Shen-nung, the father of Chinese agriculture
and medicine, who reigned about 2700 B.C. The drug is named there
Hiumg-liang, yellow, excellent, and Ta-lmang, the great yellow." The
latter name also occurs in the great Geography of China, where it is
stated that rhubarb was a tribute of the province Si-ning-fn, eastward
of Lake Kuku Nor,^ from about the 7th to the 10th centuries of
our era.
As regards Western Asia and Europe, we find a root called pa
or prjov, mentioned by Dioscorides as brought from beyond the Bos-
phorus. The same drug is alluded to in the fourth century by Ammianus
Marcellinus,'' who states that it takes its name from the river Rha (the
modern Volga), on whose banks it grows. Pliny describes a root termed
Rlmcoma, which when pounded yielded a colour like that of wine but
inclining to saffron, and was brought from beyond Pontus.
The drug thus described is usually regarded as rhubarb, or at least
as the root of some species of Rheum, but whether produced in the
regions of the Euxine (Pontus), or merely received thence from remoter
countries, is a question that cannot be solved.
It is however certain that the name Radix pontica or Rhapontictim,
used by Scribonius Largus and Celsus,*' was applied in allusion to
the region whence the drug was received. Lassen has shown that
trading caravans from Shensi in Northern China arrived at Bokhara as
early as the year 114 B.C. Goods thus transported might reach Europe
either by way of the Black Sea, or by conveyance doAvn the Indus to
the ancient port of Barbarike. Vincent suggests that the rh<(. imported
by the first route would naturally be termed rha-pontieum., while that
brought by the second might be called rha-harharum.
We are not prepared to accept this plausible hypothesis. It receives
no support from the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea
(circa A.D. 64), whose list of the exports of Barbarike ^ does not include
ihubarb ; nor is rhubarb named among the articles on which duty was
levied at the Roman custom-house of Alexandria (a.d. 176-180)."
The terms Rheuw, harbarum vel harharicum or Rea harharum
occur in the writings of Alexander Trallianus '"about the middle of the
6th century, and in those of Benedictus Crispus," archbishop of Milan,
and Isidore''^ of Seville, who both flourished in the 7th century. Among
the Arabian writers on medicine, the younger Mesue, in the early part
of the 11th century, mentions the rhubarb of China as superior to the
^ For further particulars see Fliickiger, ^ Ihld., op. c'd. ii. 390.
Pharm. J.\\. (1876) 861; also Proc.Amerlc. Ihkl., op. at. ii. 686.
Pharm. Assoc. 1876. 130, witli fig. show- Lib. viii. c. 3 (Haller's edition),
ing Rheum officinale grown in a poor soil. n Migne, Patrologiw Cavsiis, Ixxxix. 374.
'■'Bretschneider, Chinese, Botanical ]Vorl^^:, i- Migne. op. cit., Ixxxii. 628. The expla-
Foochow, 1870. 2. nation given by Isidore is this : — " Hciibcn--
^ Fliickiger, I.e. banim, sive Reuponticum : illud quod trans
* Scriptores JJistoriie Romano} latini ve- Danubium in solo barbarico ; istud quod
/crf.s, ii. (1743) 511 (Amm. Marc. xxii. c. 8.) circa Pontum colligitur, nominatum est.
' De Compositione Medicamentorum, c. Reu autem iridix dicitur. Reuharharviu
167. _ ergo, quasi radix harhara. Reuponticum
* De Medicind. lib. v. c. 23. quasi radi.r, j^iontica." But Isidore was fond
^ Vincent, Commerce and Navirjation of of such derivations.
the Ancients, ii. (1807) 389.
494
POLYGONACEiE.
Barharic or Turkish.' Constantinus Africanus about the same period
speaks of Indian and Pontic Rheum, the former of which he declares to
be preferable. In 1154 the celebrated Arabian geographer Edrisi ^
mentions rhubarb as a product of China, growing in the mountains of
Buthiuk — probably the environs of north-eastern Tibet near Lake
Tengri Nor (or Bathang in Western Szechuen ?).
Rhubarb in the 12th century was probably imported from India, as
we may infer from the tariff of duties levied at the port of Aeon in
Syria, in which document ■* it is enumerated along with many Indian
drugs. A .similar list of A.D. 1271, relating to Bai'celona, mentions
Ruibarho.^ In a statute of the city of Pisa called the Bi'eoe Funda-
cariorum, dating 1305, rhubarb (ribarbari) is classified with commo-
dities of the Levant and India.*"
The first and almost the only European who has visited the rhubarb-
3'ielding countries of China is the famous Venetian traveller, Mai-co
Polo," who speaking of the province of Taugut says — " . . et par toutes
les montagnes de ces provinces se treuve le reobarbe en grant habond-
ance. Et illec I'achatent les marchans et le portent par le monde."
A sketch of the histoiy of rhubarb would be incomplete without
some reference to the various routes by which the drug has been
conveyed to Europe from the western j^rovinces of the Chinese Empire,
and which have given rise to the familiar designations of Rufssian,
Turkey and Ghiiiia Rhubarb?
The first route is that over the bari en steppes of Central Asia by
Yarkand, Kashgar, Turkestan, and the Caspian to Russia ; the second
by the Indus or the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea and Alexandria, or by
Persia to Syria and Asia Minor ; and the tliird by way of Canton, the
only port of the Chinese Empire which, previous to the year 1842, held
direct communication with Europe.
In 1653 China first permitted Russia to trade on her actual frontiers.
The traffic in Chinese goods was thereupon diverted from the line of
the Caspian and Black Sea further north, taking its way from Tangut
across the steppes of the high Gobi, and through Siberia by Tobolsk to
Moscow. Thus it is mentioned in 1719 that Urga on the north edge
of the Gobi desert was the principal depot for rhubarb. From the
earliest times, Bucharian merchants appear to have been agents on this
traffic, the producers of the drug never concerning themselves about
its export.
Cou.sequent on the rectification of frontier in 1728, a line of custom-
houses was established by treaty between Russia and China, whereby
the commerce, previously unrestricted, was limited to the government
caravans which passed the frontier only at Kiachta and at Zuruchaitu,
south of Nerchinsk. The latter place always remained unimportant,
' Eavedsceni, Favedburbariim, and Bared
Tarchinnn are the terms wsed in the Latin
translations we have consulted.
- De omnibus medico cof/nihi necet^sariis,
Basil. 1539. 354.
2 Translation of Janbert, i. (Paris, 183C)
494.
Assises de Jerusalem contained in the
ReciK'il des Historiens des Cfoisades, Lois,
ii. (1843) 176.
^ Capmany, Memorias de . . . Barcelona,
i. (1779) 44.
•> Bonaini, Statuti inediti deIJa cittd di
Pisa dal xii al xiv secolo, iii. (Firenze, 1857)
106. 115.
^ Pauthier, Le Livre de Marco Polo . . .
rMirj6 enfrancais sous sa dictee en 1298 par
lius'ticien de Pise, i. (18C5) 165. ii. 490.
For further particulars, see my paper
mentioned at page 493, note 1. — F. A. F.
RADIX RHEI.
495
while Kiachta and the opposite Chinese town of Maimatchin became the
staple depots of rhubarb.
The root was subjected to special control as early as 1687-1697 by
the Russian Government, who finally monopolized the trade about 1704.
Caravans fitted out by the Crown alone brought the drug to Moscow,
until 1762, when the caravan-ti-ade was for a while thrown open. It
was not until this period that the export of rhubarb became consider-
able, although the strino-ent regulations, established in 1736, were still
maintained. The surveillance of rhubarb was exercised at Kiachta in a
special court or office called the Bralr,^ under instructions from the
Russian Minister of War, by an apothecary appointed for six years, the
object being to remove from the rhubarb brought for inspection all
inferior or spurious pieces, and to improve the selected drug by trim-
ming, paring and boring. It was then carefully dried, and packed in
chests, which were sown up in linen, and rendered impervious to wet
by being pitched and then covered with hide. The drug was dis-
patched, but only in quantities of 1000 puds (40,000 lb.), once a year
by way of Lake Baikal and Irkutsk to Moscow, whence it was trans-
mitted to St. Petersburg, to be there delivered to the Crown apothe-
caries and in part to be sold to druggists.
We are indebted for these accounts chiefly to Calau,^ an apothecarj'
appointed to supervise the examination of rhubarb, and who resided a
long time at Kiachta. An exact account of the remarkable policy of
the Russian Government in relation to that drug was also given by Von
Schroders Mn 1864.
So long as China kept all her ports closed to foreign commerce
except Canton in the extreme south, a large supply of fine rhubarb
found its way to Europe by way of Russia. But the unjileasant
accompaniments of the Russian supervision, which was exercised with
unsparing severity,^ and the extreme tediousness of the land-ti'ansport,
made the Chinese very ready to accept an easier outlet for their goods.
Accordingly we find that the opening of a number of ports in the
north of China exerted a very depressing influence on the trade of
Kiachta, which was augmented by the rebellion that raged in the
interior of China for some 3'ears from 1852.
On these accounts Russia in 1855 removed certain restrictions on
the trade, though without abandoning the Rhubarb Office. She with-
drew in 1860 the custom-house to Irkutsk, and declared Kiachta a free
port, while by the treaty with China of November 1860, she insisted on
that country abandoning all restrictions on trade.
But the over-land rhubarb trade had already been destroyed : the
Chinese, tempted by the increased demand occasioned by the new
trading-ports, became less careful in the collection and curing of the
root, while the Russians insisted with the greatest strictness on the
drug being of the accustomed quality. Hence it happened that from
1860 hardly any rhubarb was delivered at Kiachta, either for the
' From the German word Bracke, the
name applied to persons appointed for the
examination of merchandize brought to the
ports of the Baltic.
2 Ganger's Rep. fur Pliarm. ttnd Cheviic,
1842. 452-457; P/ittrwi. Jourii. ii. (1843) 658.
^ Canstatt's Jahresheridd for 1864. i.
85-42.
"* Thus in 1860 the Russians compelled
the Chinese to burn 6000 lb. of rhubarb,
on the pretext that it was too small!
496
POLYGONACEiE.
government use or to private traders ; and in 1863 the Rhubarb Office
was abolished.
Thus tlie so-called Russian or Muscovific or Croiun Bhubarh,
familiarly known in England as Turkey Rlmharh, a drug which for its
uniformly good quality long enjoyed the highest reputation, has become
a thing of the past, which can only now be found in museum collections.
It began to appear in English commerce at the commencement of the
last century. Alston/ who lectured on botany and materia medica at
Edinburgh in 1720, speaks of rhubarb as brought from Turkey and the
East Indies, — "and of late, likewise from Muscovy."
It has been shown (p. 494) that rhubarb was shipped from Syria in
the 12th century. Vasco da Gama- mentions it in 1497 among the
exports of Alexandria. In fact, the drug was carried from the far east
to Persia, whence it was brought by caravans to Aleppo, Tripoli,
Alexandria, and even to Smyrna. From these Levant ports it reached
Europe, and was distributed as Turkey Rhubarb; while that which
Avas shipped direct from China, or by way of India, became known as
China, Canton, or East Ivdia Rhubarb. The latter was alreadj^ the
more corLimon sort in England as early as 1640.'
As the rhubarb of the Levant disappeared from trade, that of Russia
took not only its place but likewise its name, until the term " Turkey
Rhubarb " came to be the accepted designation of the drug imported
from Russia. This strange confusion of terms was not however preva-
lent on the Continent, but was chiefly limited to British ti-ade.
The risk and expense of the enormous land-transport over almost
the whole breadth of Asia, caused rhubarb in ancient times to be one
of the very costly drugs. Thus at Alexandria in 1497, it was valued
at twelve times the price of benzoin. In France in 1542,^ it was worth
ten times as much as cinnamon, or more than four times the price of
saffron. At Ulm in 1596,^ it was more costly than opium. A German
price-list of the magistrate of Schweinfurt, of 1614, shows Radix Rha
Barbari to be six times as dear as fine myrrh, and more than twice
the price of opium. An official English list*^ giving the price of drugs
in 1657, quotes opium as 6s. per lb., scaramony 12.s., and rhubarb 16s.
Production and Commerce — The districts of the Chinese Empire
which produce rhubarb extend over a vast area. They are comprised
in the four northern provinces of China Proper, known as Chihli, Shansi,
Shensi/ and Honan ; the immense north-western province of Kansuh,
formerly partly included in Shensi, but now extending across the desert
of Gobi and to the frontiers of Tibet; the province of Tsing-hai in-
habited by Mongols, which includes the great salt lake of Koko-nor and
the districts of Tangut, Sifan, and Turfan; and lastly the mountains of
the western province of Szechuen. The plant is found on the pasturages
1 Lectures on the Mat. Med. i. (1770) 502.
- Jioteiro da viageni de Vasco da Gama,
por A. Herculaiio e o Barao de Castello de
Paiva, ed. 2. Lisboa, 18G1. 115.— For an
abstracb of the " Roteiro," see Fliickiger,
Documente zur Geschiclite der Pharm. 1876.
13.
Parkinson, Theairuni Botankum, 1G40.
155.
Leber, Appric'iation de la fortune priree
cm vioyeii ai/e, ed. 2. 1847. 308-9.
^ Eeicliard, Beitrdqe zur Oeschichie dcr
AjMhehen, Uhn, 1825. 208.
•> Booh of tlie Values of Merchandize im-
ported, according to ivhich Excize is to he
pyaid by the First Buyer, Lond. 1657.
^ According to Consul Hughes of Han-
kow, San-yuan in Shensi (north of Sin-
ganfu) is one of the principal marts for
rhubarb.
RADIX RHEI.
497
of the high plateaux, growing pai'ticularly well on spots that have been
enriched by encampments.
What little we know regarding the production of rhubarb and its
preparation for the market, from Catholic missionaries,' is of a rather
meagre and unsatisfactory character. The root is dug up at the begin-
ning of autumn when the vegetation of the plant is on the decline, and
the operation is probably continued for a few months, or in some
districts for the whole winter. It is cleaned, its cortical part sliced off,
and the root cut into pieces for drying. This is performed either by
the aid of fire heat, or by simple exposure to sun and air, or the pieces
are first partially dried on a hot stone, and then strung on a cord and
suspended until the desiccation is complete.
According to F. von Richthofen" the best rhubarb is collected ex-
clusively from plants growing wild in the high alps of western Szechuen,
especially in the Bayankara range, between the soui'ces of the Hoangho
and the rivers Ya-lung-Kiang and Min-Kiang. This variety is chiefly
known under the name Shensi rhubarb, although the inhabitants of the
province of Szechuen pretend the superiority of the drug of their own
country. The important places for the commodity are Sining-fu in the
province of Kansu, and Kwan-hien in Szechuen. In the plain of
Tshing-tu-fu, according to Richthofen, rhubarb is cultivated in fields,
but its pi'oduct is stated to be much inferior to that of the true plant
which is said not to succeed under culture.
Rhubarb is now purchased for the European market chiefly at
Hankow on the upper Yangtsze, whither it is brought from the
provinces of Shensi, Kansu, and Szechuen. From Hankow it is sent
down to Shanghai, and there shipped for Europe. The exports from
Hankow are stated in official documents^ to have amounted to the
following numbers of peculs (one pecul = lb. = 60'479 kilo-
grammes) :
1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872
2985 3425 2866 3398 3370 3859 3167
In 1877 there were exported by way of Hankow 2096 peculs from
Shensi and 3385 peculs from Szechuen. — From all the Chinese ports,
5124 peculs of rhubarb were shipped in 1874.
Much smaller quantities (554 peculs in 1872, 1055 peculs in 1874)
are shipped from Tientsin ; and there are occasional exportations from
Canton, Amoy, Foochow, and Ningpo. The imports of rhubarb into
the United Kingdom in 1870 amounted to 343,306 lb., the estimated
value of which was £62,716.*
We have no information about the rhubarb which is stated by
Bellew' to grow on the hills near Kayn or Ghayn in eastern Persia
(about 321° N. lat.).
Description — China Rhubarb as imported into Europe" consists of
1 Chauvean, Vicar Apostolic of Tibet 1872. No. 3. p. 57, and 1874 (1875) No. 5.
(1870), aiid Biet, a French missionary, both '^Annual IStalement of the Trade and
quoted by Collin in his thesis De.i Rhu- Naviyation of (he United Kingdom for
barbes, Paris, 1871. 22. 24. 1870. 79.
2 Petermann's Geograph. Mittheilungen, •' From the Indus to the Tigris, London,
viii. (1873) 302. 1874. 321.
^ Reports on Trade at the Treaty Ports " It is now often trimmed by wholesale
of (.'hina for 1870; Commercial Reports druggists to simulate the old Russian
from Her Majesty's Consuls in China, rhubarb.
2 I
498
POLYGONACEiE.
portions of a massive root which display considerable diversity of form,
arising from the various operations of pai'ing, slicing and trimming, to
which they have been subjected. Thus some pieces are cylindrical or
rather barrel-shaped, others conical, while a large proportion are plano-
convex, and others again are of no regular shape. These forms are not
all found in the same package, the drug being usually sorted into rotmd
and fiat rhubarb. In dimensions we find 3 to 4 inches the commonest
length, though an occasional piece 6 inches long or more may be met
with. The width may be stated at 2 to .3 inches. The outer surface of
the root is somewhat shrivelled, often exhibiting portions of a dark bark
that have not been pared away. Many pieces are pierced with a hole,
in which may be found the remains of a cord used to suspend the root
while drying. The drug is dusted over with a bright brownish-yellow
powder, on removal of which the outer side of the root is seen to
have a rusty-brown hue, or viewed with a lens to be marked by the
medullary rays, which apjiear as an infinity of short broken lines of
deep brown, traversing a white ground.
The character which most readily distinguishes the rhubarb of China
is that well-developed pieces, broken transversely, display these dark
lines arranged as an internal ring of star-like spots. Although this
character is by no means obvious in every piece of Chinese rhubarb, it
is of some utility from the fact that in European rhubarb, such spots
are generally wholly wanting, or at most occur only sparingly and in an
isolated manner.
In judging of rhubarb, great stress is laid upcm the appearance of
the root when broken, and the circumstance of the fractured surface
presenting no symptoms of decay, discoloi-ation, or sponginess.^ In good
rhubarb, the interior is found to be compact, and beautifull}^ veined with
reddish-brown and white, sometimes not unmixed with iron-grey. The
root when chewed tastes gritty, by reason of the ci-ystals it contains of
oxalate of calcium ; but it is besides bitter, astringent and nauseous.
The odour is peculiar, and except by the druggist, is mostly regarded
as very disagreeable.
Microscopic Structure. — The tissue of rhubarb is made up of a
white parenchyme, brown medullary rays and a few irregularly scattered
very large fibro-vascular bundles, which are devoid of ligneous cells.
On a transverse fracture of specimens, which are not too much peeled,
a narrow dark cambial zone may be distinguished. In that part of the
root, only the medullary rays display the usual radial arrangement, and
in the interior of the root no regular structure is met with. There is no
well-marked pith, but the central portion of the tissue .shows a mixture
of white parenchyme and brown medullaiy rays running in every direc-
tion. In full-grown roots, the central part is separated from the cambial
zone by the band of stellate patches" already mentioned.
^ The quality and appearance of rhubarb
are far more regarded in England than on
the Continent. To ensui-e a fine powder of
brilliant hue, the drug is most carefully pre-
pared, each root being split open, and any
dark or decayed portion removed with a
chisel orfile, whilethe oi)eratorisnot,illowed
to handle the drug except with leather
gloves.
^ Their formation has been investigated
by Schmitz, Proceedings of the " jSatnr-
forschende Oef<eUsc/iaft zu IJalle" ; theauthor
also shows that the drug is chiefly afl'orded
by the rhizome. — An abstract of the paper
will be found in Just's Botaninclier Jahren-
herkht, 1874. 4G1.
RADIX RHEI.
499
As to the contents of the white cells, they are loaded either with
starch or tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium, the amount of the latter
being especially liable to variation. Scheele, after having discovered the
oxalic acid, pointed out in 1784 that the crystals under notice consist
of that acid in combination with lime; he was the first to point out the
true composition of those crystals which ai'e of so wide a distribution
throughout the vegetable kingdom. The medullary rays contain the
substances peculiar to rhubarb, but none of them occur in a crystalline
state.
Chemical Composition. — The active constituent of the root has
long been supposed to reside in the yellowish red contents of the medul-
lary rays. Schrader as early as 1807 prepared a Rhubarb-Bitter, to which
he attributed the medicinal powers of the drug. Since then several sub-
stances of the same kind have been separated by various methods, and
described under different names: such are the Bhabarbersto f of Tromms-
dortf, the Jthemnin of Hornemann, the Bhabarberin of Buchner and
Herberger, the Bhtiha rb-Yellov) or Rhein, and the Bhabarbaric Acid of
Brandes.
Schlossberger and Dopping in 1844 first recognized among the above-
named substances a definite chemical body named Ghrysophan or Chryso-
( CH^
pJianic Acid, C'''ff | ^qjj^sO^ which had been found in 1843 by Roch-
leder and Heldt in the yellow lichen, Parmelia parietina. It partly
forms the yellow contents of the medullary rays of rhubarb, and when
isolated crystallizes in golden yellow needles or in plates. It dissolves
in ether, alcohol, or benzol ; though scai'cely soluble in water, it is
nevertheless extracted from the root to some extent by that solvent,
probably by reason of some accompanying substance. Alkalis dissolve
it, forming fine dark red solutions. Ghrysophan, C°H^''0^ is a deriva-
tive of anthracene, C^^H'", and closely allied to alizarin, C"H*0^
By precipitating alcoholic solutions of extract of rhubarb with ether,
Schlossberger and I)opping obtained, together with chrysophan, resinous
bodies which they named Aporetin, Fhceoretin and Erythroretin.
De la Rue and Mliller (1857) extracted from rhubarb, in addition to
chrysophan, an allied substance, Emodin, which crystallizes in orange-
coloured prisms, sometimes as much as two inches long. Its constitu-
tion was subsequently found to agree with the formula C^H'' | (^qjj-)^^'-
Kubly (1867) has obtained from rhubarb the following con-
stituents : —
1. Bheo-tannic Acid, C^^H^^O", a yellowish powder abundantly pre-
sent in rhubarb, soluble in water or alcohol, not in ether. Its solutions
produce blackish green precipitates with persalts of iron, and greyish
ones slowly turning blue, with protosalts of the same.
2. Bhenmic Acid (Bheumsdure), C'^^H^^O^, obtained as a reddish-
brown powder, by boiling rheo-tannic acid with a dilute mineral acid,
a fermentable sugar being developed at the same time. Rheumic acid
exhibits nearly the same reactions as rheo-tannic acid, but is very
sparingly soluble in cold water. It partly pre-exists in rhubarb.
3. Neutral colourless substance, sparingly soluble in hot water, and
separating from the latter in prismatic crystals of the formula C'"H''0^;
500
POLYGONACE^.
no name has yet been given to it. A " wliite crystalline resin " (and
a dark brown crystalline resin) has been isolated in 1878 by Dragen-
dorfF.
4. Phceoretin, C^^H^'^O'', agreeing with the substance thus named by
Schlossberger and Dbpping. It is a brown powder, soluble in alcohol
or in acetic acid, but not in ether, chloroform or water.
5. Ghr]isoplmn, described above.
According to Dragendorft' (1878) mucilaginous matters occur in the
different varieties of rhubarb to the amount of from 11 to 17 per cent.
He states them to consist of mucilage (properly so called), arable acid,
metarabic acid and pararabin, and moreover enumerates also pectose
among the constituents of the drug.
Small quantities of albuminoid substances, malic acid, fat and sugar
have also been met with in rhubarb. As to its mineral constituents,
their amount is exceedingly variable. Two samples of good China
Rhubarb dried at 100° C. and incinerated, yielded us respectively 12 9
and 13"87 per cent, of ash. Another sample, which we had particularlj'
selected on account of its pale tint, afforded no less than 4.3'27 per cent,
of ash. The ash consists of carbonates of calcium and potassium.
English rhubarb from Banbury (portions of a large specimen) left after
incineration lO'OO per cent of ash.
From a practical point of view the chemical history of rhubarb is
far from satisfactory, for we are still ignorant to what principle the
drug owes its therapeutic value, or what are the pharmaceutical prepara-
tions in which the active matter may be most ap])ropriately exhibited.
Chrysophan is said to act as a purgative, but less powerfully than
rhubarb itself
Uses — Rhubarb is one of the commonest and most valuable
purgatives ; it is also taken as a stomachic and tonic.
Substitutes — These are found in the roots of the various species of
Rheum cultivated in Europe. In most countries, the cultivation of
rhubarb for medicinal use has at some time been attempted. Yet in
but few instances has it been persistently carried on ; and though the
drug produced has often been of good appearance, it has failed to gain
the confidence of medical men, and to acquire much importance in the
drug-market. The European rhubarb most interesting from our point
of view is
English Rimharb — So early as 1535, Andrew Boorde, an English
Carthusian monk and practitioner of medicine, obtained seeds of
rhubarb, which he sent as " a grett tresure" to Sir Thomas Cromwell,
Secretary of State to Henry VIII.; but as he says they "come oivtt of
barhary," we must be allowed to hold their genuineness as doubtful.^
In the following century, namely about the year KiOS, Prosper
Alpinus of Padua cultivated as the True Rhubarb a plant which is
now known as Rheum Rhaponticum L., a native of Southern Siberia
and the regions of the Volga.- From this stock. Sir Matthew Lister,
physician to Charles I., procured seeds when in Italy, and gave them to
Parkinson,^ who raised plants from them.
' Boorde's Introduction and Dyclari/, re- -Prosper Alpinus, De Rhapontico, LugJ.
printed by the Early Ent^lisli Text Society, Bat. 1718.
1S70. 5G. ^ a 'fhisatrum Botanicum, 1640. 157.
RADIX RHEl.
501
Collinsou obtained rhubarb plants from seeds procui'ed in Tartary,
and sent to him in 1742 by Professor Siegesbeck of St. Petersburg.^
About 1777 Hayward, an apothecary of Banbury in Oxfordshire,
commenced the cultivation of rhubarb with plants of -R/i. RliapontiGum,
raised from seeds sent from Russia in 1762. The drug he produced
was so good that the Society of Arts awarded him in 1789 a silver
medal, and in 179-t a gold medal.'^ The Society also awarded medals
about the same time (1789-1793) to growei's of rhubarb in Somerset-
shire, Yorkshire, and Middlesex, some of whom, it appears, cultivated
Rh. palmatum. On the death of Hayward in 1811, his rhubarb
plants came into the possession of Mr. P. Usher, by whose descendants,
Mr. R. Usher and sons, they are still cidtivated at Bodicott, a village
near Banbury.
The authors of this book had the pleasure of inspecting the rhubarb
fields of Messrs. Usher on Sept. 4, 1872, and of seeing the whole process
of preparing the root for the market.^ The land under cultivation is
about 17 acres, the soil being a rich friable loam. The roots are taken
from the ground during the autumn up to the month of November.
It is considered advantageous that they should be 6 or 7 years old, but
they are seldom allowed to attain more than 3 or 4 years. The
clumps of root as removed from the field to the yard, where the
trimming takes place, are of h\ige size, weighing with the earth
attached to them as much as GO or 70 lb. They are partially cleaned,
the smaller roots are cut off', and the large central portion is rapidly
trimmed into a short, cylindrical mass the size of a child's head. This
latter subsequently undergoes a still further paring, and is finally
sliced longitudinally ; the other and less valuable roots are also pared,
trimmed, and assorted according to size. The fresh roots are fleshy,
easily cut, and of a beautiful deep yellow. All are dried in buildings
constructed for the pui'pose, and heated by flues. The drying occupies
several weeks. The root after drj'ing has a shrivelled, unsightly
appearance, which may be remedied by paring and filing. The finished
drug has to be stored in a warm dry place.
When well prepared, Banbury rhubarb is of excellent appearance.
The finest pieces, which are semi-cylindrical, are quite equal in size to
the drug of China. The colour is as good, and the fractured surface
exhibits pink markings not less distinct and brilliant. Even the
smaller roots, which are dried as sticks, have internally a good colour,
and afford a fine powder. But the odour is somewhat different from
that of Chinese rhubarb ; the taste is less bitter but more mucilaginous
and astringent, and the root is of a more spongy, soft, and brittle
texture. The structure is the same as that of the Chinese rhubarb,
except that, as already stated, the star-like spots, if present, are
isolated, and not arranged in a regular zone.
The drug commands but a low price, and is chiefly sold, it is said,
for exportation in the state of powder. It is not easily purchased in
London.
French and German Rhubarb — The cultivation of rhubarb was
1 Dillwyu, Hortus ColUnsonianus, 1843. ^ No use is made of the leaves.- — Some
45. further particulars are given by Holmes,
2 Trans, of Soc. of Arts, viii. (1790) 75 ; Pharm. Journal, vii. (1877) 1017.
xii. (1794) 225.
MYRISTICE^.
commenced in France iu the lattei* half of the last century, and has
been pursued with some enthusiasm in various localities. Tlie species
grown were Rheum 'palmatum L., Rh. uvdulatmn L., Rh. com'pactuvi
L., and Rh. Rhaponticum L. The first was thought by Guibourt' to
afford a root more nearly approaching than any other the rhubarb of
China ; but it is that which is cultivated the least readily, the central
root being liable to premature decay. Both this plant and Rh.
andulatum were formerly cultivated by order of the Russian Govern-
ment on a large scale at Kolywan and Ki-asnojarsk in Southern
Siberia, but the culture has, we believe, been long abandoned."
As to France, it appears from inquiries we have lately made (1873),
that except in the neighbourhood of Avignon and in a few other scat-
tered localities, the cultivation has now ceased.
Rheum Rliaponticum is the source of the rhubarb which is pro-
duced at Austerlitz and Auspitz in Moravia, and at Ilmitz, Kremnitz and
Frauenkirchen in Hungary. Some rhubarb is also produced in Silesia
from Rh. Emodi Wall. {RJi. australe Don.).
MYKISTICE^.
MYRISTICA.
Nuclei Myristicce, Semen Myristicce, Nux moschata; Nutmeg;
F. Muscade, Noix de Muscade; G. Mushatnitss.
Botanical Origin — Myristica fragrans Houttu3^n (J/, monchata
Thunb., M. officinalis Linn, f), a handsome, bushy, evergreen tree,''
with dark shining leaves, growing in its native islands to a height of
40 to 50 feet. It is found wild in the very small volcanic group of
Banda, from Damma to Amboina, in Ceram, Bouro, Jilolo (Halmahera),
the western peninsula of New Guinea, and in many of the adjacent
islands, but it is not indigenous to any of the islands westward of
these, or to the Philippines (Crawfurd).
The nutmeg tree has been introduced into Bencoolen on the west
coast of Sumati a, Malacca, Bengal, the islands of Singapore and Penang,
as well as Brazil and the West Indies ; but it is only in a very few
localities that the cultivation has been attended with success.
In its native countries the tree comes into bearing in its ninth year,
and is said to continue fruitful until 60 or even 80 years old, yielding
annually as many as 2000 fruits. It is dioecious, and one male tree
furnishes pollen sufficient for twenty female.
History — It has been generally believed that neither the nutmeg
nor mace was known to the ancients. C. F. Ph. von Martins^ however
maintains that mace was alluded to in the comedies of Plautus," written
about two centuries before the Christian era.
^Histoire des Brogues, ii. (1849) 398.
2 Twelve chests of this rhubarb, said to be
of the crop of 1793, which had been lying
in the Russian Government warehouses,
were offered for sale in London, Dec. 1,
1853. Samples of the drug now 80 years
old are in our possession, and still sound
and good.
^ Most beautifully figured by Blunie,
"Rumphia" i. (1835) tab. 55; Myristica
fatua, ii. 59.
^ Flora BrasUicii.v's, fasc. 11-12. 133;
also in Buchner's Bepertorium fur Phar-
vi'ide, ix. (1860) 529-538.
^ Pstudolus, act. iii. scena 2.
MYRISTICA.
503
The words Macer, Macitr, Maclur or Macir, occurring in the writ-
ings of Scribouiiis Lai-gus, Dioscorides, Galen, and Pliny are thought
by Martius to refer in each instance to mace. But that the sub-
stance designated by these names was not mace, but the bark of a tree
growing in Malabar, was pointed out by Acosta nearly three centuries
ago, and by many subsequent writers, and, as we think, with perfect
correctness/
Nutmegs and mace were imported from India at an early date by
the Arabians, and thus passed into western countries. Aetius, who
was resident at the court of Constantinople about the year 540, appears
to have been acquainted with the nutmeg, if that at least is intended
by the term Nuccs Indicce, prescribed together with cloves, spikenard,
costus, calamus aromaticus and sandal wood, as an ingredient of the
Saffmnigium moscJiat am.^
Masudi,^ who appeal's to have visited India in a.d. 916-920, pointed
out that the nutmeg, like cloves, areca nut and sandal wood, was a pro-
duct of the eastern islands of the Indian Archipelago. The Arabian
geographer Edrisi, who wrote in the middle of the 12th century, men-
tions both nutmegs and mace as articles of import into Aden;* and
again " JS'ois mouscades " are among the spices on which duty was levied
at Acre in Palestine, circa a.d. 1180." About a century later, another
Arabian author, Kazwini,** expressly named the Moluccas as the native
country of the spices under notice.
The Sanskrit name of the nutmeg-tree most commonly in use, also
with Susruta, is Jati (Dr. Rice).
One of the earliest references to the use of nutmegs in Europe
occurs in a poem written about 1195, by Petrus D'Ebulo,' describing
the entry into Rome of the Emperor Henry VI., prior to his coronation
in April 1191. On this occasion the streets were fumigated with
aromatics, which are enumerated in the following line: —
"Balsama, thus, aloe, myrktica, cynnama, nardus."
By the end of the 12th century, both nutmegs and mace were found
in Northern Europe, — even in Denmark, as may be inferred from the
allusion to them in the writings of Harpestreng." In England, mace,
though well known, was a \evy costly spice, its value between a.d.
1284< and 1377 being about 4s. "Jd. per lb., while the average price of a
sheep during the same period was but Is. bd., and of a cow 9s. 5(/.^ It
was also dear in France, for in the Gomiite de Vexeciition of the will of
Jeanne d'Evreux, queen of France, in 1372, six ounces of mace are
' Merat et De Lens, Did. da Mat. Med.
iv. (1832) 173.— The tree is, we think,
AUaiitus malahcu-ica DC, order of the
Simarube;e.
- Aetius, tetrabiblos iv. serm. 4. c. 122.
— It must however be admitted that A^ux
Indica in medioeval authors usually signifies
the Coco -nut, but also sometimes I^ux
vomica or even Areca nut. For particulars
see Fluckiger, Documente zur Geschichte der
Pharm. 1876. 18.
* Les prairies d'or, i. (1861) 341.
"* Geuijraphie, i, (1836) 51.
^ la the work quoted at p. 282, note 3.
" Kosmoip-aphie, tlbersetzt von Ethe, i.
(1869) 227'.
' Carmen de motibiis siculi.s, Basil., 1746.
23. — A new edition of this work, by Prof.
Winkelniaun, was published in 1874.
^ Daiiske Laegebog, quoted by Meyer,
Geschichte der Botanik, hi. (1856) 537.
llogers, Hist, of Aqricidture and Prices
in England, i. (1866) 361-362. 628.— It is
remarkable that nutmegs are not mentioned,
though mace is named repeatedly.
504
MYRlSTlCEiE.
appraised per ounce at 3 sols 8 deniers, equul to about 8s. 2d. of our
present money/
The use of these spices was diffused throughout Europe long before
the Portuguese in 1512 had discovered the mother-plant in the isles of
Banda. The Portuguese held the trade of the Spice Islands for about
a century, when it was wrested from them by the Dutch, who pursued
the same policy of exclusiveness that they had followed in the case of
cloves and cinnamon. In order to secure their monopoly, they endea-
voured to limit the trees to Banda and Amboyna, and to exterminate
them elsewhere, which in fact they did at Ceram and the small neigh-
bouring islands of Kelang and Nila. So completely was the spice
trade in their hands, that the crops of sixteen years were said to be at
one time in their warehouses, those of recent years being never thi-own
on the market. Thus the crop of 1744 was being sold in 17C0, in which
year an immense quantity of nutmegs and cloves was burned at
Amsterdam lest the price should fall too low.^
During the occupation of the Spice Islands by the English from
179G to 1802, the culture of the nutmeg was introduced into i3encoolen
and Penang,^ and many years afterwards into Singapore. Extensive
plantations of nutmeg-trees were formed in the two islands last named,
and by a laborious and costly system of cultivation were for many
years highly productive.* In 1860 the trees were visited by a de-
structive blight, which the cultivators were powerless to arrest, and
which ultimately led to the ruin of the plantations, so that in 1867
thei'e was no such thing as nutmeg cultivation either in Penang or
Singapore.^
Though so long valued in Europe and Asia, neither nutmegs nor
mace seem to have been employed in former times as a condiment in
the islands where they are indigenous.'^
Collection and Preparation — Almost the whole surface of the
Banda Isles, observes Mr. Wallace,''' is planted with nutmeg-trees, which
thrive under the shade of the lofty Ganarium comnmme. The light
volcanic soil, the shade, and the excessive moisture of these islands,
where it rains more or less every month in the year, seem exactly to
suit the nutmeg- tree, which requires no manure and scarcel}^ any
attention.
In Bencoolen^ the trees bear all the year round, but the chief harvest
takes place in the later months of the year, and a smaller one in April,
1 Leber, Appriciation de la fortune jjrivde
au moijen dye, cd. 2, ] 847. 95.
- Valmoiit cle Bomare, Dirt. d'Hintoire
Nat. iv. (1775) 297. — This autlior writes as
an eye-witness of the destruction he has
recorded: — "Le 10 Juin 1760, j'en ai vu a
Amsterdam, pres de I'Amiraute, un feu
dont Taliment etoit cstime huit millions
argent de France : on devoit en brfiler
autaut le lendemain. Les pieds des spec-
tateurs baignoient dans Thuile essentielle
de ces substances ..."
3 How tempting the cultivation must
have appeared, may be judged from the
price of mace, which we find quoted on the
3rd January 1806, in the London Price
Current (which gives only import prices).
as 85.S. to 90s. per lb. ; — to these rates must
be added the duty of 7 s. 1(/. per lb.
•* Seemann, Hooker's Journ. of Bot. iv.
(1852) S3.
^ Collingwood in Journ. of Linnean So-
ciety, Bot., X. (1869) 45.
Crawfurd, Dictionary of the Indian
Islands, 1856. 304. — Much additional infor-
mation will be found in this work.
" The Malay Archipetayo, i. (1869) 452.
— See also Bickmore, I'ravels in (he East
Indian Archipelayo, 1868. 225.
8 Lumsdaine, Pharm. Journ. xi. (1852)
516. For further information on the ma-
nagement of nutmegplantations in Sumatra,
consult the original paper.
MYRISTICA.
505
May and June. The fruit as it splits is gathered by means of a hook
attached to a long stick, the pericarp removed, and the mace carefully
stripped off, The nuts are then taken to the drying house (a brick
building), placed on frames, and exposed to the gentle heat of a smoul-
dering tire, Avith arrangements for a proper circulation of air. This
di-ying operation lasts for two months, during which time the nutmegs
are turned every second or third day. At the end of this period, the
kernels are found to rattle in the shell, an indication that the drying is
complete. The shells are then broken with a wooden mallet, the
nutmegs picked out and sorted, and finally rubbed over with dry sifted
lime. In Banda the smaller and less sightly nutmegs are reserved for
the preparation of the expressed oil.
The old commercial policy of the Dutch originated the singular
practice of breaking the shell, and immersing the kernel of the
artificially dried seed in milk of lime, — sometimes for a period of
three months. This was done with a view to render impossible the
germination of any nutmegs sent into the market. The folly of such a
procedure was demonstrated by Teijsmann, who proved that mere
exposure to the sun for a week is sufiicient to destroy the vitality of the
seed. By immersion in milk of lime many nutmegs are spoiled and the
necessity is incurred of a second drying. Lumsdaine has also shown
that even the dry liming process is, to say the least, entirely needless.
Nutmegs are well preserved in their natural shell, in which state the
Chinese have the good sense to prefer them.
The process of liming nutmegs is however still largely followed; and
the prejudice in favour of the spice thus prepared is so strong in certain
countries, that nutmegs not limed abroad have sometimes to be limed
in London to fit them for exportation. Penang nutmegs are always
imported in the natural state, — that is, im-Hmed.
Description — The fruit of Myristica fragrcms is apendulous,globose
drupe, about 2 inches in diameter, and not unlike a small round pear.
It is marked by a furrow which passes round it, and by which at
maturity its thick fleshy pericarp splits into two pieces, exhibiting in its
interior a single seed, enveloped in a fleshy foliaceous mantle or arillus,
of fine crimson hue, which is mace. The dark brown, shining, ovate
seed is marked with impressions corresponding to the lobes of the
arillus; and on one side, which is of paler hue and slightly flattened,
a line indicating the raphe may be observed.
The bony testa does not find its way into European commerce, the
so-called nutmeg being merel}^ the kernel or nucleus of the seed.
Nutmegs exhibit nearly the form of their outer shell with a corresponding
diminution in size. The London dealers esteem them in proportion to
their size, the largest, which are about one inch long by of an inch
broad, and four of which will weigh an ounce, fetching the highest
price. If not dressed with lime, they are of a greyish brown, smooth
yet coarsely furrowed and veined longitudinally, marked on the flatter
side with a shallow groove. A transverse section shows that the inner
seed coat {endopleura) penetrates into the albumen in long narrow
brown strips, reaching the centre of the seed, thereby imparting the
peculiar marbled appearance familiar in a cut nutmeg.
At the base of the albumen and close to the hilum, is the embryo.
5UG
MYRISTICEi?:.
formed of a short radicle with cup-shaped cotyledons, whose slit and
curled edges jtenetrate into the albumen. The tissue of the seed can be
cut with equal facility in any. direction. It is extremely oily, and has a
delicious ai'omatic fragrance, with a spicy rather acrid taste.
Microscopic Structure — The testa consists mainly of long, thin,
radiall}^ arranged, rigid cells, which are closely interlaced and do not
exhibit any distinct cavities. The endopleura which forms the adhering
coat of the kernel and penetrates into it, consists of soft- walled, red-
brown tissue, with small scattered bundles of vessels. In the outer
layers the endopleura exhibits small collapsed cells; but the tissue
which fills the folds that dip into the interior consists of much larger
cells. The tissue of the albumen is formed of soft-walled parenchyme,
which is densely filled with conspicuous starch-grains, and with fat,
partly crystallized. Among the prismatic crystals of fat, lai'ge thick
rhombic or six-sided tables may often be observed. With these are
associated grains of albuminoid matter, partly crystallized.
Chemical Composition — After starch and albuminoid matter, the
principal constituent of nutmeg is the fat, which makes up about a fourth
of its weight, and is known in commerce by the incorrect name of Oil
of Mace (see p. 507).
The volatile oil, to which the smell and taste of nutmegs are chiefly
due, amounts to between 3 and 8 per cent.,^ and consists, according to
Cloez (1864), almost entirely of a hydrocarbon, Ci^Hi", boiling at 165°
C, which Gladstone (1872), who assigns it the same composition, calls
Myristicene. The latter chemist found in the crude oil an oxygenated
oil, Myristicol, of very difficult purification and possibly subject to
change during the process of rectifying. It has a high boiling point
(about 220° C. ?) and the characteristic odour of nutmeg; unlike carvol
with which it is isomeric, it does not form a crystalline compound with
hydrosulphuric acid.
Oil of nutmegs, distilled in London by Messrs. Heri-ing and Co.,
examined in column 200 mm. long, we found to "deviate the ray of
polarized light, 1 5°'3 to the right ; that of the Long Nutmeg {MyrisHca
fatua Houtt.), furnished to us by the same firm, deviated 28°'7 to
the right.
From the facts recorded by Gmelin,' it would appear that oil of
nutmeg sometimes deposits a stearoptene called Myristic 'm. We are
not acquainted with such a deposit ; yet we have been kindly furnished
by Messrs. Herrings with a crystalline substance which they obtained
during the latter part of the process of distilling both common and long
nutmegs. It is a greyish greasy mass, which by repeated crystalliza-
tions from spirit of wine, we obtained in the form of brilliant, colour-
less scales, fusible at 54° C, and still possessing the odour of nutmeg.
The crystals are readily soluble in benzol, bisulphide of carbon or
chloroform, sparingly in petroleum ether ; their solution in spirit of
wine has a decidedly acid reaction, and is devoid of rotatory power. B}^
boiling them with alcohol, sp. gr. 0'843, and anhydrous carbonate of
' Messrs. Herrings & Co. of London li.ave
informed us, that 2874 lb. of nutmegs dis-
tilled in their laboratory afforded 67 lb. of
essential oil, i.e. 2 '33 per cent. But
Messrs. Schimmel <^ Co., Leipzig, state
(1878) that they obtain as much as from (j
to 8 per cent.
2 Chemintry, xiv. (I860) 389.
MYKISTICA.
507
sodium, we obtained a solution which, after removal of the alcohol, left
a residuum perfectly soluble in boiling watur, forming a jelly on
cooling. By adding hydrochloric acid to the warm aqueous solution,
the original crystallizable substance again made its appearance, yet
almost devoid of odour. It is in fact nothing else than Myristic Acid
(see page 508).^
Production and Commerce — The nutmegs and mace now brought
into the market are to a large extent the produce of the Banda
Islands,"'^ of which however only three, namely Lontar or the Great
Banda, Pulo Ai, and Pulo Nera, have what are termed Nutmeg
Pdrks. According to official statements of the Dutch, the first-
named island possessed in 18G4 about 266,000 fruit-bearing trees ;
Ternate on the western coast of Jilolo, 46,000 ; Menado in the island
of Celebes, 35,000 ; and Amboyna, only 31,000. The nutmegs of the
Banda Islands are shipped to Batavia. The quantity exported from
Java in 1871 (all, we believe, from Batavia, and therefore the pro-
duce of the Banda Islands) is stated as 8107 peculs (1,080,933 lb.),
of which 2300 peculs (306,666 lb.) were shipped to the United States,
and a rather large quantity to Singapore.^ The last-named port also
shipped in the same year a ver}^ large quantity (310,576 lb.) of nut-
megs to North America/ and in 1877 the total export of nutmegs and
mace from Singapore was 5323 peculs (709,733 lb.).
Nutmegs were exported from Padang in Sumati'a in the year 1871,
to the extent of 2766 peculs (368,800 lb.), chiefly to America and
Singapore. The quantity annually imported into the United Kingdom
ranges from 500,000 to 800,000 lb.
Uses — Nutmeg is a grateful aromatic stimulant, chiefly employed
for flavouring other medicines. It is also in constant use as a condi-
ment, though less appreciated than formerly.
Oleum Myristicae expressum.
Oleum Macidis , Balsamum vel Oleum Nucistoi ; Exjwessed Oil of
Nutmegs, Nutmeg Butter, Oil of Mace; F. Beuiix de Muscade; G.
Muskatbutter, Muskatnussbl.
This article reaches England chiefly from Singapore, in oblong,
rectangular blocks, about 10 inches long by 2J inches square, enveloped
in a wrapper of palm leaves. It is a solid unctuous substance of an
orange-brown colour, varying in intensity of shade, and presenting a
mottled as]iect. It has a very agreeable odour and a fatty aromatic
taste.
In operating on 2 lb. of nutmegs, first powdered and heated in a
waterbath and pressed while still hot, we obtained 9 ounces of solid
oil, equivalent to 28 per cent. This oil, which in colour, odour and
consistence does not difier from that which is imported, melts at about
1 Yearhooh of Pharmacy, 1874, 490.
- Some idea of the extremely small area
of these famous islands may be gathered
from the fact that the Great Banda, the
largest of them, is but about 7 miles long
by 2 miles broad ; while the entire group
occupies no more than 17 '6 geographical
square miles.
3 Consular- Be.port.t, Aug. 1873. 952-3. In
1875, 8990 peculs were exported from Java.
■* Blue Books for the Colony of the Straits
Settlements for 1871, Singapore, 1872.
508
MYEISTICE^.
45° C. ; and dissolves perfectly in two parts of warm ether or in four
of warm alcohol sp. gr. •800.
Nutmeg butter contains the volatile oil already described, to the
extent of about six per cent., besides several fatty bodies. One of
the latter, termed Myristin C^H'(0. C"H'"0)^ may be obtained by
means of benzol, or by dissolving in ether that part of the butter of
nutmeg which is insoluble in cold spirit of wine. The crystals of
myristin melt at 31° C. By saponification they furnish glycerin, and
Myristic Acid, C"H='0-, the latter fusing at 53°-8 C. Playfair in 1841
was the first to isolate (in Liebig's laboratory at Giessen) myristic acid.
Myristin also occurs in spermaceti, coco-nuts, as well as, according to
Mulder, in small quantity, in the fixed oils of linseed and poppy seed.
Nutmegs according to Comar (1859) yield 10 to 12 per cent, of
myristin.
That part of nutmeg butter, which is more readily soluble in spirit
of wine or benzol, contains another fat, which however has not yet
been investigated. It is accompanied by a reddish colouring matter.
MACIS.
Mace; Y.Macis; G. Mads, MiiskathliXthe.
Botanical Origin — Myristica fragrans Houttuyn (see p. 502).
The seed which, deprived of its hard outer shell or testa, is known as
the nutmeg, is enclosed when fresh in a fleshy net-like envelope, some-
what resembling the husk of a filbert. This organ, which is united,
though not very closely, at the base of the stony shell both with
the hilum and the contiguous portion of the raphe, of which parts it
is an expansion, is termed arillus,^ and when separated and dried con-
stitutes the mace of the shops. In the fresh state it is fleshy, and of a
beautiful crimson ; it envelopes the seed completely only at the base,
afterwards dividing itself into broad flat lobes ; which branch into
narrower strips overlapping one another towards the summit.
History — Included in that of the nutmeg (see preceding article).
Description — The mace, separated from the seed by hand, is dried
in the sun, thereby losing its brilliant red hue and acquiring an orange-
brown colour. It has a dull fatty lustre, exudes oil when pressed with
the nail, and is horny, brittle, and translucent. Steeped in water it
swells rather considerably. The entire arillus, compressed and crumpled
by packing, is about If inches long with a general thickness of about
T,V of an inch or even at yV base. Mace has an agreeable aromatic
smell nearly resembling that of nutmeg, and a pungent, spicy, rather
acrid taste.
Microscopic Structure — The uniform, small-celled, angular paren-
chyme is interrupted by numerous brown oil-cells of larger size. The
inner part of the tissue contains also thin brown vascular bundles.
The cells of the epidermis on either side are colourless, thick-walled,
longitudinally extended, and covered with a peculiar cuticle of broad.
1 On the nature and origin of this ii. (1870) 499; also Dktionnaire de Botan-
organ, see Baillon, Bistoire. des Planles, ique.
MACIS.
509
flat, riband-like cells, whicli cannot however be removed as a continuous
liim. Tlie parencliyme is loaded with small granules, to which a red
colour is imparted by Millon's test (solution of mercurous nitrate) and
an orange hue by iodine. The granules consequently consist of albu-
minous matter, and starch is altogether vi^anting.
Chemical Composition — The nature of the chemical constituents
of mace may be inferred from the following experiments performed by
one of us : — 17 grammes of finely powdered mace were entirely ex-
hausted by boiling ether, and the latter allowed to evaporate. It left
behind 5 57 gi'm., which after drying at 100^ C. were diminished to 4<17.
The difterence, 1'40 grammes, answers to the amount of essential oil, of
which consequently 8'2 per cent, had been present.
The residue, amounting to 24'5 per cent., was a thickish aromatic
halsam, in which we have not been able to ascertain the presence of
fat; it consisted of resin and semi-resinified essential oil. Alcohol
further removed 1'4 per cent, of an uncrystallizable sugar, which re-
duced cupric oxide.
The druo- having been thus treated witli ether and with alcohol,
yielded almost nothing to cold water, but by means of boiling water
1"8 per cent, of a mucilage was obtained, which turned blue by addition
of iodine, or reddish violet if previously dried. This substance is not
soluble in an ammoniacal solution of cupi'ic oxide ; it appears rather to
be an intermediate body between mucilage and starch.^ The composi-
tion of mace is therefore very different from that of nutmeg.
As to the volatile oil, of which several observers have obtained from
7 to 9 per cent.,^ it is a fragrant colourless liquid which we found, when
examined in a column 200 mm. long, deviated the ray 18°'8 to the right.
Its gi-eater portion consists according to Schacht (18G2) of Macene,
C'"H"', boiling at 1G0° C, and distinguished from oil of tui'pentine by
not forming a crystalline hydrate when mixed with alcohol and nitric
acid. K oiler (1865) states that macene is identical with the hydro-
carbon of oil of nutmeg (myristicene), yet the latter is said by Cloez to
yield no solid compound when treated with hydrochloric gas. Macene
on the other hand furnishes crystals of C^H^^jHCl. Crude oil of mace
contains, like that of nutmeg, an oxygenated oil, the properties of which
have not 3'et been investigated.
Commerce — Mace, mostly the produce as it would appear of the
Banda Islands, was shipped from Java in 1871 to the extent of 2101
peculs (282,133 lb.) ; and from Padan^- in Sumatra (excluding shipments
to Java) to the amount of 457 peculs (00,933 Ib.).^ The spice is exported
principally to Holland, Singapore, and the United States; Great Britain
receives about 60,000 to 80,000 lb. annually.
Uses — Mace is but rarely employed in medicine. It is chiefly con-
sumed as a condiment.
' See my paper: Ueher StiirJce und Cel-
lulose in Archiv der Pharm. 196 (1871) 31.
— F. A. F.
- In an actual experiment (1868) in the
laboratory of Messrs. Herrings & Co. , Lon-
don, 23 lb. of mace yielded 23 07.. of volatile
oil, which is equivalent to 6J per cent. ; but
Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig, oblig-
ingly inform us (1878) that they olDserved
a percentage of from 11 to 17.
3 Consular Reports, August 1873. 952-3.
610
LAURACE^.
LAURACEJE.
CAMPHORA.
Camphor^ Common Camphor, Laurel Camiplior ; F. Camjyhre ;
G. Gamplier.
Botanical Origin — C'mnamomum Cam^phora Fr. Nees et Eber-
maier {Lauras Caiivphora L., Campltora ojficivarum C. Bauh.), the
Camphor tree or Camphor Laurel is widely diffused, being found
throughout Central China and in the Japanese Islands. In China it
abounds principally in the eastern and central provinces, as in Che-
kiang, Fokien and Kiangsi ; but it is wanting, according to Garnier
(1868), in Yunnan and Szechuen. It is plentiful, on the other hand,
in the island of Formosa, where it covers the whole line of mountains
from north to south, up to an elevation of 2000 feet above the level of
the sea. It flourishes in tropical and subtropical countries, and forms
a large and handsome ti'ee in sheltered spots in Italy as far north as
the Lago Maggiore. The leaves are small, shining, and glaucous be-
neath, and have long petioles ; the stem aftbrds excellent timber, much
prized on account of its odour for making clothes' chests and drawei's
of cabinets.
Dryobalanops aromatica, the camphor tree of Borneo and Sumatra,
yields a peculiar camphor, which we shall describe further on.
History — The two kinds of Camphor afforded by the two trees just
named have always been regarded by the Chinese as perfectly distinct
substances, and in considering the history of camphor this fact must be
borne in mind.
On perusing the accounts of Laurel Camphor given by Chinese
writers," the remarkable fact becomes apparent, that although the tree
was evidently well known in the (3th century, and probably even earliei',
and is specially noticed on account of its valuable timber, no mention
is made in connexion with it of any such substance as camphor.
Le-she-chin, the author of the celebrated herbal Fun-tsao-kang-
muh, written in the middle of the 16th century, was well acquainted
with the two sorts of camphor, — the one produced by the camphor
laurel of his own country, the other imported from the Malay islands;
and he narrates how the former was prepared by boiling the wood,
and refined by repeated dry sublimations.
Marco Polo, towards the end of the 13th century, saw the forests of
Fokien in South-eastern China, in which, says he, are many of the
trees which give camphor.^ It would thus appear that Laurel Camphor
was known as early as the time of Marco Polo, yet it is certain that
the more ancient notices which we shall now quote have reference to
^ The word CampJior, generally written
by old Latin authors C'aphm-a, and by
English Camphire, is derived from the
Arabic Kdfur, which in turn is snpijosed to
come from the Sanskrit Karjnlra, signify-
ing white.
^ Passages from several have heen trans-
lated and kindly placed at our disposal by
Mr. A. Wylie. Dr. Bretschneider of Pekin
and Mr. Pauthier of Paris (see p. 494, note
7,) have also been good enough to aid us in
the same manner.
iYi\le, Book of Ser Marco Polo, ii. (1871)
185.
CAMPHORA.
511
the much vakied Malay Camphor, which remains up to the present day
one of the most precious substances of its class.
There is no evidence that camphor reached Europe during the
classical period of Gi'eece and Rome. The first mention of it known to
us occurs in one of the most ancient monuments of the Arabic lan-
guage, the poems of Imru-l-Kais,^ a prince of the Kindah dynasty, who
lived in Hadramaut in the beginning of the Gth century. Nearly at
the same period, Aetius of Amida (the modern Diarbekir) used camphor
medicinally, but from the manner in which he speaks of it, it was
evidently a substance of some rarity.'^
In fact, for many centuries subsequent to this period, can)phor was
regarded as one of the most rare and ]jrecious of perfumes. Thus, it is
mentioned in A.D. 636, with musk, ambergris, and sandal wood, among
the ti"easures of Chosroes II., of the Sassanian dynasty of kings of
Persia, in the palace at Madain on the Tigris, north of Babylon.^
Among the immense mass of valuables dispersed at Cairo on the
downfall of the Fatimite Khalif Mostanser in the 11th century, the
Arabian historians'* enumerate with astonishment, besides vast quan-
tities of musk, aloes wood, sandal wood, amber, large stores of Camplior
of Kaisur, and hundreds of figures of melons in camphor, adorned
with gold and jewels, which were contained in precious vessels of gold
and porcelain. One grain (crystal ?) of camphor is mentioned as
weighing 5 mithkals, one melon of the weight of 70 mithkals, was
contained in a golden box weighing no less than 3,000 mithkals
(1 mithkal = 71 '49 gr. Troy = 4"63 grammes). It is also on record
that about A.D. 642, Indian princes sent camphor as tribute or a gift to
the Chinese Emperors;'^ — further, that in the Teenpaou period (A.D.
742-755), the Cochinchinese brought to the Chinese court a tribute of
Barus camphor, said by the envoy to be found in the trunks of old
trees, the like of which for fragrance was never seen again.*^ Masudi,"
four centuries later, mentions a similar present from an Indian to a
Chinese potentate, when 1,000 menn^ of aloes-wood were accompanied
by 10 menn of camphor, the choice quality of the latter being indicated
by the remark that it was in pieces as large or larger than a pistachio-
nut.
Again, between A.D. 1342 and 1352, an embassy left Pekin bearing
a letter from the Gi'eat Khan to Pope Benedict XII., accompanied by
presents of silk, precious stones, camphor, musk, and spices."
Ibn Batuta, the celebrated traveller, relates that after having
visited the King of Sumatra, he was presented on leaving (a.d.
1347) with aloes-wood, camp)hov, cloves, and sandal-wood, besides
provisions.
Ishak ibn Amran, an Arabian physician living towards the end of
^ In the description of Arabia by Ibn
Hagik el Hamdany, fol. 170 of the MS. at
Aden (Prof. Sprenger).
- He directs two ounces of camphor to
be added to a certain preparation, jjrovided
camphor is sufficiently abundant. — Tetr.
iv. sermo 4. c. 114.
^ G. Weil, Geschichie tier Chalifen, i.
(Mannheim, 1846) 75.
■* Quatremfere, Mem. mr VEgypte, ii. (1811)
36G-375. — It is interesting to find that
Kdfure-haimri, i.e., Kaisur Camphor, is a
term still known in the Indian bazaars.
^ Kauffer, GcscJdcJite vonOstaiiien, ii. (1859)
491.
"Translation from the Chinese communi-
cated by Mr. A. Wylie.
''Leu Prairies d'or, i. (Paris, 1861) 200.
8 The Arabian menu or menn is equal to
2i pounds Troy, or 933 grammes.
^ Yule, Cathay and ike icay thither, ii.
357.
512
LAURACE^.
the 9th century, and Ibn Khurdadbah, a geographer of the same period,
were among the first to point out that camphor is an export of the
Malayan Archipelago ; and their statements are repeated by the
Arabian writers of the middle ages, who all assert that the best
camphor is produced in Fansur. This place, also called Kansur or
Kaisur, was visited in the 13th century by Marco Polo, who speaks of
its camphor as selling for its weight in gold; Yule' believes it to be
the same spot as Barus, a town on the western coast of Sumatra, still
giving a name to the camphor produced in that island.
From all these facts and many others that might be adduced,- it
undoubtedly follows that the camphor first in use was that found
native in the trunk of the Sumatran Dryohalanops avomatlca, and not
that of the Camphor Laurel. At what period and at whose instigation
the Chinese began to manufacture camphor from the latter tree is not
known.
Camphor was known in Europe as a medicine as early as the 12th
century, as is evident from the mention of it by the abbess Hildegard^
(who calls it ganpliora), Otho of Cremona,* and the Danish canon
Harpestreng {oh. A.D. 1244).
Garcia de Orta states (1568) that it is the camphor of China which
alone is exported to Eui'ope, that of Borneo and Sumatra being a
hundred times more costly, and all consumed by eastern nations.
They partly devoted the latter to ritual purposes, as for instance
embalming, partly to " eating," i.e. for the preparation of the betel-
leaves for chewing. Neuhof ^ states that the other ing-redients used in
China for that purpose are : Areca nuts (see article Semen Arecae) and
lime or Lycium (see page 35), Capliur de Burneo, aloe (i.e. Aloe-
wood, see Aloe), and musk. Kampfer,' who resided in Japan in
1690-92, and who figured the Japanese camphor tree under the name
Laurus camp! tor if era, expressly declares the latter to be entirely
different from the camphor tree of the Indian Archipelago. He further
states that the camphor of Borneo was among the more profitable
commodities imported into Japan by the Dutch, whose homevvard
cargoes included Japanese camphor to the extent of 6,000 to 12,000 lb
annually." This camj^hor was refined in Holland by a process long
kept secret, and was then introduced into the market. In Pomet's
time (1694 and earlier), crude camphor was common in France, but it
had to be sent to Holland for purification.
It is doubtful whether at that period, or even much later, any
camphor was obtained from Formosa. Du Halde^ makes no allusion to
it as a production of that island ; nor does he mention it among the
commodities of Emouy (Amoy), which was the Chinese port then in
most active communication with Formosa.
Production — The camphor of European commerce is produced in
1 The Book of Ser Marco Polo, ii. (1874)
282, 285.
- For further historical details, compare
my paper in the Sclncehcrliche Woclien-
Kchrij't fur Fharmacie, 27 Sept., 4 and 11
Oct. 18G7, or in Buchner's Beperforium f.
Pharmncie, xvii. (1868) 28.— F. A. F.
S. Hildegardis Opera Omnia, accuraute
J. P. Migne, Paris, 1855. 1145.
Choiilant, Macer Florklus, Lips. 1832.
161.
•' Gesantschaft, etc. Amsterdam, 1660.
.SG.S.
Ameenitates exotica (1712) 770.
''Hint, of Japan, translated by Scheiichzer,
i. (1727) 353. 370.
Deccription de la Chine, i. (1735) 161.
CAMPHORA.
513
tlie island of Formosa and in Japan. We have no evidence that any is
manufactured at the present day in China, although very large trees,
often from 8 to 9 feet in diameter, are common, for instance in
Kiangsi, and camphor wood is an important timber of the Hankow
market.
In Formosa, the camphor-pi'oducing districts lie in the narrow belt
of debateable ground, which separates the border Chinese settlements
from the territory still occupied by the aboriginal tribes. The camphor
is prepared from the wood, which is cut into small chips from the trees,
by means of a gouge with a long handle. In this process there is
great waste, many trees being cut and then left with a large portion
of valuable timber to perish. The next operation is to expose the
wood to the vapour of boiling water, and to collect the camphor which
volatilizes with the steam. For this purpose, stills are constructed thus :
— a long wooden trough, frequently a hollowed trunk, is fixed over a
furnace and protected by a coating of clay. Water is poured into it,
and a board perforated with numerous small holes is luted over it.
Above these holes the chips are placed and covered with earthen pots.
A fire having been lighted in the furnace, the water becomes heated, and
the steam passing through the chips, carries with it the camphor, which
condenses in minute white crystals in the upper part of the pots. From
these it is scraped out every few days, and is then very pure and clean.
Four stills, each having ten pots placed in a row over one trough, are
generally arranged under one shed. These stills are moved from time to
time, according as the gradual exhaustion of timber in the locality
renders such transfer desirable. A considerable quantity of camphor is
however manufactured in the towns, the chips being conveyed thither
from the country. A model of a much better still, which was con-
tributed from Formosa to the Paris Exhibition in 1878, is perhaps
referring to a town manufacture.
Camphor is brought from the interior to Tamsui, the chief port of
Formosa, the baskets holding about half a pecul each (1 pecul = 133 J
lbs.), lined and covered with large leaves. Upon arrival, it is stored in
vats holding from 50 to 60 peculs each, or it is packed at once in the
tubs, or lead-lined boxes, in which it is exported. From the vats
or tubs there drains out a yellowish essential oil known as Gampliov
Oil, which is used by the Chinese in rheumatism.^ In 1877 hydraulic
pressure has been established for the separation of the oil and moisture ;
the raw camphor loses about 20 per cent, of these admixtures.
Kampfer in his account^ of the manufacture of camphor in the
Japanese province of Satzumaand in the islands of Gotho, describes the
boiling of the chips in an iron pot covered with an earthen head
containing straw in which the camphor collects. In the province of
Tosa, island of Sikok, there is now a still in use, which is quite con-
veniently combined with a cooling apparatus consisting of a wooden
trough, over which cold water is flowing.*
^The foregoing particulars are chiefly the Geogrr. J/a^/ctziHe, 1877, 263 and 319.
extracted from the Trade Report of Tamsui - Op. cit. p. 772.
by E. C. Taintor, Acting Commissioner of ^ Both of the above mentioned stills
Customs, published in the Reports on Trade from Sikok and Formosa are figured in my
at the Treat]/ Ports in China for 1869, ^' Account of the Paris £Jxhibition," Archiv
Shanghai, 1870, and from James Morrison's der Pharmacie, 214 (1879) 12. — F.A.F.
JJescription of the island of Formosa, in
2 K
514
LAURACE^.
Purification — Camphor as it is exported from Japan and Formosa
requires to be purified by sublimation. Tlie crude drug consists of
small crystalline grains, which cohere into irregular friable masses, of a
greyish white or pinkish hue. Dissolved in spirit of wine, it leaves
from 2 to 10 per cent, of impurities consisting of gypsum, common salt,
sulphur, or vegetable fragments.
In Eurojje, crude camphor is sublimed from a little charcoal or sand,
iron filings or quick-lime, and sent into the market as Refined Camphor
in the form of large bowls or concave cakes, about 10 inches in diameter,
3 inches in thickness, and weighing from 9 to 12 Ib.^ Each bowl has a
large round hole at the bottom, corresponding to the aperture of the
vessel in which the sublimation has been conducted. This operation is
performed in peculiar glass flasks termed honiboloes, in the upper half of
which the pure camphor concretes. These flasks having been charged
and placed in a sand-bath, are rapidly heated to about 120°-190° C. in
order to remove the water. Afterwards the temperature is slowly in-
creased to about 204° C, and maintained during 24 hours. The flasks
are finally broken.
As camphor is a neutral substance, the addition of lime probably
serves merely to retain traces of resin or empyreumatic oil. Iron
would keep back sulphur were any present.
In the United States the refiners use iron vessels ; their product is
in flat disks, about 16 inches in diameter by one inch in thickness.
The refining of camphor is carried on to a large extent in England,
Holland, Hamburg, Paris, Bohemia (Aussig), in New York and
Philadelphia. It is a process requiring great care on account of the
inflammability of the product. The temperature must also be nicely
regulated, so that the sublimate may be deposited not merely in loose
crystals, but in compact cakes. In India where the consumption of
camphor is very large, the natives eflfect the sublimation in a copper
vessel, the charge of which is 1| maunds (42 lb.) : fire is applied to the
lower part, the upper being kept cool.-
Description — Purified Camphor forms a colourless crystalline,
translucent mass, traversed by numerous fissures, so that notwithstand-
ing a certain toughness, a mass can readily be broken by repeated blows.
By spontaneous and extremely slow evaporation at ordinary tempera-
tures, camphor sublimes in lustrous hexagonal plates or prisms, having
but little hardness. If triturated in a mortar, camphor adheres to the
pestle, so that it cannot be powdered per se. But if moistened with
spirit of wine, ether, chloroform, methylic alcohol, glycerin, or an
essential or fatty oil, pulverization is eflfected without difficulty. By
keeping a short time, the powder acquires a crystalline form. With an
equal weight of sugar, camphor may also be easily powdered.
Camj^hor melts at 175° C, boils at 204°, and volatilizes somewhat
rapidly even at ordinary temperatures. To this latter property, com-
bined with slight solubility, must be attributed the curious rotatory
motion which small lumps of camphor (as well as barium butyrate,
stannic bromide, chloral hydrate, and a few other substances) exhibit
when thrown on to water.
^ These are the dimensions of the cakes that tliey may vary with diiferent makers,
manufactured in the laboratory of Messrs. - Mattheson, Emjland to Delhi, Lend.
Howards of Stratford, but it is obvious 1870, 474.
CAMPHORA.
515
The solubility of camphor in water is very small, 1300 parts dissolv-
ing about one ; but even this small quantity is partially separated on
addition of some alkaline or earthy salt, as sulphate of magnesium.
Alcohols, ethers, chloroform, carbon bisulphide, volatile and fixed oils
and liquid hydrocai'bons, dissolve camphor abundantly.
The sp. gr. of camphor at 0" C. and up to 6° is the same as that of
water ; yet at a somewhat higher temperatvire, camphor expands more
quickly, so that at 10° to 12° C. its sp. gr. is only 0-992.
In concentrated solution or in a state of fusion, camphor turns the
plane of polarization strongly to the right. Officinal solution of camphor
(Sjjiritus Camphorce) is too weak, and does not deviate the ray of light
to a considerable amount.^ Crystals of camphor are devoid of rotatory
power.
The taste and odour of camphor are sui generis, or at least are com-
mon only to a group of nearly allied substances. Camphor is not
altered by exposure to air or light. It burns easily, affording a brilliant
smoky flame.
Chemical Composition. — Camphor, C'"H'''0, by treatment with
various reagents, yields a number of interesting products : thus when
repeatedly distilled with chloride of zinc or anhydrous phosphoric acid,
it is converted into Cymene or Gymol, C^°H^'*, a body contained in many
essential oils, or obtainable therefrom.
Camphor, and also camphor oil, when subjected to powerful oxidizing
agents, absorbs oxygen, passing gradually into crystallized Camphoric
Acid, CioRisO* or C«Hi*(COOH)-', water and carbonic acid being at the
?ame time eliminated. Many essential oils, resins and gum-resins
likewise yield these acids when similarly treated.
By means of less energetic oxidizers, camphor may be converted into
Oxy-Caniphor, C^*'H^''0^, still retaining its original odour and taste
^Wheeler, 1868).
Commerce — Two kinds of crude camphor are known in the English
market, namely :
1. Formosa or China Camphor, imported in chests lined with lead
3r tinned iron, and weighing about 1 cwt. each ; it is of a light brown,
small in grain, and always wet, as the merchants cause water to be
Doured into the cases before shipment, with a view, it is ])retended, of
essening the loss by evaporation. The exports of this camphor from
Famsui in Formosa^ were in peculs (one pecul = 13'33 lb. avdp. =
30'479 kilogrammes) as follows :
1870 1871 1872 1875 1876 1877
14,481 9691 10,281 7139 8794 13,178
The shipments of camphor from Takow, the other open port of
Formosa, are of insignificant amount. Planks of camphor wood are
low exported in some quantity from Tamsui.
2. Jajxm Camphor is lighter in colour and occasionally of a pinkish
iint ; it is also in larger grains. It arrives in double tubs (one within
he other) without metal lining, and hence is drier than the previous
;ort ; the tubs hold about 1 cwt. It fetches a somewhat higher price
/han the Formosa camphor.
^ Pharm. Journ. 18 April 1874. 830. -Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports in
China for 1872, part. 2, p. 124.
51G
LAURACEiE.
Hiogo and Osaka exported in 1871, 7089 peculs (945,200 lb.), and
Nagasaki 745 peculs (99,333 lb.), the total value being 11G,718 dollars.'
In 1877 the value of camphor exported from Japan was stated to be
equal to 240,000 dollars. The im])orts of Unrefined Camphor into the
United Kingdom amounted in 1870 to 12,368 cwt. (1,385,216 lb.) ; of
Refined Camjjhor in the same year to 2361 cwt."
Camphor is largely consumed by the natives of India ; the quantity
of the crude drug imported into Bombay in the year 1872-73 was
3801 cwt;'
Uses — Camphor has stimulant properties and is frequently used in
medicine both internally and externally. It is largely consumed in India.
Other kinds of Camphor ; Camphor Oils.
Camphor, as stated above at page 512, was the name originally ap-
plied to the product of Dryobalanops ; it was then also given to that of
Camphor Laurel, and in 1725 Caspar Neumann, of Berlin, first pointed
out that many essential oils afford crystals (" stearoptenes " of later
chemists), for which he proposed the general name of camphor. Many
of them are agi-eeing with the formula C'll^'^O, and there are also
numerous liquids of the same composition. It would appear, however,
that no stearoptene of any other plant is absolutely identical with com-
mon camphor ; Lallemand's statement (see p. 479), that oil of spike
affords the latter, requires further examination.
Many other liquid and solid constituents of essential oils, or sub-
stances afforded by treating them with alcoholic potash, answer to the
formula C'"H"'(OH). Among them we may point out the two following :
they are the only substances of the class of " camphors," besides common
camphor, which are of some practical importance.
Barns Camplior, Borneo Camphor, Malayan CampJior, Dryo-
balanops Gamplior — This, as already explained, is the substance to
which the earliest notices of camphor refer. The tree which affords
it is Dryobalanops aromatica Gartn. (D. Camphora Colebrooke), of the
order Diptevocarpem, one of the most majestic objects of the vegetable
kingdom.* The trunk is very tall, round, and straight, furnished near
the base with huge buttresses ; it rises 100 to 150 feet without a branch,
then producing a dense crown of shining foliage, 50 to 70 feet in dia-
meter, on which are scattered beautiful white flowers of delicious
fragrance. The tree is indigenous to the Dutch Residencies on the
north-west coast of Sumatra, between 0° and 3° N. lat., from Ayer
Bangis to Barus and Singkel, and to the northern part of Borneo, and
the small British island of Labuan.
The camphor is obtained from the trunk, in longitudinal fissures
of which it is found in a solid crystalline state, and extracted by
laboriously splitting the wood. It can only be got by the destruc-
^Commercml Reports from H. M. Consuls
in Japan, No. 1, 1872. — The returns for
Hiogo and Osaka are upon the authority of
the Chamber of Commerce.
^ Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of the United Kingdom for 1870. p. 61 — no
later returns accessible.
^ Statement of the Trade and Navujation
of Bombay for 1872-73. ii. 27.
* For a full account and figiire of it,
seeW. H. de Vriese's excellent Memoire siir
le Camjjhrier de Sumatra et de Bornen,
Leide, 1857. 23 p. 4°. and 2 plates.
CAMPHORA.
517
tiou of the entire tree ; • — in fact, many trees afford none, so that
to avoid the toil of useless felling, it is now customary to try them
by cutting a hole in the side of the trunk, but the observation so
made is often fallacious. Spenser St. John, British Consul in Borneo,
was told that trees in a state of decay often contain the finest cam-
phor.^ The camphor when collected is carefully picked over, washed
and cleaned, and then separated into three qualities, the best being-
formed of the largest and purest crystals, while the lowest is greyish
and pulverulent.
l3ryobalanops attaining more than 150 feet in height, the quantity
of camphor which it yields must necessarily be greatly variable. The
statements are from about 3 to 11 lb.
A good proportion of the small quantity produced is consumed in
the funeral rites of the Batta princes, whose families are often ruined
by the lavish expense of providing the camphor and buffaloes which
the custom of their obsequies requires. The camphor which is exported
is eagerly bought for the China market, but some is also sent to Japan,
Laos, Cochin China, Cambodia, and Siam.
The quantity annually shipped from Borneo was reckoned by Motley
in 1851 to be about 7 peculs (933 lbs.). The export from Sumatra was
estimated by De Vriese at 10 to 15 quintals per annum. ^ The quantity
imported into Canton in 1872 was returned as 23iV peculs (3,159 lb.),
value 42,326 taels, equivalent to about 80s. per Ib.^ In the Amiual
Statement of the Trade of Bombay for the year 1872-3, 2 cwt. of Malayan
Camphor is stated to have been imported; it was valued at 9,141 Rs.
(£914). In the " Indian tariff," 1875, the duty is fixed jjer ciut. at 40
rupees for crude camphor, 65 rupees for refined camphor, and 80 rupees
2^ound for Baros camphor (" Bhemsaini camphor"). The price in
Borneo in 1851 of camphor of fine quality was 30 dollars per catty, or
about 95s. per lb.: consequently the drug never finds its way into
Eui-opean commerce.
Borneo Camphor, also termed by chemists Borneol or Gamphyl
Alcohol, is somewhat harder than common camphor, also a little heavier
so that it sinks in water. It is less volatile, and does not crystallize on
the interior of the bottle in which it is kept; and it requires for fusion
a higher temperature, namely 198° C. It has a somewhat different
odour, resembling that of common camphor with the addition of patch-
ouli or ambergris. The composition of borneol is represented by the
formula C"H" (OH). It may be converted by the action of nitric acid
into common camphor, which it nearly resembles in most of its physical
properties. Conversely, borneol may also be prepared from common
camphor. By continued oxydation borneol yields camphoric acid.
Camphor Oil of Borneo — Besides camphor, the Dryohalanops
furnishes another product, a liquid termed Camphor Oil, which must
not be confounded with the camphor oil that drains out of crude laurel
camphor. This Bornean or Sumatran Camphor Oil is obtained by
tapping the trees, or in felling them (see also p. 229). In the latter way,
1 Life ill the Forests of the Far East, ii.
(1862) 272.
'■^ In Milburn's time [Oriental Commerce,
ii. 181.3. 308), Sumatra was reckoned to ex-
port 50 peculs, and Borneo 30 peculs a year.
Rondot's statement (see Cassia Buds) that
China imports of Barus camphor about
800 peculs annually is plainly erroneous.
Returns of Trade at the Treatij Ports in
China for 1872, p. 30.
518
LAURACEiK.
Motley in cutting down a tree in Labuan in May, 1851, pierced a reser-
voir in the trunk from which about five gallons of camphor oil were
obtained, though much could not be caught.^ The liquid was a volatile
oil holding in solution a resin, wliich after a few days' exposure to the
air, was left in a syrupy state. This camphor oil, which is termed Bor-
neene, is isomeric with oil of turpentine, C'"!!"*, yet in the crude state
holding in solution borneol and l esin. By fractional distillation, it may
be separated into two portions, the one more volatile than the other but
not differing in composition.
Camjjhor Oil of Formosa, which has been already referred to as
draining out of the crude camphor of Cinnamomum Camphora, is a
brown liquid holding in solution an abundance of common camphor,
which it speedily deposits in crystals when the temperature is slightly
reduced. From Borneo Camphor Oil it may be distinguished by its
odour of sassaf ras. We find no optical difference in the rotatory power
of the oils; both are dextrogyre to the same extent, which is still the
case if the camphor from the lauraceous .camphor oil is separated by
cooling. Borneo camphor oil, for a sample of which we are indebted to
Prof de Vriese, deposits no camphor even when kept at -15° C.
Ngai Camphor, Blumea Camphor — It has been known for many
3^ears that the Chinese are in the habit of using a third variety of
camphor, having a pecuniary value intermediate between that of common
camphor and of Borneo camphor. This substance is manufactured at
Canton and in the island of Hainan, the plant from which it is obtained
being Blumea balsamifera DC, a tall herbaceous Composita, of the
tribe Inuloideae, called in Chinese Ngai, abundant in Tropical Eastern
Asia.
The drug has been supplied to us^ in two forms, — crude and pure, —
the first being in crystalline grains of a dirty white, contaminated with
vegetable remains ; the second in colourless crystals as much as an
inch in length. By sublimation the substance may be obtained in
distinct, brilliant crystals, agreeing precisely with those of Borneo
camphor, which they also resemble in odour and hardness, as well
as in being a little heavier than water and not so volatile as common
camphor.
The chemical examination of Ngai camphor, performed by Plowman,^
under the direction of Prof Attfield, has proved that it has the composi-
tion C'"H'*0, like Borneo camphor. But the two substances differ in
optical properties,^ an alcoholic solution of Ngai camphor being levogyre
in about the same degree that one of Borneo camphor is dextrogye. By
boiling nitric acid, Borneo camphor is transformed into common
{dextrogyre) camphor, whereas Ngaicam]:)hor affords a similar yetlevogyre
camphor, in all probability identical with the stearoptene of Chrysan-
themum Parthenium Pers.
As Ngai camphor is about ten times the price of Formosa camphor,
it never finds its way to Europe as an article of trade. In China it is
consumed partly in medicine and partly in perfuming the fine Tiinds of
^ Il)u Khurdadbah in the 9th century Canton. — 'H.^.nhury, Sde)icr Papers, \89.3d3.
mentions it as being obtained in this way. ^ Pharin. Jourti. March 7, 1874. 710.
- Through the courtesy of Mr. F. H. '' Fltickiger in Pharm. Journ. April 18,
Ewer, of the Imperial Maritime Customs, 187-1. 829.
CORTEX CINNAMOMI.
519
Chinese ink. The export of this camphor by sea from Canton is valued
at about £3,000 a year; it is also exported from Kiungchow, in the
island of Hainan.
CORTEX CINNAMOMI.
Cortex Cinnamomi Zeylanici; Cinnamon; F. Cannelle de Ceylan;
G. Zimmt, Ceylon Zimmt, Kaneel.
Botanical Origin — Cinnamomum zeylanicum Breyne,- — a small
evergreen tree, richly clothed with beautiful, shining leaves usually some-
what glaucous beneath, and having panicles of greenish flowers of dis-
agreeable odour.
It is a native of Ceylon, where, according to Thwaites, it is gene-
rally distributed through the forests up to an elevation of 3,000 feet,
and one variety even to 8,000 feet. It is exceedingly variable in
stature, and in the outline, size and consistence of the leaf; and several
of the extreme forms are very unlike one another and have received
specific names. But there are also numerous intermediate forms; and in
a large suite of specimens, many occur of which it is impossible to
determine whether they should be referred to this species or to that.
Thwaites' is of opinion that some still admitted species, as C. obtusi-
folium Nees and C. iners Reinw., will prove on further investigation to
be mere forms of C. zeylanicwm.
Beddome,' Conservator of Forests in Madras, remarks that in the
moist forests of South-western India there are 7 or 8 well-marked
varieties which might easily be regarded as so many distinct species,
but for the fact that they are so connected inter se by intermediate
forms, that it is impossible to find constant characters worthy of
specific distinction. They grow from the sea level up to the highest
elevations, and, as Beddome thinks, owe their differences chiefly to local
circumstances, so that he is disposed to class them simply as forms of
C. zeylanicmn.
History — (For that of the essential oil of cinnamon see page 526).
Cinnamon was held in high esteem in the most remote times of
history. In the words of the learned Dr. Vincent, Dean of West-
minster,^ it seems to have been the first spice sought after in all
oriental voyages. Both cinnamon and cassia are mentioned as precious
odoriferous substances in the Mosaic writings and in the Biblical books
of Psalms, Proverbs, Canticles, Ezekiel and Revelations, also by Theo-
phrastus, Herodotus, Galen, Dioscorides, Pliny, Strabo and many other
writers of antiquity: and from the accounts which have thus come
down to us, there appears reason for believing that the spices referred
to were nearly the same as those of the present day. That cinnamon
and cassia were extremely analogous, is proved by the remark of Galen,
that the finest cassia difters so little from the lowest quality of cinnamon,
that the first may be substituted for the second, provided a double weight
of it be used.
^ Enumeratio PJantarum Zei/laniw, 1864. - Flora Sylvatica for Southern India,
252.— Consult also Meissuer in De Caud. 1872. 262.
Prod. XV. sect. i. 10. C'umvicrce and Navigation of the An-
cients in the Indian Ocean, ii. (1807) 512.
520
LAURACE^.
It is also evident that both wei-e regarded as among the most costly
of ai'omatics, for the offering made by Seleucus II. Callinicus, king of
Syria, and his brother Antiochus Hierax, to the temyjle of Apollo at
Miletus, B.C. 243, consisting chiefly of vessels of gold and silver, and
olibanum, myrrh {a-ixvpvr)), costus (page 382), included also two
pounds of Cassia (/cao-Za), and the same quantity of Cinnaiibun
{KlVvdfJ.0t)IULOV).^
In connexion with this subject there is one remarkable fact to be
noticed, which is that none of the cinnamon of the ancients was obtained
from Ceylon. " In the pages of no author," says Tennent,^ " European
or Asiatic, from the earliest ages to the close of the thirteenth century,
is there the remotest allusion to cinnamon as an indigenous production,
or even as an article of commerce in Ceylon." Nor do the annuals of the
Chinese, between whom and the inhabitants of Ceylon, from the 4th to
the 8th centuries, thei'e was frequent intercourse and exchange of
commodities, name Cinnamon as one of the productions of the island.
The Sacred Books and other ancient records of the Singhalese are also
completely silent on this point.
Cassia, under the name of Kivei, is mentioned in the earliest Chinese
herbal, — that of the emperor Shen-nung, who reigned about 2700 B.C.,
in the ancient Chinese^ Classics, and in the Rh-ya, a herbal dating from
1200 B.C. In the Hai-yao-pen-ts'ao, written in the 8th century, mention
is made of Tien-chu hwei. Tien-chu is the ancient name for India:
perhaps the allusion may be to the cassia bark of Malabar.
In connexion with these extremely early references to the spice, it
may be stated that a bark supposed to be cassia is mentioned as im-
ported into Egypt together with gold, ivory, frankincense, precious
woods, and apes, in the 17th century B.C.*
The accounts given by Dioscorides, Ptolemy and the author of the
Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, indicate that cinnamon and cassia
were obtained from Arabia and Eastern Africa; and we further know
that the importers were Phoenicians, who traded by Egypt and the Red
Sea with Arabia. Whether the spice under notice was really a produc-
tion of Arabia or Africa, or whether it was imported thither from Southern
China (the present source of the best sort of cassia), is a question which
has excited no small amount of discussion.
We are in favour of the second alternative, — firstly, because no sub-
stance of the nature of cinnamon is known to be produced in Ai-abia or
Africa; and secondly, because the commercial intercourse which was
undoubtedly carried on by China with India and Arabia, and which
also existed between Arabia, India and Africa, is amply sufficient to
explain the importation of Chinese produce.'^ That the spice was a
^ Chishull, Antiqtdties Asiaticce, 1728.
65-72.
- C'e///o«, i (1859) 575.
^ We are indebted to Dr. Bretsclmeider
of Pekiu for these references to Chinese
literature. For information about some of
tlie works quoted, see his pamjshlet On
the Stutlii and Value of C'/iineae Botanical
Woi-ls, Foochow, 1870.
Diunichen, Fleet of an E<j)jptiun Queen,
Leipzig, 1868, p. 1.
' " . . . That there was an ulterior com-
merce beyond Ceylon is indubitable ; for
at Ceylon the trade from Malacca and the
Golden Chersonese met the merchants
from Arabia, Persia and Egypt. This
might possibly have been in the hands of
the Malays or even the Chinese, who seem
to have been navigators in all ages as uni-
versally as the Arabians " Vincent,
oj). cit. ii. 284. 285. — In the time of Marco
Polo, the trade of China westward met
the trade of the Red Sea, no longer in
Ceylon, but on the coast of Malabar,
CORTEX CINNAMOMI.
5:^1
production of the far East is moreover implied by the name Darchini
(from dar, wood or bark, and Chini, Chinese) given to it by the
Arabians and Persians.
If this view of the case is admissible, Ave must regard the ancient
cinnamon to have been the substance now known as Cliinese Cassia
llgnea or Chinese Cinnamon, and cassia as one of the thicker and
perhaps less aromatic barks of the same group, such in fact as are still
found in commerce.
Of the circumstances which led to the collection of cinnamon in
Ceylon, and of the period at which it was commenced, nothing is
known. That the Chinese were concerned in the discovery is not an
unreasonable supposition, seeing that they traded to Ceylon, and were
in all probability acquainted with the cassia-yielding species of Cin-
namomum of Southern China, a tree extremely like the cinnamon
tree of Ceylon.
Whatever may be the facts, the early notices of cinnamon as a pro-
duction of Ceylon are not prior to the 13th century. The very hrst,
according to Yule,^ is a mention of the spice by Kazwini, an Arab
writer of about A.D. 1275, very soon after which period it is noticed by
the historian of the Egyptian Sultan Kelaoun, A.D. 1283. The prince of
Ceylon is stated to have sent an ambassador, Al-Hadj-Abu-Othman, to
the Sultan's court. It was mentioned that Ceylon produced elephants,
Bakam (the wood of Ccesalpinia Saixm L. — see page 2iG), pearls and
also cinnamon.^
A still more positive evidence is due to the Minorite friar, John of
Montecorvino, a missionary who visited India. This man, in a letter
under date December 20th, 1292 or 1293, written at " Mabar, citta dell'
India di sopra," and still extant in the Medicean library at Florence,
says that the cinnamon tree is of medium bulk, and in trunk, bark
and foliage, like a laurel, and that great store of its bark is carried forth
from the island which is near by Malabar.'*
Again, it is mentioned by the Mahomedan traveller Ibn Batuta
about A.D. 1340,'' and a century later by the Venetian merchant Nicolo
di Conti, whose description of the tree is very correct.^
The circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope led to the real dis-
covery of Ce3don by the Portuguese in 1505, and to their permanent
occupation of the island in 153(3, chiefly for the sake of the cinnamon.
It is from the first of these dates that more exact accounts of the spice
began to reach Europe. Thus in 1511 Barbosa distinguished the fine
cinnamon of Ceylon from the inferio/ Canella trista of Malabar. Garcia
de Orta, about the middle of the same century, stated that Ceylon cinna-
mon was forty times as dear as that of Malabar. Clusius, the translator
apparently at Calicut, where the Portu-
guese found it on their Hrst arrivnl. Here,
says Marco, the ships from Aden obtained
their lading from the East, and carried it
into the Red Sea for Alexandria, whence
it passed into Europe by means of the
Venetians. — See also Yule, Book of iS'cr
Marco Polo, ii. (1871) 325. 327.
1 Marco Polo, ii. 255.
- Quatremh-e (in the book quoted at
page 511, note 4), ii. 284.
^ Yule, Cathay and the ivay thither, i.21.3,
also Kunstmann, Anzehjen der ba/erischen
Akademie, 24 and 25 December 1855. p. 163
and 169.
Travels of Ibn Batuta, translated by
Lee, Lend. 1829. 184.
' Ramusio, Raccolta delle Navigationi et
Viarjij), i. (1563) 339 ; Kunstmann, Kennt-
niss Iwliem im fiinfzehnten Jahrhundert,
1864. 39.
622
LAURACEiE.
of Garcia, saw branches of the cinnamon-tree as early as 1571 at Bristol
and in Holland.
At this period cinnamon was cut from trees growing wild in the
forests in the interior of Ceylon, the bark being exacted as tribute from
the Singhalese kings by the Portuguese. A peculiar caste called chalias,
who are said to have emigrated from India to Ceylon in the 13th
century, and who in after-times became cinnamon-peelers, delivered the
bark to the Portuguese. The cruel oppression of these clialias was not
mitigated by the Dutch, who from the year 1056 were virtually masters
of the whole seaboard, and conceded the cinnamon trade to their East
India Company as a profitable monopoly, which the Company exercised
with the greatest severity.' The bai'k previous to shipment was
minutely examined by special officers, to guard against frauds on the
part of the chalias.
About 1770 De Koke conceived the happy idea, in opposition to the
universal prejudice in favour of wild-growing cinnamon, of attempting
the cultivation of the tree. This project was carried out under Gover-
nors Falck and Van der Graff" with extraordinary success, so that the
Dutch were able, independently of the kingdom of Kandy, to furnish
about 400,000 lb. of cinnamon annually, thereby supplying the entire
European demand. In fact, they completely ruled the trade, and would
even hiirn the cinnamon in Holland, lest its unusual abundance should
reduce the price.
After Ceylon had been wrested from the Dutch by the English in
1796, the cinnamon trade became the monopoly of the English East
India Company, who then obtained more cinnamon from the forests,
especially after the year 181-5, when the kingdom of Kandy fell under
British rule. But though the c/ialias had much increased in numbers,
the yearly production of cinnamon does not appear to have exceeded
500,000 lb. The condition of the unfortunate chalias was not amelio-
rated until 18li3, when the monopoly granted to the Company was
finally abolished, and Government, ceasing to be the sole exporters of
cinnamon, permitted the merchants of Colombo and Galle to share in
the trade.
Cinnamon however was still burdened with an export duty equal to
a third or a half of its value; in consequence of which and of the com-
petition with cinnamon raised in Java, and with cassia from China and
other places, the cultivation in Ceylon began to suffer. This duty was
not removed until 1853.
The earliest notice of cinnamon in connexion with Northern Europe
that we have met with, is the diploma granted by Chilperic II., king of
the Franks, to the monastery of Corbie in Normandy, A.D. 716, in which
provision is made for a certain supply of spices and grocery, including
5 lb. of Cinnamon."
The extraordinary value set on cinnamon at this period is remarkably
illustrated by some letters written from Italy, in which mention is here
and there incidentally made of presents of spices and incense.^ Thus
in A.D. 745, Gemmulus, a Roman deacon, sends to Boniface, archbishop
of Mayence {"cum 7iiagnd reverentld"), 4 ounces of Cinnamon, 4
' Tenneiit, op. cit. ii. 52.
- Paidessus, IHplomata, etc., Paris, 1849.
ii. 309.
3 Jaffe, BiMiotheca Rerum Germanknrmn,
Berlin, iii. (186(5) 154. 199. 214. 21G-8. 109.
CORTEX CIKNAMOMI.
523
ounces of Costus, and 2 pounds of Pepper. In A.D. 748, Theophilacias,
a Roman archdeacon, presents to the same bishop similar spices and
incense. Lullus, the successor of Boniface, sends to Eadburga, ahbatissa
Thanetensis,^ circa A.D. 732-751 — " tmum graplthim argenteum ct
storacis et cinnamomi 'partem aliquam" ; and about the same date,
another present of cinnamon to archbishop Boniface is recorded.
Under date A.D. 732-74)2, a letter is extant of three persons to the abbess
Cuneburga, to whom the writers offer — " turis et piperis et cinnamomi
permodica xenia, sed omni mentis afectione destinata."
In the 9th century. Cinnamon, pepper, costus, cloves, and several
indigenous aromatic plants were used in the monastery of St. Gall in
Switzerland as ingredients for seasoning fish.'
Of the pecuniary value of this spice in England, there are many
notices from the year 1264 downwards.'* In the ICth century it was
probably not plentiful, if we may judge from the fact that it figures
among the New Year's gifts to Philip and Mary (1556-57), and to Queen
Elizabeth (1561-62).'
Production and Commerce' — The best cinnamon is produced,
according to Thwaites,*" from a cultivated or selected form of the tree
(var. a.), distinguished by large leaves of somewhat irregular shape.
But the bark of all the forms possesses the odour of cinnamon in a
greater or less degree. It is not however always possible to judge of
the quality of the bark from the foliage, so that the peelers when col-
lecting from uncultivated trees, are in the habit of tasting the bark
before commencing operations, and pass over some trees as unfit for their
])urpose. The bark of varieties (3. midtifloram and y. ovalifoli iim is of
very inferior quality, and said to be never collected unless for the pur-
pose of adulteration.
The best variety appears to find the conditions most favourable to its
culture, in the strip of country, 12 to 15 miles broad, on the south-west
coast of Ceylon, between Negumbo, Colombo and Matura, where the
tree is grown up to an elevation of 1500 feet. A very sandy clay soil,
or fine white quartz, with a good sub-soil and free exposure to the
sun and rain, are the circumstances best adapted for the cultivation.
The management of the plantations resembles that of oak coppice in
England. The system of pruning checks the plant from becoming a
tree, and induces it to form a stool from which four or five shoots are
allowed to grow; these are cut at the age of 1| to 2 years, when the
greyish-green epidermis begins to tui'n brown by reason of the formation
of a corky layer. They are not all cut at the same time, but only as
the}'' arrive at the proper state of maturity ; they are then 6 to 10 feet
high and |- to 2 inches thick. In some of the cinnamon gardens at
Colombo, the stools are very large and old, dating back, it is supposed,
from the time of the Dutch.
In consequence of the increased flow of sap which occurs after the
1 Doubtless Eadhurli, tliird abbess of
Minster in the Isle of Thanet in Kent.
She died A.D. 751.
Pharm. Juurn. viii. (1877) 121.
*Eden, State of the Poor, ii. (1797) ap-
pendix ; Rogers, Hist, of A(jrkidture and
Prices in Krvjiund, ii. (1866) 5-13.
Nicholls, Progres.fes and Processions of
Q. EUzaheth, i. (1823) xxxiv. 118.
^ Additional information may be found in
two papers by Marshall, in Thomson's
Annals of Philosophii, x. (1817) 241 and
346 ; see also Leschenault de la Tour, Mem.
dii Musee ii'Hist. nat. viii. (1822) 436-446.
^ Op. cit. 252-253.
524
LAURACE^.
heavy rains in May and June, and again in November and December,
the bark at those seasons is easily separated from the wood, so that a
principal harvest takes place in the spring, and a smaller one in the
latter part of the year.
The shoots having been cut off by means of a long sickle-shaped
hook called a catty, and stripped of their leaves, are slightly trimmed with
a knife, the little ^^ieces thus removed being reserved and sold as
Cinnamon Chips. The bark is next cut through at distances of about
a foot, and slit lengthwise, when it is easily and completely removed
by the insertion of a peculiar knife termed a mama, the separation
being assisted, if necessary, by strongly rubbing with the handle. The
pieces of bark are now carefully put one into another, and the compound
sticks firmly bound together into bundles. Thus they are left for 24
hours or more, during which a sort oi " fermentation" (?) goes on which
facilitates the subsequent removal part. This is accomplished by placing
each quill on a stick of wood of suitable thickness, and carefully scraping
off with a knife the outer and middle cortical layer. In a few hours
after this operation, the peeler commences to place the smaller tubes
within the larger, also inserting the small pieces so as to make up an
almost solid stick, of about 40 inches in length. The cinnamon thus
prepared is kept one day in the shade, and then placed on wicker trays
in the sun to dry. When sufficiently dry, it is made into bundles of
about 30 lb. each.^
The cinnamon gardens of Ceylon were estimated in 1860-G4 to
occupy an area of about 14,400 acres; in the catalogue of the British
Colonies, Paris Exhibition, 1878, about 2 millions of acres are stated to
be under cultivation in the island, 20,000 acres with cinnamon.'
The exports of cinnamon from Ceylon have been as follows : — •
1871 1872 1875
1,359,3271b., value £67,966. 1,267,9531b., value £64,747. 1,500,000 lb.
At present the cultivation of coffee is displacing that of cinnamon,
the exports of the former in 1875 being 928,600 cwts. valued at 4|-
millions sterling. Of the crop of 1872 there were 1,179,516 tb. of
cinnamon shijjped to the United Kingdom, 53,439 lb. to the United
States of North America, and 10,000 It), to Hamburg.
Besides the above-named exports of cinnamon, the official
statistics^ record the export of "Cinnamon Bark" — 8846 ib. in
1871 — 23,449 ib. in 1872. This name includes two distinct articles,
namely Cinnamon Chips, and a very thick bark derived from old
stems. The Cinnamon Chips which, as explained on the previous
page, are the first trimmings of the shoots, are very aromatic ; they used
to be considered worthless, and were thrown away. The second article,
to which in the London drug sales the name " Cinnamon Baric " is
restricted, is in flat or slightly channelled fragments, which are as much
as 3*0- of an inch in thickness, and remind one of New Granada cinchona
1 Formerly called fardcla or fardcllo, a
name signifying in the Romance languages
bundle or paclcai/e. The worcl/rt)'(/p/, having
the same meaning, is found in old English
writers.
- Yet the cultivation was far more exten-
sive in the earlier part of tlie centurj', as
we may judge by the statement that the
five principal cinnamon gardens around
Negumbo, Colombo, Barberyn, Galle, and
Matura., were each from 15 to 20 miles in
ciiriimfcrence (Tennent's C'cv/oh, ii. 163).
3 C' l/lon Blue Books for 1871 and 1872,
printed at Colombo.
CORTEX CiNNAMOMI.
525
bark. It is very deficient in aromatic qualities, and quite unfit for use
in pharmacy.
In most other countries into which Cinnamovium zeylanicum has
been transplanted, it has been found that, partly from its tendency to
pass into new varieties and partly perhaps from want of careful cultiva-
tion and the absence of the skilled cinnamon-peeler, it yields a bark
appreciably different from that of Ceylon. Of other cinnamon-producing
districts, those of Southern India may be mentioned as affording the
Malabar or Tinnevelly, and the Tellicherry Cinnamon of commerce, the
latter being almost as good as the cinnamon of Ceylon.^ The cultiva-
tion in Java commenced in 1825. The plant, according to Miquel, is a
variety of C. zeylanicum, distinguished by its very large leaves which are
frequently 8 inches long by 5 inches broad. The island exported in
1870, 1109 peculs (147,806 lb.) ; in 1871 only 446 peculs (59,466 Ib.).^
Cinnamon is also grown in the French colony of Guyana and in
Brazil, but on an insignificant scale. The samples of the bark from
those countries which we have examined are quite unlike the cinnamon
of Ceylon. That of Brazil in particular has evidently been taken from
stems several years old.
The importations of cinnamon into the United Kingdom from Ceylon
are shown by the following figures : —
1867 1869 1870 1871 1872 1876
859,034 lb. 2,611,4731b. 2,148,4051b. 1,430,518 lb. 1,015,4611b. 1, .339,060 lb.
During 1872, 56,000 lb. of cinnamon were imported from other
countries.
Description — Ceylon cinnamon of the finest description is imported
in the form of sticks, about 40 inches in length and of an inch in
thickness, formed of tubular pieces of bark about a foot long, dexter-
ously arranged one within the other, so as to form an even rod of con-
siderable firmness and solidity, The quills of bark are not rolled up as
simple tubes, but each side curls inwards so as to form a channel with
in-curving sides, a circumstance that gives to the eiitire stick a somewhat
flattened cylindrical form. The bark composing the stick is extremely
thin, measuring often no more than yrro n of an inch in thickness. It has a
light brown, dull surface, faintly marked with shining wavj^ lines, and
bearing here and there scars or holes at the points of insertion of leaves
or twigs. The inner surface of the bark is of a darker hue. The bark
is brittle and splintery, with a fragrant odoui-, peculiar to itself and the
allied barks of the same genus. I s taste is saccharine, pungent, and
aromatic.
The bales of cinnamon which arrive in London are always re-packed
in the dock warehouses, in doing which a certain amount of breakage
oceurs. The spice so injured is kept separate and sold as Small Cin-
namon, and is very generally used for pharmaceutical purposes. It is
often of excellent quality.
Microscopic Structure — By the peeling above described, Ceylon
cinnamon is deprived of the suberous coat and the greater part of the
ndddle cortical layer, so that it almost consists of the mere liber (endo-
^ Some of it however is very thick, though " Consular Reports, Awg. 1873. 952.
neatly quilled.
52G
LAURACE^.
phloenni). Three different layei's are to be distinguished on a transvei-se
section of this tissue : —
1. The external surface which is composed of one to three rows of
large thick-walled cells, forming a cohei'ent ring ; it is only interrupted
by bundles of liber-fibres, which are obvious even to the unaided eye ;
they compose in fiict the w&\y lines mentioned in the last page.
2. The middle layer is built up of about ten rows of parenchymatous
thin-walled cells, interrupted by much larger cells containing deposits
of mucilage, while other cells, not larger than those of the parenchyme
itself, are loaded with essential oil.
3. The innermost layer exhibits the same thin- walled but smaller
cells, yet intersected by narrow, somewhat darker, medullary rays, and
likewise interrupted by cells containing either mucilage or essential oil.
Instead of bundles of liber-fibres, fibres mostly isolated are scattered
through the two inner layers, the parenchyme of which abounds in
small starch granules accompanied by tannic matter. On a longitu-
dinal section, the length of the liber-fibres becomes more evident, as
well as oil-ducts and gum-ducts.
Chemical Composition — The most interesting and noteworthy
constituent of cinnamon is the essential oil, which the bark yields to the
extent of h to 1 per cent., and which is distilled in Ceylon, — very
seldom in England. It was prepared by Valerius Cordus, who stated,^
somewhat before 1544, that the oils of cinnamon and cloves belong to
the small number of essential oils which are heavier than water,
" fundum petunt." About 1571 the essential oils oi cinnamon, mace,
cloves, pepper, nutmegs and several others, were also distilled by Guin-
therus of Andernach,'-^ and again, about the year 1589, by Porta.''
In the latter part of the last century, it used to be brought to
Europe by the Dutch. During the five years from 1775 to 1779 in-
clusive, the average quantity annually disposed of at the sales of the
Dutch East India Company was 176 ounces. The wholesale price in
London between 1776 and 1782 was 21s. per ounce; but from 1785 to
1789, the oil fetched G3s. to 68s., the increase in value being doubtless
occasioned by the war with Holland commenced in 1782. The oil is
now largely produced in Ceylon, from which island the quantity
exported in 1871 was 14,796 ounces; and in 1872, 39,100 ounces.* The
oil is .shipped chiefly to England.
Oil of cinnamon is a golden-yellow liquid, having a sp. gr. of
1'035, a powerful cinnamon odour, and a sweet and aromatic but
burning taste. It deviates a ray of polarized light a very little
to the left. The oil consists chiefly of Cinnamic Aldehyde,
0*^11^(011)20011, together with a variable proportion of hydrocarbons.
At a low temperature it becomes turbid by the deposit of a cam-
phor, which we have not examined. The oil easily absorbs oxygen,
becoming thereby contaminated with resin and cinnamic acid,
C'^ir(OH)^COOH.
Cinnamon contains sugar, mannite, starch, mucilage, and tannic
' 111 his book "De artificiosis extractioni-
bus," published by Gesner, Argentorati,
15G1, fol. 226.
2 Dp medicina veteri e( nova, Basileie, 1571.
630-635.
' Maijke Nuturalis libri xx. Neapoli
1589. 184.
* Ceyhn Blm Books for 1871 and 1872.
CORTEX CASSIiE LIONEL.
527
acid. The Cbmamomin of Martiu (18G8) has been shown by Wittstein
to be very probably mere maniiite. The effect of iodine on a decoction
of cinnamon will be noticed under the head of Cassia Lignea. Cinna-
mon afforded to Schatzler (1862) 5 per cent, of ash consisting chiefly
of the carbonates of calcium and potassium.
Uses — Cinnamon is used in medicine as a cordial and stimulant,
but is much more largely consumed as a spice.
Adulteration — Cassia lignea being much cheaper than cinnamon,
is very commonly substituted for it. So long as the bark is entire,
there is no difficulty in its recognition, but if it should have been
reduced to powder, the case is widely different. We have found the
following tests of some service, when the spice to be examined is in
powder: — Make a decoction of powdered cinnamon of known genuine-
ness ; and one of similar strength of the suspected powder. When
cool and strained, test a fluid ounce of each with one or two drops
of tincture of iodine. A decoction of cinnamon is but little affected,
but in that of cassia a deep blue-black tint is immediately produced
(see further on, Cort. Cassise). The cheap kinds of cassia, known as
Cassia vera, may be distinguished from the more valuable Chinese
Cassia, as well as from cinnamon, by their richness in mucilage. This
can be extracted by cold water as a thick glairy liquid, giving dense
ropy precipitates with corrosive sublimate or neutral acetate of lead,
but not with alcohol.
Other products of the Cinnamon Tree.
Essential Oil of CinuaniOH Leaf (Oleum Cimiamom i foliorum)
— This is a brown, viscid, essential oil, of clove-like odour, which is
sometimes exported from Ceylon. It has been examined by Stenhouse
(1854), who found it to have a sp. gr. of 1'053, and to consist of
a mixture of Eiigenol (p. 284) with a neutral hydrocarbon having the
formula C^"H^^ It also contains a small quantity of benzoic acid.
Essential Oil of Cinnamon Root (Oleum Cinnamoni radicis) —
A yellow liquid, lighter than water, having a mixed odour of camphor
and cinnamon, and a strong camphoraceous taste. Both this oil and
that of the leaf were described by Kampfer (1712) and by Seba in
1731,^ and perhaps by Garcia de Orta so early as 1563. Solid camphor
may also be obtained from the root. A water distilled from the
flowers, and a fatt}'- oil expressed from the fruits are likewise noticed
by old writers, but are unknown to i.s.
CORTEX CASSIA LIGNE^E.
Cassia Lignea, Cassia Bark.
Botanical Origin — Various species of Cinnamomum occurring in
the warm countries of Asia from India eastward, afford what is termed
in commerce Cassia Bark. The trees are extremely variable in foliage,
inflorescences and aromatic properties, and the distinctness of several of
the species laid down even in recent works is still uncertain.
1 Phil. Trans, xxxvi. (1731) 107.
528
LAURACE^.
The bark whicli bears par excellence the name of Cassia or Cassia
lignea, and which is distinguished on the Continent as Chinese Cinna-
mon, is a production of the provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi and
Kweichau in Southern China. The French expedition of Lieut. Garnier
for the exploration of the Mekong and of Cochin China (1866-68) found
cassia growing in about N. lat. 19° in the forests of the valley of the
Se Ngum, one of the affluents on the left bank of the Mekong near the
frontiers of Annam. A part of this cassia is carried by land into China,
while another part is conveyed to Bangkok.' Although it is customary
to refer it without hesitation to a tree named Cinnamomum Cassia,
we find no warrant for such reference : no competent observer has
visited and described the cassia-yielding districts of China proper, and
brought therefrom the specimens requisite for ascertaining the botanical
origin of the bark.^
Cassia lignea is also produced in the Khasya mountains in Eastern
Bengal, whence it is brought down to Calcutta for shipment.^ In this
region there are three species of Cinnamomum, growing at 1000 to 4000
feet above the sea-level, and all have bark with the flavour of cinnamon,
more or less pure : they are C. ohtusifolium Nee.s, C. pcMciflorum Nees,
and C. Tamala Fr. Nees et Eberm.
Cinnamomtim iners Reinw., a very variable species occurring in
Continental India, Ceylon, Tavoy, Java, Sumatra and other islands of
the Indian Archipelago, and possibly in the opinion of Thwaites a mere
variety of C. zeylaniciivi, but according to Meissner well distinguished
by its paler, thinner leaves, its nervation, and the character of its aroma,
would appear to yield the cassia bai-k or wild cinnamon of Southern
India.*
C. Tamala Fr. Nees et Eberm., which besides growing in Khasya is
found in the contiguous regions of Silhet, Sikkim, Nepal, and Kumaon,
and even reaches Australia, probabl}^ affords some cassia bark in
Northern India.
Large quantities of a thick sort of cassia have at times been imported
from Singapore and Batavia, much of which is produced in Sumatra. In
the absence of any very reliable information as to its botanical sources,
we may suggest as probable mother-plants, C. Cassia Bl. and G. Bur-
manni BL, var. a. chinense, both stated by Teijsmann and Binnendijk
to be cultivated in Java.^ The latter species, growing also in the
Philippines, most probably affords the cassia bark which is shipped
from Manila.
History — In the preceding article we have indicated (p. 520) the
remote period at which cassia bark appears to have been known to the
Chinese ; and have stated the reasons that led us to believe the cin-
^ Thorel, Notes mddicales du Voyage d' Ex-
plnrationdti Mikongetde Coc/tinchl.ne, Paris,
1870. 30. — Garnier, Vojiagc en Indo-Ch'me,
ii. (Paris. 1873) 438.
- The greatest market in China for cassia
and cinnamon according to Dr. F. Porter
8mith, is Taiwu in Ping-nan hien (Sin-chau
fu), in Kwangsi province. — Mat. Med. and
Nat. Hint, of China, 1871. 62.— The capital
of Kwangsi is Kweilin fu, literally Cassia-
Forest.
•* Hooker, Hlmalaijan Journals, ed. 2. ii.
(1855) .303.
■* A specimen of the stem-bark of C. iners
from Travancore, presented to us by Dr.
Waring, has a delightful odour, but is quite
devoid of the taste of cinnamon.
" Catnlorjues Pliintarnm quoi in Jforto
Bolanico Bogoriensi coluntur, Batavia, 1866.
92.
CORTEX CASSIiE LIGNE^.
529
naraon of the ancients was that substance. It must, however, be
obsei'ved that Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Strabo and others, as
well as the remarkable inscription on the temple of Apollo at Miletus,
represent cinnamon and cassia as distinct, but nearly allied sub-
stances. While, on the other hand, the author of the Periplus of the
Er3'threan Sea, in enumerating the products shipped from the various
commercial ports of Eastern Africa^ in the first century, mentions Cassia
(Kuo-la or Kaacrla) of various kinds, but never employs the word Gin-
namon {KiwaiJ.wixov).
In the list of productions of India on which duty was levied at the
Roman custom house at Alexandria, c/rmA.D. V7ii-\H0,Cinnamomivm is
mentioned as well as Cctb's/a tiiriana,X ylocassia and X ylocinnamomiLm.-
Of the distinction here drawn between cinnamon and cassia we can give
no explanation ; but it is worthy of note that ttvigs and branches of a
Cinnamoviam are sold in the Chinese drug shops, and may not im-
probably be the xylocassia, or xylociniuomon of the ancients.^ The name
Cassia I ignea would seem to have been originally bestowed on some such
substance, rather than as at present on a mere bark. The spice was
also undoubtedly called Cassia syrinx and Cassia Jistidaris (p. 221), —
names which evidently refer to a bark which had the form of a
tube. In fact there may well have been a diversity of qualities, some
])erhaps very costly. It is remarkable that such is still the case in
China, and that the wealthy Chinese employ a thick variety of cassia,
the price of which is as much as 18 dollars per catty, or about 56.9.
l>er Ib.^
Whether the A romata Cassia', which were presented to the Church
at Rome under St. Silvester, A.D. 314-335, was the modern cassia
bark, is rather doubtful. The largest donation, 200 lb., which was
accompanied by pepper, saffron, storax, cloves, and balsam, would appear
to have arrived from Egypt.' Cassia seems to have been known in
Western Europe as early as the 7tli century, for it is mentioned with
cinnamon by St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville." Cassia is named in
one of the Leech-books in use in England prior to the Norman conquest."
The spice was then sold in London as Canel in 126-i, at lOr/. per lb.,
sugar being at the same time 12d., cumin 2d., and ginger ISc?.** In the
Boke of Xurture,^ written in the 15th century by John Russell, cham-
berlain to Humphry, duke of Gloucester, cassia is spoken of as
' Vincent, Commerce and Navujatlon of
the Ancients in the Indian Ocean, ii. (1807)
130. 1.34. 149. 150. 157.— That the ancients
should confound the different kinds of cassia
is really no matter for surprise, when we
moderns, whether botanists, pharmacolo-
gists, or spice-dealers, are unable to point
out characters by which to distinguish the
barks of this group, or even to give definite
names to those found in our warehouses.
-Vincent, op. cit. ii. 701-716.
^ See further on. Allied Products, Cassia
twigs, page 533.
Very fine specimens of this costly bark
have been kindly supplied to us by Dr. H.
F. Hance, British Vice-Consul at Whampoa.
^ Vignolius, Liber Ponti.ficalis, Romae, i.
(1724) 94. 95.
* Migne, Patrohfjice Cursns, Ixxxii. (1850)
622. — ^St. Isidore evidently quotes Galen,
but his remarks imply that both spices
were know at the period when he wrote.
^ Cockayne, Leechdoms, etc., of Early
England, ii. (1865) 143.
* Rogers, Hi.'tt. of Agriculture and Prices
in England, ii. (1866)543.
The book has been reprinted for the
Early English Text Society, 1868.— Russell
says : — " Looke that your stikkes of si/na-
monie be thyn, bretille and fay re in colewr
.... for cunelle is not so good in this
crafte and cure." — And in his directions
" how to mahe Ypocras," he prescribes
synamome in that "for lordes," but
" canelle " in that for " commyn peple.''''
L
530
LAURACEtE.
resembling cinnamon, but cheaper and commoner, exactly as at the
present day.
Production — We have no information whether the tree which
affords the cassia bark of Southern China is cultivated, or whether
it is exclusively found wild.
The Calcutta cassia bark collected in the Khasya mountains and
brought to Calcutta is afforded by wild trees of small size. Dr. Hooker
who visited the district with Dr. Thomson in 1850, observes that the
ti'ade in the bark is of recent introduction.^ The bark which varies
much in thickness, has been scraped of its outer layer.
Cassia is extensively produced in Sumatra, as may be inferred from
the fact that Padang in that island, exported of the bark in 1871, 6127
peculs (817,066 lb.), a large proportion of which was sliipped to
America.^ Regarding the collection of cassia on the Malabar coast, in
Java and in the Philippines, no particular account has, so far as we
know, been published. Spain imported from the Philippines by way
of Cadiz in 1871, 93,000 lb. of cassia.''
Description — Chinese Cassia lignea, otherwise called Chinese
Cinnamon, which of all the varieties is that most esteemed, and ap-
proaching most nearly to Ceylon cinnamon, arrives in small bundles
about a foot in length and a pound in weight, the pieces of bark being
held together with bands of bamboo.
The bark has a general resemblance to cinnamon, but is in simple
quills, not inserted one within the other. The quills moreover are less
straight, even and regular, and are of a darker brown ; and though
some of the bark is extremely thin, other pieces are much stouter than
fine cinnamon, — in fact, it is much less uniform. The outer coat has
been removed with less care than that of Ceylon cinnamon, and pieces
can easily be found with the corky layer untouched by the knife.
Cassia bark breaks with a short fracture. The thicker bark cut
transversely shows a faint white line in the centre running parallel
with the surface. Good cassia in taste resembles cinnamon, than which
it is not less sweet and aromatic, though it is often described as less fine
and delicate in flavour.
An unusual kind of cassia lignea is imported since 1870 from China
and offered in the London market as China Cinnamon* though it is
not the bai'k that bears this name in continental trade. The new drug-
is in unscra'ped quills, which aj-e mostly of about the thickness of
ordinary Chinese cassia lignea ; it has a very saccharine taste and
pungent cinnamon flavour.
The less esteemed kinds of cassia bark, which of late years have
been poured into the market in vast quantity, are known in commerce
as Cassia lignea, Cassia vera or Wild Cassia, and are further distin-
guished by the names of the localities whence shipped, as Calcutta,
Java, Timor, etc.
The barks thus met with vary exceedingly in colour, thickness and
aroma, so that it is vain to attempt any general classification. Some
1 Hooker, op. cit.
2 Consvlar Bepoi-U, August 1873. 9.53.
^ Consul Reade, L'eporf on the. Trade, etc..
of Cadiz for 1871, where the spice is called
citinamon."
Fltickiger in Wiggers and Hnsemann's
Ja/ireibericht for 1872. o2.
CORTEX CASSIA LIGNE^.
531
have a pale cinnamon hue, but most are of a deep rich brown. They
px'csent all variations in thickness, from that of cardboard to more tlian
a quarter of an inch thick. The flavour is more or less that of cinna-
mon, often with some unpleasant addition suggestive of insects of the
genus Cimex. Many, besides being aromatic, are highly mucilaginous,
the mucilage being freely imparted to cold water. Finally, we have
met with some thick cassia bark of good appearance that was
distinguished by astringency and the almost entire absence of
aroma.
Microscopic Structure — A transverse section of such pieces of
Chinese Cassia lignea as still bear the suberous envelope, exhibits the
following characters. Tlie external surface is made up of several rows
of the usual cork-cells, loaded with brown colouring matter. In pieces
from which the cork-cells have been entirely scraped, the surface is
formed of the mesophloeum, yet by far the largest part of the bark
belongs to the liberorendophloeum. Isolated liber-iibres and thick- walled
cells (stone-cells) are scattered even through the outer layers of a trans-
verse section. In the middle zone they are numerous, but do not form
a coherent sclerenchymatous ring as in cinnamon (p. 526). The inner-
most }iart of the liber shares the structural character of cinnamon
with differences due to age, as for instance the greater development of
the medullary rays. Oil-cells and gum-ducts are likewise distributed
in the parenchyme of the former.
The " China Cinnamon " of 1870 (p. 530) comes still nearer to
Ceylon cinnamon, except that it is coated. A transverse section of a
quill, not thicker than one millimetre, exhibits the three layers de-
scribed as characterizing that bark. The sclerenchymatous ring is
covered by a parenchyme rich in oil-duets, so that it is obvious that the
flavour of this drug could not be improved by scraping. The corky
layer is composed of the usual tabular cells. The liber of this drug in
fact agrees with that of Ceylon cinnamon.
In Cassia Barks of considerable thickness, the same an'angement of
tissues is met with, but their strong development causes a certain dis-
similarity. Thus the thick-walled cells are more and more separated
one from another, so as to form only small groups. The same applies
also to the liber-fibres, which in thick barks are surrounded by a paren-
chyme, loaded with considerable crystals of oxalate of calcium. The
gum-ducts are not larger, but are more numerous in these barks, which
swell considerably in cold water.
Chemical Composition — Cassia bark owes its aromatic properties
to an essential oil, which, in a chemical point of view, agrees with
that of Ceylon cinnamon. The flavour of cassia oil is somewhat less
agreeable, and as it exists iu the less valuable sorts of cassia, decidedly
different in aroma from that of cinnamon. We find the sp. gr. of
a Chinese cassia oil to be 1"066, and its rotatory power in a column
50 mm. long, only 0°"1 to the right, differing consequently in this respect
from that of cinnamon oil (p. 526).
Oil of cassia sometimes deposits a stearoptene, which when purified
is a colourless, inodorous substance, crystallizing in shining brittle
prisms.^ We have never met with it.
1 Rochleder and Schwarz (1850) in Gmelin's Ghemistrij, xvii. 395.
532
LAURACE^.
If thin sections of cassia bark are moistened with a dikite sokition
of perchlovide of iron, the contents of the parenchymatous part of the
whole tissue assume a dingy brown cok)ur ; in tlie outer layers the starch
granules even are coloured. Tannic matter is consequently one of the
chief constituents of the bai'k ; the very cell-walls are also imbued with
it. A decoction of the bark is turned blackish green by a persalt of
iron.
If cassia bark (or Ceylon cinnamon) is exhausted by cold %vater, the
clear liquid becomes turbid on addition of iodine; the same occurs if a
concentrated solution of iodide of potassium is added. An abundant
precipitate is produced by addition of iodine dissolved in the potassium
salt. The colour of iodine then disappears. There is consequently a
substance present which unites with iodine ; and in fact, if to a
decoction of cassia or cinnamon the said solution of iodine is added, it
strikes a bright blue coloration, due to starch. But the colour quickly
disappear.s, and becomes permanent only after much of the test has
been added. We have not ascertained the nature of the substance that
thus modifies the action of iodine : it can hardly be tannic matter, as
we have found the reaction to be the same when we used bark that
had been previously repeatedly ti-eated with spirit of wine and then
several times with boiling ether.
The mucilage contained in the gum-cells of the thinner quills of
cassia is easily dissolved by cold water, and may be precipitated together
with tannin by neutral acetate of lead, but not by alcohol. In the
thicker barks it appears less soluble, merely swelling into a slimy
jelly-
Commerce — Cassia lignea is exported from Canton in enormous
and increasing quantities. The shipments which in 1864 amounted to
13,800 peculs, reached 40,600 in 1869,' 61,220 in 1871, and 76,464
peculs (10,195,200 lb.) value £267,703, in 1872.2 In 1874 the exports
were 54,268 peculs (1 pecul = 1331 lb.) and 58,313 peculs in 1878;
from the other ports of China cassia is not shipped to any extent.
England usually receives no more than about 1,000,000 lb. of cassia, of
which only 40,000 lb. appear to be consumed in the country. Hamburg
imports about 2,000,000 lb. annually immediately from China. Yet in
1878 the quantity imported into London was 26,744 peculs (3,500,000
lb.), that received at Hamburg 13,548 peculs.
Cassia lignea is exported in chests containing 2 peculs each.
Oil of cassia was shipped from the south of China to the United
Kingdom, to the extent in 1869 of 47,517 lb.; in 1870, of 28,389 lb.'
Hamburg is also a very important place for this oil ; in the official
statistics of that port for 1875 the imports from China are stated to
have amounted to 30,000 lb., besides 10,000 lb. imported from Great
Britain; in 1876 Hamburg imported 5,900 lb. from China and 17,000
lb. from England.
Uses — The same as those of cinnamon.
' Canton Trndc Report for 1869. ^ Annual Sfatcmevt of lite Trade and
- Comm.trcial lieportttfrom H.M. Consuh Naviijaiion of the United Kim/dom for
in China, presented to Parliament 1873,— 1870. 290.-66,650 were exported in 1877
(C!onsul Robertson). from Pakhoi.
CORTEX CASSIA LIGNE^E.
533
Allied Products.
Cassia Twigs. — -The branches of the cassia trees, alhuled to at page
529, would appear to be collected from the same trees which yield the
cassia lignea. Garnier (I.e. at p. 528) says that the youngest branches
are made into fagots, adding that they have the odour of bugs.
Cassia twigs are not as yet exported to Europe, but they constitute
a very important article of the trade of the interior of China. In 1872
no less than 456,533 lb. of this Wood of Cassia or Cassia Ttuigs were
shipped from Canton, for the most part to other Chinese ports. — The
imports of Hankow, in 1874, of these twigs were 1925 peculs (259,GG7
lb.) valued at 5677 taels (1 tael about equal to os. lid.)}
In the Paris Exhibition of 1878 we had the opportunity of examining
some bundles of cassia twigs from western Kwangtung. The branches
were as much as 2 feet in lenijth and of the thickness of a finger. We
found their bark to possess the usual flavour of cassia lignea.
Cassia Buds, Flares Cassiw — These are the immature fruits of
the tree yielding Chinese cassia lignea, and have been used in Europe
since the middle ages. In the journal of expenses (a.d. 1359-60) of
John, king of France, when a prisoner at Somerton Castle in England,
there are several entries for the spice under the name of Flor de Canelle;
it was very expensive, costing from 8s. to 13s. per lb., or more than
double the price of mace or cloves. On one occasion two pounds of it
had to be obtained for the king's use from Bruges.- From the Form
of Cury^ written in 1390, it appears that cassia buds ("Flo de queyiiel")
were used in prepai-ing the spiced wine called HipiJocras.
Cassia buds are shipped from Canton, but the exports have much
declined. Rondot, writing in 1848,'' estimated them as averaging 400
peculs (53,333 lb.) a year. In 1866 there were shipped from Canton
only 233 peculs (31,066 lb.); in 1867, 165 peculs (22,000 lb.)' The
quantity of cassia buds imported into the XJnited Kingdom in 1870
was 29,321 lb.;" the spice is sold chiefly by grocers. The great market
for this drug is Hamburg, where in 1876, according to the official
statistics, 1324 cwt. of cassia buds were imported.
In Southern India, the more mature fruits of one of the vai'ieties of
Cinnamovium iiiers Reinw. are collected for use, but are very inferior
to the Chinese cassia buds.
Folia Malahatliri or Folia Tndi — is the name given to the dried,
aromatic leaves of certain Indian species of Cinnamomum, formerly
employed" in European medicine, but now obsolete. Under the name
Taj-pat, the leaves are still used in India ; they are collected in Mysore
from wild trees.
Ishpingo — This is the designation in Quito of the calyx of a tree of
the laurel tribe, used in Ecuador and Peru in the place of cinnamon.
Though but little known in Europe, it has a remarkable history.
' Returm of Trade at tlie Treaty Porta in
China for 1872, p. 34 ; for 1874, \x 7.
- Doilet d'Arcq, Comptrs de VAnienterie
df.s Roi.-i de France, 18.51. 206. 2]'8. 222.
239. etc.
^ See p. 245, note 8.
■* Commerce (V exportation de la Chine, 4.5.
^ Reports on Trade at the Treaty Ports
in China for 1867, Shanghai, 1868. 49.
8 Annual statement of the Trade and
Navigation of the U.K. for 1870. 101.
7 For further information consult Heyd,
Lecaiifehandel, ii. (1879) 603.
534
The existence of a spice-yielding region in South America, having
coiue to the ears of the Spanish conquerors, was regarded as a matter
of interest. It would appear that cinnamon was enumerated in the
earliest accounts among the precious ])roducts of the New World/
Such liigli importance was attached to it that in Ecuador an expedition
was fitted out. Tlie direction of the enterprise was confided to Gonzalo
Pizarro, who with 340 soldiers, and more than 4000 Indians, laden witli
supplies, quitted the city of Quito on Christmas Day, 1539. The
expedition, which lasted two years, resulted in the most lamentable
failure, only 130 Spaniards surviving the hardships of the journey. In
the account of it given by Garcilasso de la Vega, the cinnamon tree is
described as having large leaves like those of a laurel, with fruits
resemblino; acorns growincr in clusters." Fernandez de Oviedo^ has
also given some particulars regarding the spice, together with a figure
fairly representing its remax'kable form ; and the subject has been
noticed by several other Spanish writers, including Monardes."*
Notwithstanding the celebrity thus conferred on the spice, and the
fact that the latter gives its name to a large tract of country,"' and is
still the object of a considerable traffic, the tree itself is all but unknown
to science. Meissner places it doubtfully under the genus Nectandra,
with the specific name cinnamomoides, but confesses that its flowers
and fruits are alike unknown.^'
The spice, for an ample specimen of which we have to thank Dr.
Destruge, of Guayaquil, consists of the enlarged and matured woody
calyx, 1|- to 2 inches in diameter, having the shape of a shallow funnel,
the open part of which is a smooth cup (like the cup of an acorn), sur-
rounded by a broad, irregular margin, usually recurved. The outer
surface is rough and veiny, and the whole calyx is dark brown, and has
a strong, sweet, aromatic taste, like cinnamon, for which in Ecuador it
is the common substitute.
Dr. Destruge has also furnished us with a specimen of the bcD'k,
which is in very small uncoated quills, exactly simulating true cinnamon.
We are not aware whether the bark is thus prepared in quantity.
^ Account of Petrus Alartyr d'Angleria
to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, in Michael
Herr's Vie new Welt, etc., Strassburg,
1534. fol. 175.
2 Travels of Pedro de Ckza de Leon, a.d.
1532-50, translated by Markham (Hakluyt
Society) Loud. 18G4. chap. 39-40; also
Expedition of Ooiizalo Pkarro to the Land
of Cinnamon, by Garcilasso Inca de la
A'^ega, forming part of the same volume.
^ Ilistoria de las Indias, Madrid, i. (1851)
357. (lib. ix. c. 31).
* De la Cuiiela de nuesti-as Luliax. —
L/istoria de las cosas que se traen de
niiestras Indias occidentule«, Sevilla, 1574.
98.
" The village of San Jose de C'anelos,
which may be considered as the centre of
the cinnamon region, was determined by
Mi\ Spruce to be in lat. 1°20 S., long. 77"
45 W., and at an altitude above the sea of
1590 feet. The forest of canelos, lie tells
us, has no definite boundaries ; but the
term is popularly assigned to all the upper
region of the Pastasa and its tributaries,
from a height of 4000 to 7000 feet on the
slopes of tiie Andes, down to the Amazonian
plain, and the confluence of the Kombonasa
and Pastasa.
" De Candolle, Prudruwus, xv. sect. i.
167.
CORTEX BIBIRU.
535
CORTEX BIBIRU.
Cortex Nectandrce ; Greenheaii Barh, Bihiru vv Bebeeru Bark.
Botanical Origin — Nectandra Rodicei Schomburgk — The Bibiru
or Greenheart is a lai'ge forest tree,^ growing on rocky soils in British
Guiana, twenty to lifty miles inland. It is found in abundance on the
hill sides which skirt the rivers Essequibo, Cuyuni, Demerara, Ponieroon
and Berbice. The tree attains a height of 80 to 90 feet, with an
undivided erect trunk, furnishing an excellent timber which is ranked
in England as one of the eight tii'st-class woods for shipbuilding, and is
to be had in beams of from GO to 70 feet long.
History — In 17G9 Bancroft, in his History of Guiana, called
attention to the excellent timber afforded by the Greenheart or Sij-oeira.
About the year 1835 it became known that Hugh Bodie, a navy
surgeon who had settled in Demerara some twenty years previonslj^, had
discovered an alkaloid of considerable efhcacy as a febrifuge, in the bark
of this tree.- In 1843 this alkaloid, to which Rodie had given the name
Bebeerhw, was examined by Dr. Douglas Maclagan ; and the following-
year the tree was described by Schomburgk under the name of
Nectandra Rodicei!^
Description — Greenheart bark occurs in long heavy ilat pieces, not
uiifrequently 4 inches broad and of an inch thick, externally of a
light greyish brown, with the inner surface of a more uniform cinnamon
hue and with strong longitudinal stri?e. It is hard and brittle; tlie
fracture coarse-grained, slightly foliaceous, and only fibrous in the inner
layer. The grey suberous coat is always thin, often forming small warts,
and leaving when removed longitudinal depressions analogous to the
digital fiwro'ii's of Flat Calisaya Bark (p. 353), but mostly longer.
Greenheart bark has a strong bitter taste, but is not aromatic. Its
watery infusion is of a very pale cinnamon brown.
Microscopic Structure — The general features of this bark are
very uniform, almost the whole tissue having been changed into thick-
walled cells. Even the cells of the corky layer show secondary deposits ;
the primary envelope has entirely disappeared, and no transition from
the suberous coat to liber is obvious.
The prevalent forms of the tissue are the stone-cells and very short
liber-fibres, intersected by small meduUaiy rays and crossed transversely
by parenchyme or small [)rosenchy.ue cells with walls a little less
thickened, so as to appear in a transverse section as irregular squares
or groups. The only cells of a peculiar character are the sharp-pointed
fibres of the inner liber, which are curiously saw-shaped, being provided
with numerous protuberances and sinuosities.
The very small lumen of the thick-walled cells contains a dark
brown mass which is coloured greenish-black by sulphate of iron ; the
same coloration takes place throughout the less dense tissue surround -
' Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Medic.
Plants, part 26 (1877).
- Halliday, On the Belieeru tree of British
Guiana, and Sidijlaite of Bebeerine, the
former a substitute for Cinchona, the latter
for Sulphate of Quinine. — Edinburgh Med.
and Surg. Journ. vol xlT 18.S5.
Hooker s J< urn . of Bot. 1841. 624.
536
LAURACEiE.
ing the groups of stone-cells, and may in each case be due to tannic
matter.
Chemical Composition — Greenlieavt bark contains an alkaloid
which has long been regarded as peculiar, under the name of Blbirine
or Behirine. It was however shown by Walz in 1860 to be apparently
identical with Buxine, a substance discovered as early as 18o() in the
bark and leaves of the Common Box, Buxm seinjje rot revs L. In 186!)
the observation of Walz was to some extent confirmed by one of us,^
who further demonstrated that Pelosine, an alkaloid occurring in the
stems and roots of CissamjJelos Pareira L. and Chondodendron tomen-
tosum Ruiz et Pavon (p. 28), is undistinguishable from the alkaloids of
greenheart and box.
The alkaloid of bibiru bark, which may be conveniently prepared
from the crude sulphate used in medicine under the name ofSidphateof
Blbirine, is a colourless amorphous substance, the composition of which
is indicated by the formula C'^ff^NO^. It is soluble in 5 parts of
absolute alcohol, in 13 of ether, and in 1400 (1800, Walz) of boiling
water, the solution in each case having a decidedly alkaline reaction on
litmus. It dissolves readily in bisulphide of carbon, as well as in
dilute acids. The salts hitherto known are uncrystallizable. The solu-
tion of a neutral acetate aftbrds an abundant white precipitate on the
addition of an alkaline phosphate, nitrate or iodide, of iodo-hj^drargyrate
or jolatino-cyanide of potassium, perchloride of mercury, or of nitric or
iodic acid.
Maclagan, one of the earliest investigators of greenheart, has obtained
in co-operation with Gamgee^ certain alkaloids from the uvod' of the
tree, to one of which these chemists have assigned the formula
C'li'^NO* and the name Nectandria. Two other alkaloids, the charac-
ters of Avhich have not yet been fully investigated, are stated to have
been obtained from the same source.
Bibiric Acid, which Maclagan obtained from the .seeds, is described
as a colourless, crystalline, deliquescent substance, fusing at 150° C. and
volatile at 200° C, then forming needle-shaped groups.
Commerce — The supplies of greenheart bai'k are extremely un-
certain, and the drug is scarcely to be found in the market. It has
been imported in barrels containing 80 to 84 lb. each, or in bags holding
|- to I cwt.
Uses — The bark has been recommended as a bitter tonic and
febrifuge, but is hardly ever emjiloyed except in the form of what is
called Sidphate of Blbirine, which, as we have said, is crude Sidphate
of Buxine.^ It is a dark amorphous substance which, having while in
a syrupy state been spread out on glazed plates, is obtained in thin
translucent laniinip. We find it to yield scarcely one-third of its weight
of the pure alkaloid.
iFliickiger, Neiies Jahrbiich f i'ir Pliar- ■* Mr. W. H. Campbell, of Georgetown,
made, xxxi. (1869) 257; Pharm. Journ. Demerara, lias assured me that neither the
xi. (1870) 192. bark nor its alkaloid is held in esteem in
-Pharm. Journ. xi. (1870) 19. the colony.— D.H.
RADIX SASSAFRAS.
537
RADIX SASSAFRAS.
Sassaf)X(s Root ; F. Bois de Sas8((fras, Lignum Sassafras ;
G. Sassafrasholz.
Botanical Origin — S<(ssafras officinalis Nees (Laurus Sfissafrash.),
a tree growing in North America, from Canada, southward to Florida and
Missouri. In the nortli it is only a shrub, or a small tree 20 to 30 feet
high, but in the Middle and Southern United States, and especially in
Virginia and Carolina, it attains a heiglit of 40 to 100 feet. The leaves
are of ditierent forms, some being ovate and entire, and others two- or
three-lobed, tlie former, it is said, appearing earlier than the latter.
History — Monardes relates that the F rench during their expedition
to Florida (1562-1564) cured their sick with the wood and root of a tree
called Sassafras, the use of which they had learnt from the Indians.^
Laudonniere, vi^ho was a member of that expedition, and diligently set
forth the wonders of Florida, observes that, among forest trees, the most
remarkable for its timber and especially for its fragrant bark, is that
called by the savages Pavame and by the French Sassafras}
The drug was known in Germany, at least since 1582, under the
above names or also by that of Lignum Floridmn or Fennel-tvood,
Xylomara th rum
The sassafras tree had been introduced into England in the time of
Gerarde {circa 1597), who speaks of a specimen growing at Bow. At
that period the wood and bark of the root were used chiefly in the
treatment of ague.
In IGIO, a paper of instructions from the Government of England to
that of the new colony of Virginia, mentions among commodities to be
sent home, " Small sassafras Rootes," which are " to be drawen in the
winter and dryed and none to be medled with in the somer ; — and yet
is worthe £50 and better per tonne."'* The shipments were afterwards
much overdone, for in 1622 complaint is made that other things than
tobacco and sassafras^ were neglected to be shipped.
Angelus Sala, an Italian chemist living in Germany about the
year 1610-1630, in distilling sassafras noticed that the oil was heavier
than water;'' it was quoted in ]683 in the tariff of the apothe-
cary of the elector of Saxony, at Dresden." John Maud in 1738 ob-
tained crystals of safrol as long as 4 inches f in 1844 they were
examined by Saint-Evre.
Description — Sassafras is imported in large branching logs, which
often include the lower portion of the stem, 6 to 12 inches in diameter.'-*
1 Hidoria medicinal de las corns que se
traendenuetstras Indias occidentale-i, (Seviila,
1574) 51.
-De Laet, Novus Orbis, 1333. 215.—
Rene de Laudonniere, Histoire notable de la
Floride. 1580.
Phann. Joiirn. v. (1876) 1023.
■* Colonial Papers, vol. i. No. 23 (MS. in
the Record Office, London).
' Colonial Papers, vol. ii. No. 4.
" Opera medlco-chymica, Francofurti,
1682, p. 83.
Fluckiger, Documente (quoted at p. 404,
note 7) 70.
' Phil. Trans. R. Sor. of London, viii.
(1809) 243.
The sassafras logs met with in English
trade often include a considerable portion of
trunk-woorl, which, as well as the bark that
covers it, is inert, and should be sawn off
and rejected before the wood is rasped.
o38
LAURACE^.
The roots proper, which diminish in size down to the thickness of a
quill, are covered with a dull, rough, spongy bark. This bark has an
inert, soft corky layer, beneath which is a tirmer inner bark of brighter
hue, rich in essential oil. The wood of the root is light and easily cut,
in colour of a dull reddish brown, and with a fragrant odour and spicy
taste similar to that of the bark but less strong. It is usually sold in
the shops rasped into shavings.
The hark of tlie root (Cortex Kcissafras) is a separate article of
commerce, but not much used in England. It consists of channelled,
flatfish, or curled, irregular fi'agments seldom exceeding 4 inches long
by 3 inches broad and generally much smaller, and from to l of an
inch in thickness. The inert outer layer has been carefully removed,
leaving a scarred, exfoliating surface. The inner surface is finely striated
and exhibits very minute shining crystals. The bark has a short, corky
fracture, and in colour is a bright cinnamon brown of various shades. It
has a strong and agreeable smell, with an astringent, aromatic, bitterish
taste.
Microscopic Structure — -The wood of the root exhibits, in trans-
verse section, concentric rings transversed by narrow medullary vays.
Each ring contains a number of large vessels in its inner part, and more
densely packed cells in its outer. The prevailing part of the wood
consists of prosenchyme cells. Globular cells, loaded with yellow
essential oil, are distributed among the woody prosenchyme. The latter
as well as the medullary rays abounds in starch.
The bark is rich in oil-cells and also contains cells tilled with
mucilage ; it owes its spongy appearance and exfoliation to the formation
of secondary cork bands {rhytidmiia) within the mesophloeuni and even
in the liber. The cortical tissue abounds in red colouring matter, and
further contains starch and, less abundantly, oxalate of calcium.
Chemical Composition — The wood of the root yields 1 to 2 [)er
cent, of volatile oil,' and the root-bark twice as much. The stem and
leaves of the tree contain but a very small quantity. The oil, which as
found in commerce is all manufactured in America, has the specific odour
of sassafras, and is colourless, yellow, or reddish-brown, according, as
the distillers assert, to the character of the root employed. As the colour of
the oil does not att'ect its flavour and market value, no efibrt is made to
keep separate the different varieties of root.
Oil of Sassafras has a sp. gr. of 1'087 to 1"094, increasing somewhat
by age (Procter). When cooled, it deposits crystals of Safrol or Sassafras
Camphor. This body, w^hich we obtained in the form of hard, four- or six-
sided prisms with the odour of sassafras, often attaining more than 4
inches in length and 1 inch in diameter, belongs to tlie monosymmetric
system, as shown by Arzruni.- Safrol, C^°H'"0-, liipiefies at 8°'5 C.
(47' F.), having at 12° C. a sp. gr. of 1 11 ; it boils at 232° C, and is
devoid of rotatory power, nor is it soluble in alkalis. The researches
of Grimaux and Ruotte (1869) show the oil to contain nine-tenths
of its weight of Safrol which they observed only in the liquid state.
* According to information obtained by Frocter, Exsay on Sassafras in the Proccd-
Procter, 11 biisliels of chips (the cliarge of a iiu/s of I he American Fltarin. Association,
still) yields from 1 too lb. of oil, the amount 1866. 217.
varying with the quality of the root anil -Poggendorff'syl/oin/eH, clviii. (1876) 249,
the proportion of bark it may contain. — with figures of tlie crystals.
RADIX SASSAFRAS.
539
Another constituent of sassafras oil has been termed by Grimaux
and Ruotte Sa frcne ; it boils at 155° to 157° C, has a sp. gr. of 0'834
and tlie formula O^'^H^". It has the same odour as safrol, but deviates
the plane of polarization to the right.
It was further found by the same observers that the crude oil contains
an extremely small quantity of a substance of the phenol class, which
can be removed by caustic lye and separated by an acid.
We succeeded in obtaining this substance by using that portion of
the crude oil from which the safrol had separated. The phenol
remains in the mother-liquor after it has again been cooled and has
aftbrded a new crystallization of safrol. The phenol thus obtained
assumes a beautiful greenish blue hue on addition of an alcoholic
solution of perchloride of iron.
The SassaTubin and Sassafriu of Hare (1837) are impure products
of the decomposition of sassafras oil by means of sulphuiic acid.
The harh and also to some extent the tvuod, in both cases of the
root, contain tannic acid which produces a blue colour with persalts of
iron. By oxidation, we must suppose, it is converted into the red
colouring matter deposited in the bark and, in smaller quantity, in the
heart-wood of old trees. The young wood is nearly white. The said
red substance probably agrees with that to which Reinsch in 1845 and
184G gave the name of Sassafrid, and is doubtless analogous to cin-
chona-red and ratanhia-red. Reinsch obtained it to the extent of 9"2
per cent.
Production and Commerce — Baltimore is the chief mart for
sassafras root, bark and oil, which are brought thither from within a
circuit of 300 miles. The roots are extracted from the ground by the
help of levers, partly barked and partly sent untouched to the market,
or are cut up into chips for distillation on the spot. Of the bark as
much as 100,000 lb. were received in Baltimore in 1866. The quantity
of oil annually produced previous to the war is estimated at 15,000 to
20,000 lb. There are isolated small distillers in Pennsylvania and
West New Jersey, who are allowed by the owners of a " nai^safras
tvilderness " to remove from the gi'ound the roots and stumps without
charge. Sassafras root is not medicinal in the United States, the more
aromatic root-bark being reasonably preferred. ^
Uses — Sassafras is reputed to be sudorific and stimulant, but in
British practice it is only given in combination with sarsaparilla and
guaiacum. Shavings of the wood are sold to make Sassafi'as Tea.
In America the essential oil is used to give a pleasant flavour to
effervescing drinks, tobacco and toilet soaps."-
Substitutes — The odour of sassafras is common to several plants of
the order Lawracece. Thus the bark of McsphUodaphne Sassafras
Meissn., a tree of Brazil, resembles in odour true sassafras. We have
seen a very thick sassafras bark brought from India, the same we suppose
as that which Mason' describes as abundantly produced in Burma.
The bark of AtJierosperma moscltatum Labillardiere, an Australian
tree, is occasionally exported from Australia under the name of Sassafras
1 Besides tliis, ihc jjifh of msaafras is n\H» - American Jovrn. of Pharm. 1871. 4/0.
there used as a popular remedy; it is d.- ^ Burmali, its people and nat'.iral pro-
tirely devoid of odour and taste, and is aiiclio/is, 18(30. 497.
very slightly mucilaginous.
540
THYMELE^.
bark. It has tlie odour of the true drug, but differs from it by its grey
colour.
The largo separate cotyledons of two iauraceous trees of the Rio
Negro, doubtfully referj-ed by Meissner to the genus Nectai}dra,{uvmsh
the so-called Sassafras Nuts or Pachuvy or Pilchurim Beans of Brazil,
occasionally to be met with in old drug warehouses.
On the Orinoko and iu Guiana an oleo-resin, called Sassafras Oil or
Laurel Oil, is obtained by boring into the stem of Oreoda^iJlme ojiifcra
Nees, Avhich sometimes contains a cavity holding a large quantity of
this fluid.' A similar oil (Aceite de Sassafras) is afforded on the Rio
Negro by Nectandra Oijmharum Nees."
THYMELE.^.
CORTEX MEZEREI.
Mc.zereon B<(rk ; F. Ecvrce de M(^zereun, Bois genfil ; G. Seidelhast-
Rinde.
Botanical Origin — DapJive Mczereum L., an ei-ect shrub, 1 to 3
feet high, the branches of which are crowded with pui-ple flowers in the
early spring, before the full expansion of the oblong, lanceolate, de-
ciduous leaves. The flowers are succeeded by red beiTies. It is a
native of the iiilly parts of almost the whole of Europe, from Italy to
the Arctic i-egions, and extends eastwai'd to Siberia. In Britain it
occurs here and there in a few of the southern and midland counties,
and even reaches Yorkshire and Westmoreland, but there is reason to
think it is not truly indigenous. Gerarde, Avho was well acquainted
with it, did not regard it as a British plant.
History — The Arabian physicians used a plant called Mdzariyun ,
the effects of which they compared to those of euphorbium ; it was
probably a species of Baplinc. The word mdzariyun is, we are told
by competent Arabic scholars, not of Arabic origin, but in all probability
derived from the Greek idiom, in which however we are unable to trace
its origin. D. Mczereum was known to the early botanists of Europe,
as Daphnoides Ohamalcva, TJiymelcea, Ghama>daphne. Tragus de-
scribed it and figured it in 1540 under the name of Mezereum Ger-
manicuvi. The bark had a place in the German pharmacy of the 17th
century under the name of cortex Coceogrtidii s. Mezerei ; the bei'ries
were the Cocca gnidia s. knidia of the old pharmacy.
Description — Mezereon has a very tough and fibrous bark easily
removed in long strips which curl inwards as they dry; it is collected
in winter and made up into rolls or bundles. The bark, which rarely
exceeds of inch in thickness, has an internal greyish or reddish-
brown corky coat which is easily separable from a green inner la3-er,
white and satiny on the side next the wood. That of younger branches
is marked with prominent leaf-scars. The bark is too tough to be
broken, but easilj^ tears into fibrous strips. When fresh, it has an
' Brit. Guiana at tlie Paris ExhiLitioii, '-' Spruce in Hooker's Jourii. of Bol. vii.
1878, Sect. C. p. 7. (1855) 278.
CORTEX MEZEREI.
541
unpleasant odour which is lost in drying ; its taste is persistently
burning and acrid. Applied in a moist state to the skin, it occasions,
after some hours, redness and even vesication.
Microscopic Structure — The cambial zone is formed of about ten
rows of delicate unequal cells. The libi'e consists chiefly of simple fibres
alternating with parenchymatous bundles, and traversed by medullary
r&ys. The fibres are very long, — frequently more than 3 mm., and from
5 to 10 mkm. in diameter, their walls being always but little thickened.
In the outer part of the liber there occur bundles of thick-walled bast-
tubes, while chlorophyll and starch granules appear generally through-
out the middle cortical layer. The suberous coat is made up of about
30 dense rows of thin-walled tabular cells, which examined in a tan-
gential section, have an hexagonal outline. Small quantities of tannic
matter are deposited in the cambial and suberous zones.
Chemical Composition — The acrid principle of mezereon is a
resinoid substance contained in the inner bark ; it has not yet been
examined. The fruits were found by Martins (186:2) to contain more
than 40 i)er cent, of a fatty, vesicating oil, which appears to be likewise
present in the bark.
The name Daphnin has been given to a crystallizable substance
obtained by Vauquelin in 1808 from Daphne a^yina, and aftei'wards
found by 0. G. Gmelin and Baer in the bark of D. Mezereiim. Zwenger
in 1860 ascertained it to be a giucoside of bitter taste, havingf the
composition C^'^ff'^O^ + '1 OH', the same as that of ^sculin, the
fluorescing principle occurring in the bark of ^Escidits Hippocas-
tanum and the root-bark of Gelsemimn nitidam Michaux (G. sem-
'pervirens Alton). — C'occof/iff?;, isolated in 1870 by Casselmann from the
fruits of D. Mezereum, appears to l)e closely allied to if not identical
with daphnin.
When daphnin is boiled with dilute hydrochloric or sulphuric acid,
it furnishes Daphnetin, C^tPO'* + 0H-, described by Zwenger as
crystallizing in colourless prisms. By dry distillation of an alcoholic
extract of mezereon bark, the same chemist obtained UmbeUlferone
(p. 322).
Uses — Mezereon taken internally is supposed to be alterative and
sudorific, and useful in venereal, rheumatic and scrofulous complaints ;
but in English medicine it is never now given except as an ingredient
of the Compound Decoction of Sarsaparilla. An ethereal extract of
the bark has been introduced (18(j7) as an ingredient of a powerful
stimulating liniment. On the Continent, the bark itself, soaked in
vinegar and water, is applied with a bandage as a vesicant.
Substitutes — Owing to the difficulty of procuring the bark of the
root of i^. J^Iezereiim, the herbalists who supply the London druggists
have been long in the habit of substituting that of D. Lauveola L., an
evergreen species, not uncommon in woods and hedge-sides in several
parts of England. The British Pharmacopoeia (1864 and 1867) permits
Cortex Mezerei to be obtained indiscriminately from either of these
species, and does not follow the London College in insisting on the
hark of the root alone. That of the stem of D. Laiireola corresponds in
structure with the bark of the true mezereon, but Avants the prominent
542
ARTOCARPACE^.
leaf-scars that mark the upper branches of the latter; it is reputed to
be somewhat less acrid than mezereou bark. The mezereon bark of
English trade is now mostly imported from Germany, and seems to be
derived from D. Mezereuin.
In France, use is made of the stem-bark of D. Gnidium L., a shrub
growing throughout the whole Mediterranean region as far as Morocco.
The bark is dark grey or brown, marked with numerous whitish leaf-
scars, which display a very regular spiral arrangement. The leaves
themselves, some of which are occasionally met with in the drug, are
sharply mucronate and very narrow. As to structural peculiarities,
the bark of D. Gnidium has the medullary rays more obvious and
more loaded with tannic matters than those of A Mezereuin ; but the
middle cortical layer is less developed. The bark, which is called
Ecovce de Gaoru, is employed as an epispastic.
ARTOCARPACE^.
CARIC^.
Frudus Cdvicce, Fici ; Fir/.s ; F. Firjues ; G. Feigen.
Botanical Origin — -Ficiis Carica L., a deciduous tree, 15 to 20 feet
in height, with large rough leaves, forming a handsome mass of foliage.
The native country of the fig stretches from the steppes of the
Eastern Aral, along the south and south-west coast of the Caspian Sea
(Ghilan, Mazanderan, and the Caucasus), through Kurdistan, to Asia
Minor and Syria. In tliese countries the fig-tree .ascends into the
mountain region, growing undoubtedly wild in the Taurus at an
elevation of 4,800 feet.'
The fig-tree is I'epeatedly mentioned in the Scriptures, where with
the vine it often stands as the symbol of peace and plenty. The fig-
was not known in Greece, the Archipelago, and the neighbouring coasts
of Asia Minor during the Homeric age, though both were very common
in the time of Plato. The fig-tree was early introduced into Italy,
whence it reached Spain and Gaul. In tlie opinion of paltBontologists
the fig-tree was originally indigenous to the last-named Mediterranean
I'egions.
Charlemagne, A.D. 812, ordered its cultivation in Central Europe.
It was brought to England in the reign of Henry VIII. by Cardinal
Pole, whose trees still exist in the garden of Lambeth Palace. But it
had certainly been in cultivation at a much earlier period, for the
historian Matthew Paris relates* that the year 1257 was so inclement
that apples and pears were scarce in England, and that _tig>^, chei'ries,
and plums totally failed to ripen.
At the present day the fig-tree is found cultivated in most of the
temperate countries both of the Old and New World. ^ It is met with
in the plains of north-western India, and in the outer hills of the
north-western Himalaya as high as 5,000 feet ; also in the Dekkan,
and in Beluchistan and Afghanistan.
^Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, vii. (1844)
2. 544.
H/yf., Bolm's ed., iii. (1854) 255.
3 Introduced into Mexico ])y Cortez about
A.i>. 1500.
543
History — I'igs were a valued article of food among the ancient
Hebrews ^ and Greeks, as they are to the present day in the warmer
countries bordering the Mediterranean.^ In the time of Pliny many
varieties were in cultivation The Latin word Carica was first used to
designate the dried fig of Caria, a strip of country in Asia Minor
opposite Rhodes, an esteemed variety of the fruit corresponding to the
Smyrna fig of modern times.
In a diploma granted by Chilperic II., king of the Franks, to the
monastery of Corbie, A.D. 71G, mention is made of " Kar igas" in con-
nection with dates, almonds and olives, by which we think dried figs
(Caricoi) were intended.^ Dried figs were a regular article of trade
during the middle ages, from the southern to the northern parts of
Europe. In 1380 the citizens of Bruges, in regulating the duties
which the " Lombards," i.e. Italians, had to pay for their imports,
quoted also figs from Cyprus and from Marbella, a place south-west of
Malaga.^
In England the average price between A.D. 1264 and 1398 was
about Ifr?. per ft., raisins and currants being 2f(^.''
Description — A fig consists of a thick, fleshy, hollow receptacle of
a pear-shaped form, on the inner face of which grow a multitude of
minute fruits." This receptacle, which is provided with an orifice at
the top, is at first green, tough and leathery, exuding when pricked a
milky juice. The orifice is sui rounded, and almost closed b}^ a number
of thick, fleshy scales, near which and within the fig, the male flowers
are situated, but they are often wanting or are not fully developed.
The female flowers stand further within the receptacle, in the body of
which they are closely packed ; they are stalked, have a 5-leafed
perianth and a bipartite stigma. The ovary, which is generally one-
celled, becomes when ripe a minute, dry, hard nut, popularly regarded
as a seed.
As the fig advances to maturity, the receptacle enlarges, becomes
softer and more juicy, a saccharine fluid replacing the acrid milk}^
sap. It also acquires a reddish hue, while its exterior becomes
purple, brown, or yellow, though in some varieties it continues
green. The fresh fig has an agreeable and extremely saccharine taste,
but it wants the juiciness and refreshing acidity that characterize
many other fruits.
If a fig is not gathered its stalk loses its firmness, the fruit hangs
pendulous from the branch, begins to shrivel and become more and more
saccharine by loss of water, and ultimately, if the climate is favourable,
it assumes the condition of a dried fig. On the large scale however, figs
ai'e not dried on the tree, but are gathered and exposed to the sun and
air in light trays till they acquire the proper degree of drjaiess. They
'See in particular 1 Sam. xxv. 18 and
1 Chron. xii. 40 ; where we read of large
supplies of dried tigs being provided for
the use of fighting men. Also Num. xx. 5 ;
Jer. xxiv. 2 ; 2 Reg. xx. 7.
- On the Eiviera of Genoa dried figs
eaten with bread are a common winter food
of the peasantry.
2 Pardessus, Diplomafa, ChcirfrB, etc., ii.
(1849) 309
* Recesse und andfre Ahten der Hansetaffe,
ii. (Leipzig, 1872) 235.
^ Rogers, Hint, of Agricidture and Pricen
in England, i. (1866) 632.
Albertus Magnus, in allusion to the
peculiar growth of the fig, remarks that
tlie tree " f ructum autem profert sine
flore." Page 38G of the work quoted in
the Appendix.
544
HORACES.
can only be preserved in those regions where the summer and autumn
are very warm and diy.
Dried figs are termed by the dealers either natural or pulled. The
first are those whicli liave not been compressed in the packing, and still
retain their original shape.' The second are those which after dr3'itig
have been made sup[)le by squeezing and kneading, and in that state
packed with pressure into drums and boxes.
Smyrna figs, which are the most esteemed sort, are of the latter kind.
They are of irregular, flattened form, tough, translucent, covered with a
saccharine efflorescence; they have a pleasant fruity smell and luscious
taste. Figs of inferior quality, as those called in the market Greek Figs,
difler chiefly in being smaller and less pulpy.
Microscopic Structure — The outer layer of a dried fig is made up
of small, thick-walled and densely packed cells, so as to form a kind of
skin. The inner lax parenchyrae consists of larger thin-walled cells,
traversed by vascular bundles and large, slightly branched, laticiferous
vessels. The latter contain a granular substance not soluble in water.
In the parenchyme, stellate crystals of oxalate of calcium occur, but in
no considerable number.
Chemical Composition — The chemical changes which take place
in the fig during maturation are important, but no researches have
yet been made for their elucidation. The chief chemical substance in
the ripe fig is grape sugar, which constitutes from CO to 70 per cent,
of the dried fruit. Ouin and fatty matter appear to be present only in
very small quantity. We have observed that unripe figs are rich in
starch.
Production and Commerce — Dried figs were imported into the
United Kingdom in 1872 to the amount of 141,847 cwt., of which
91,721 cwt. were shipped from Asiatic Turkey, the remainder being from
Portugal, Spain, the Austrian territories and other countries. In 1870
the imports were 103,703 cwt., valued at £318,717.
Kalaniata, in the Gulf of Messenia, Greece, and Cosenza in the
Italian province of Calabria citeriore, are also particularly known as
supplying figs to some parts of continental Europe. In 1870 the
exports of Kalamata to Trieste were 9^- millions of kilogrammes.
Uses — Dried figs are thought to be slightly laxative, and as such are
occasionally recommended in habitual constipation. They enter into the
composition of Coufectio Sennce.
MOEACE^.
FRUCTUS MORI.
Baccce Mori, Mora; Mulberries; F. Mnres; G. Maulheeren.
Botanical Origin — Mo)'Us nigra L., a handsome bushy tree, about
30 feet in height, growing Avild in Northern Asia j\Iinor, Armenia, and
the southern Caucasian regions as lar as Persia. In Italy, it was em-
1 The word Ekma applied in the Lniidoii ( " Elenie Figs ") is probably a corruption of
shops to dried figs of superior quality the Turkish t7/<;ni($, signifying /ictrtcZ-^yic/tef/.
FRUCTUS MORI.
545
ployed for feeding the silkworm until about the year 1434, when AT. alba
L. was introduced from the Levant/ and has ever since been commonly
preferred. Yet in Greece, in many of the Greek islands, Calabria and
Corsica, the species planted for the silkworm is still 31. nigra.
The mulberry tree is now cultivated throughout Europe, yet, except-
ing in the regions named, by no means abundantly. It ripens its fruit
in England, as well as in Southern Sweden and Gottland, and in Chris-
tiania (Schlibeler).
History — The mulberry tree is mentioned in the Old Testament,'
and by most of the eai"ly Greek and Roman writers. Among the large
number of useful plants ordered by Charlemagne (a.d. 812) to be
cultivated on the imperial farms, the mulberry tree {Morar'ms) did not
escape notice.'* We meet with it also in a plan sketched A.D. 820, for
the gardens of the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland.'' The cultiva-
tion of the mulberry in Spain is implied by a reference to the prepara-
tion of Byrvp of Midberries in the Calendar of Cordova,'^ which dates
from the year 9(31.
A curious reference to mulberries, proving them to have been far
more esteemed in ancient times than at present, occurs in the statutes
of the abbey of Corbie of Normandy, in which we find a Brevis de Melle,
showing how much honey the tenants of the monastic lands were
required to paj' annually, followed by a statement of the quantity of
Mulberries which each farm was expected to supply.^
Description — The tree bears unisexual catkins; the female, of an
ovoid form, consists of numerous flowers with green four-lobed perianths
and two linear stigmas. The lobes of the perianth overlapping each
other become fleshy, and by their lateral aggregation form the spurious
berry, which is shortly stalked, oblong, an inch in length, and, when
ripe, of an intense purple. By detaching a single fruit, the lobes of the
former perianth may be still discerned. Each fruit encloses a hard
lenticular nucule, covering a pendulous seed with curved embryo and
fleshy albumen.
Mulberries are extremely juicy and have a refreshing, subacid,
saccharine taste; but they are devoid of the fine aroma that distin-
guishes many fruits of the order Rosacece.
Chemical Composition — In an analysis made by H. van Hees
(1857) 100 parts of mulberries yielded the following constituents: —
Glucose and uncrystallizable sugar . . . 9"19
Free acid (supposed to be malic) . . . . 1"86
Albuminous matter ...... 0"39
Pectic matter, fat, salts, and gum .... 2-03
Ash 0-57
Insoluble matters (the seeds, pectose, cellulose, &c.) 1"25
Water 84-71
^ A. De Candolle, Geoijr. hotanique, ii.
(1855) 856.
2 2 Sam. V. 23, 24.
' Pertz, Moniimenta Germanice historica.
Leges, iii. (1835) 181. — Consult also Hehn,
Kidturpflanzen, 1877.
•* F. Keller, Baurha des Kohters 8.
Gallen, facsimile, Zurich, 1844.
^ Le Calendrier dt Cordoue de I'annde 961,
public par R. Dozy, Leyde, 1873. 67.
^ Gu6rard, Polijplique de I'AhM Irminon,
Paris, ii. 335.
M
546
CANNABINE^.
With regard to the results of researches on other edible fruits, made
about the same time in the laboratory of Fresenius, it would appear
that the mulberry is one of the most saccharine, being only surpassed
by the cherry (1079 of sugar) and grape (lO'G to 19-0).^ It is richer
in sugar than the following, namely : —
Raspberries, yielding 4 per cent, of sugar and 1'48 of (malic) acid.
Strawberries „ 57 „ „ 1'31 „ „
Whortleberries „ 5"8 „ „ 1'34 „ ,,
Currants 61 „ „ 2 04
The amount of free acid in the mulberry is not small, nor is it exces-
sive. The small proportion of insoluble matters is worthy of notice in
comparison, for instance with the whortleberry, which contains no less
than 13 per cent. The colouring matter of the mulberry has not
been examined. The acid is probably not simply malic, but in part
tartaric.
Uses — The sole use in medicine of mulberries is for the preparation
of a syrup employed to flavour or colour any other medicines. In
Greece, the fruit is submitted to fermentation, thereby furnishing an
inebriating beverage.
CANNABINE^.
HERBA CANNABIS.
Cannabis Indica; Indian Hemp; F. Ghanvre Tndien ; G. HanfJcravt.
Botanical Origin — Cannabis sativa L., Common Hemp, an annual
dioecious plant, native of Western and Central Asia, cultivated in tem-
perate as well as in tropical countries.
It grows wild luxuriantly on the banks of the lower Ural and Volga
near the Caspian Sea, extending thence to Persia, the Altai range, and
Northern and Western China. It is found in Kashmir and on the
Himalaya, growing 10 to 12 feet high, and thriving vigorously at an
elevation of 6000 to 10,000 feet. It likewise occurs in Tropical Africa,
on the eastern and western coasts as well as in the central tracts
watered by the Congo and Zambesi, but whether truly indigenous is
doubtful. It has been naturalized in Brazil, north of Rio de Janeiro,
the seeds having been brought thither by the negroes from Western
Africa. The cultivation of hemp is carried on in many parts of conti-
nental Europe, but especially in Central and Southern Russia.
The hemp plant grown in India exhibits certain differences as con-
trasted with that cultivated in Europe, which were noticed by Rum-
phius in the I7th century, and which (about a.d. 1790), induced Lamarck
to claim for the former plant the rank of a distinct species, under the
name of Cannabis indica. But the variations observed in the two
plants are of so little botanical importance and are so inconstant, that
the maintenance of C. indica as distinct from C. sativa has been
abandoned by general consent.
* The fig excepted, which is much more saccharine than any.
HERBA CANNABIS.
547
In a medicinal point of view, there is a wide dissimilarity between
hemp grown in India and that produced in Europe, the former being
vastly more potent. Yet even in India there is ranch variation, for,
according to Jameson, the plant grown at altitudes of 6000 to 8000
feet affords the resin known as Charas, which cannot be obtained from
tliat cultivated on the plains.^
History — Hemp has been propagated on account of its textile fibre
and oily seeds from a i-emote peiiod.
The ancient Chinese herbal called Rh-ya, written about the 5th cen-
tury B.C., notices the fact that the hemp plant is of two kinds, the one
producing seeds, the other flowers only." In Susruta, Charaka and
other early works on Hindu medicine, hemp (B'hanga) is mentioned
as a I'emedy. Herodotus states that hemp grows in Scythia both
wild and cultivated, and that the Thracians made garments from
it which can hardly be distinguished from linen. He also describes
how the Scythians expose themselves as in a bath to the vapour
of the seeds thrown on hot coals.^
The Greeks and Romans appear to have been unacquainted with
the medicinal powers of hemp, unless indeed the care-destroying
l>ir]7rei'6e? should, as Royle has supposed, be referred to this plant.
According to Stanislas Julien,* anaisthetic powers were ascribed by the
Chinese to j^reparations of hemp as early as the commencement of the
3rd century.
The employment of hemp both medical and dietetic appears to have
spread slowly through India and Persia to the Arabians, amongst whom
the plant was used in the early middle ages. The famous heretical sect
of Mahomedans, whose murderous deeds struck terror into the hearts
of the Crusaders during the 11th and 12th centui'ies, derived their name
of Hashishin, or, as it is commonly written, assassms, from hashish the
Arabic for heiwpj" which in certain of their rites they used as an in-
toxicant." In 128G of our era, the Sultan of Egypt, Bibars al Bondokdary,
prohibited the sale of hashish, the monopoly of which had been
leased before."
The use of hemp (hkang) in India was particularly noticed by Garcia
de Orta f (1563), and the plant was subsequently figured by Rheede, who
described the drug as largely used on the Malabar coast. It would seem
about this time to have been imported into Europe, at least occasionally,
for Berlu in his Treasury of Drags, 1690, describes it as coming from
Bantam in the East Indies, and " of an infatuating quality and ])er-
nic'ious use."
It was Napoleon's expedition to Egypt that was the means of again
1 Jour II. of the Agric. and Hortic. Sac. of
India, viii. 167.
- Bretschneider, On Chinese Botanical
Works, 1870. 5. 10. Part of the Bh-i/a
was written in the 12th cent. B.C.
^ Eawlinson's translation, iii. (1859) book
4, chap. 74-5.
■* Comptes Bendiis, xxviii. (1849) 195.
•'' Hence the words auMSsin and a.^tsassi-
nate. Weil, however, is of opinion that
the word assassin is more probably derived
from sikkin, a dagger. — Geschichte dcr
Chalifen, iv. (1860) 101.
" The miscreant who assassinated Justice
Norman at Calcutta, 20 Sept. 1871, is said
to have acted under the influence of hashish.
Bellew (Indus to the Tigris, 1874. 218)
states that the Afghan chief who murdered
Dr. Forbes in 1842, had for some days pre-
viously been more or less intoxicated with
Charas or Bhang.
' Quatremh-e, Memoires sur I'Egypte ii.
(1811) 504, according to Makrisi.
8 CoUoquios dos simples e drogas e coiisas
medicinaes da India, ed. 2, Lisboa, 1872,
27.
548
CANNABINE^.
calling attention to the peculiar properties of hemp, by the accounts of
De Sacy (1809) and Rouger (1810). But the introduction of the Indian
drug into European medicine is of still more recent date, and is chiefly
due to the experiments made in Calcutta by O'Shaughnessy in 1838-39.'
Although the astonishing effects produced in India by the administra-
tion of preparations of hemp are seldom witnessed in the cooler climate
of Bi'itain, the powers of the drug are sufSciently manifest to give it an
established place in the pharmacopoeia.
Production — Though hemp is grown in many parts of India, yet
as a drug it is chiefly produced in a limited area in the districts of
Bogra and Rajshahi, north of Calcutta, where the plant is cultivated for
the purpose in a systematic manner. The retail sale, like that of opium
and spirits, is restricted by a license, which in 1871-2 produced to the
Government of Bengal about £120,000, while upon opium (chiefly con-
sumed in Assam) the amount raised was £810,000.'"^ Bhang is one of
the principal commodities imported into India from Turkestan.
Description — The leaves of hemp have long stalks with small
stipules at their bases, and are composed of 5 to 7 lanceolate-acuminate
leaflets, sharply serrate at the margin. The loose panicles of male
flowers, and the short spikes of female flowers, are produced on separate
plants, from the axils of the leaves. The fruits, called Hemp-seeds, are
small grey nuts or achenes, each containing a single oily seed. In
common with other plants of the order, hemp abounds in silica which
gives a roughness to its leaves and stems. In European medicine, the
only hemp employed is that grown in India, which occurs in two prin-
cipal forms, namely : —
1. Bhang, SiddJa or Sahzi (Hindustani); Hashish or Qinnaq
(Arabic). This consists of the dried leaves and small stalks, which are
of a dark green colour, coarsely broken, and mixed with here and there
a few fruits. It has a peculiar but not unpleasant odour, and scarcely
any taste. In India, it is smoked either with or without tobacco, but
more commonly it is made up with flour and various additions into a
sweetmeat or majxmf of a green colour. Another form of taking it is
that of an infusion, made by immersing the pounded leaves in cold
water.
2. Ganja (Hindustani) ; Qimiah (Arabic) ; Guaza * of the London
drug-brokers. These are the flowering or fruitinof shoots of the female
plant, and consist in some samples of straight, stiff, woody stems some
inches long, surrounded by the upward branching flower-stalks ; in
others of more succulent and much shorter shoots, 2 to 3 inches long,
and of less regular form. In either case, the shoots have a compressed
and glutinous appearance, are veiy brittle, and of a brownish-green
hue. In odour and in the absence of taste ganja resembles hkaiig. It
is said that after the leaves which constitute bhang have been gathered.
' For a notice of them, see O'Shaughnessy,
On the preparation of the Indian Hemp
or Ounjah, Calcutta, 1839 ; also Bem/al
Di^pensatorn, Calcutta, 1842. 579-604.
An immense number of references to
writers who have touched on tlie medicinal
properties of hemp, will be found in the
elaborate essay entitled Studien iiber den
Hanf, by Dr. G. Martins (Erlangen, 1855).
- Blue Book quoted at p. 52, note 1.
3 Magi-oun is the Persian name for elec-
tuaries, of which more than 70 are foviud,
for instance, in the Pharmncopwia Pernica
(see Appendix, Angelus), p. 291 to 321.
■* This name is not used in India, but
seems to be a corruption of ganja.
HERBA CANNABIS.
549
little shoots s])rout from the stem, and that these picked off and dried
form what is called (jmija}
Chemical Composition — ^The most interesting constituents of
hemp, from a medical point of view, are the resin and volatile oil.
The former was first obtained in a state of comparative purity by
T. and H. Smith in 1846.^ It is a brown amorphous solid, burning with
a bright white flame and leaving no ash. It has a very potent action
when taken internally, two-thirds of a grain acting as a powerful
narcotic, and one grain producing complete intoxication. From the
experiments of Messrs. Smith, it seems to us impossible to doubt that
to this resin the energetic effects of cannabis are mainly due.
When water is repeatedly distilled from considerable quantities of
hemp, fresh lots of the latter being used for each operation, a volatile
oil lighter than water is obtained, together with ammonia. This oil,
according to the observations of Personne (1857), is amber-coloured,
and has an oppressive hemp-like smell. It sometimes deposits an
abundance of small crystals. With due precautions it may be separated
into two bodies, the one of which, named by Personne Cannahene^
is liquid and colourless, with the formula C^^H"^° ; the other, which is
called Hydride of Camiaheve, is a solid, separating from alcohol in platy
crystals to which Personne assigns the formula C^*^!!^^. He asserts that
cannabene has indubitably a physiological action, and even claims it as
the sole active principle of hemp. Its vapour he states to produce when
breathed a singular sensation of shuddering, a desire of locomotion,
followed by prostration and sometimes by syncope.* Bohlig in 1840
observed similar effects from the oil, which he obtained from the fresh
herb, just after flowering, to the extent of 0'3 per cent.
It remains to be proved whether an alkaloid is present in hemp, as
suggested by Preobraschensky.
The other constituents of hemp are those commonly occurring in
other plants. The leaves yield nearly 20 per cent, of ash.
As to the I'esin of Indian hemp, Bolas and Francis in treating it with
nitric acid, converted it into Oxycannahin, C"°II2°N-0''. This interesting
substance may, they say, be obtained in large prisms from a solution in
niethylic alcohol. It melts at 176° C. and then evaporates without
decomposition ; it is neutral." One of us (F.) has endeavoured to obtain
it from the purified resin of charas, but without success.
Uses — Hemp is employed as a soporific, anodyne, antispasmodic, and
as a nervous stimulant. It is used in the form of alcoholic extract,
administered either in a solid or liquid form. In the East it is con-
sumed to an enormous extent by Hindus and Mahomedans, who either
1 Powell, Economic Products of the Pun-
jab, Eoorkee, i. (1868) 293.
2 Pharm. Journ. vi. (1847) 171.
^ Journ. (le Pharm. xxxix. (1857) 48 ;
Canstatt's Jalire.^hericht for 1857, i. 28.
Personne, though he admits the activity
of the resin j)repared by Smith's process,
contends that it is a mixed body, and that
further purification deprives it of all volatile
matter and renders it inert. This is not
astonishing when one finds that the "puri-
fication " was effected by treatment with
caustic lime or soda lime, and exposure to
a temperature of 300" C. (572° F.) ! That
the resin of the Edinburgh chemists does
not owe its activity to volatile matter, is
proved by their own exjieriment of expos-
ing a small qiiantity in a very thin layer
to 82° C. for 8 hours : the medicinal action
of the resin so treated was found to be un-
impaired.
^ 'Dva.genAorWa Jahrciherkltt, 1876. 98.
« Chemical News, xxiv. (1871) 77.
550
CANNABINE^.
smoke it with tobacco, or swallow it in combination with other
substances/
Charas.
No account of hemp as a drug would be complete withovit some
notice of this substance, which is regaixled as of great importance by
Asiatic nations.
Charas or CJmrrus is the resin which exudes in minute drops from
the yellow glands, with which the plant is provided in increasing num-
ber according to the elevated temperature (and altitude ?) of the
country where it grows. The varieties of hemp richest in resin, at
least in the Laos country in the Malaj'an Peninsula, scarcely attain the
height of 3 feet, and show densely cui'led leaves." Charas is collected
in sevei'al ways : — one is by rubbing the tops of the plants in the hands
when the seeds are ripe, and scraping from the fingers the adhering
resin. Another is thus performed : — men clothed in leather garments
walk about among growing hemp, in doing which the resin of the plant
attaches itself to the leather, whence it is from time to time scraped off.
A third method consists in collecting, with many precautions to avoid
its poisonous effects, the dust which is caused when heaps of dry hhavg
are stirred about.^
By whichever of these processes obtained, charas is of necessity a
foul and crude drug, the use of which is properly excluded from civilized
medicine. As before remarked (p. 547) it is not obtainable from hemp
grown indiscriminately in any situation even in India, but is only to
be got from plants produced at a certain elevation on the hills.
The best charas, which is that brought from Yarkand, is a brown,
earthy-looking substance, forming compact yet friable, irregular masses
of considerable size. Examined under a strong pocket lens, it appears
to be made up of minute, transparent grains of brown resin, agglutinated
with short hairs of the plant. It has a hemp-like odour, with but little
taste even in alcoholic solution. A second and a third quality of Yar-
kand charas represent the substance in a less pure state. Charas viewed
under the microscope exhibits a crystalline structure, due to inorganic
matter. It yields from \ to \ of its weight of an amorphous resin,
which is readily dissolved by bisulphide of carbon or spirit of wine.
The resin does not redden litmus, nor is it soluble in caustic potash. It
has a dark brown colour, which we have not succeeded in removing by
animal charcoal. The residual part of charas yields to water a little
chloride of sodium, and consists in large proportion of carbonate of
calcium and peroxide of iron. These results have been obtained in
examining samples from Yarkand.* Other specimens which we have
also examined, have the aspect of a compact dark resin.
Charas is exported from Yarkand^ and Kashgar, the first of which
' For further information, consult Cooke's
Seven HiMers of Sleep, Lond., chap. xv. —
xvii ; also Jaliresberkht of Wiggers and
Husemann, 1872. 600.
- Garnier, ]'oi/a(/e Exploration en Iiulo-
Chiiie, ii. (1873) 4i0.
•* Powell, Economic Products of tlie Pun-
jalh Roorkee, 1868. 293.
^ Ubtained by Colonel H. Strachey, and
now in the Kew Museum. It is by no
means evident by what process they were
collected.
•''Forsyth, Correspondence on Mission to
Yarkand, ordered by the House of Com-
mons to be printed, Feb. 28, 1871 ; also
Henderson and Hume, La/tore to Yarkland,
Lond. 1873. 334.
STROBILI HUMULI.
551
places exported during 1867, 1830 maimds (146,400 lb.) to Le, whence
the commodity is carried to the Punjab and Kashmii-. Smaller quan-
tities are annually imported from Kandahar and Samarkand;^ some
charas appears also (1876) to be exported from Mandshuria to China.
The drug is mostly consumed by smoking with tobacco ; it is not found
in European commerce.
STROBILI HUMULI.
Hamulus vel Liipulus ; Hops; F. Houhlon ; G. Hopfen.
Botanical Origin — Humiihts Lupulus L., — a direcious perennial
plant, producing long annual twining stems which climb freely over
trees and bushes. It is found wild, especially in thickets on the banks
of rivei's, throughout all Europe, from Spain, Sicily and Greece to
Scandinavia ; and extends also to the Caucasus, the South Caspian
region, and through Central and Southern Siberia to the Altai mountains.
It has been introduced into North America, Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul),
and Australia.
History — Hops have been used from a remote period in the brewing
of beer, of which they are now regarded as an indispensable ingredient.
Hop gardens, under the name humidavia or Immideta, are mentioned
as existing in France and Germany in the 8th and 9th centuries ; and
Bohemian and Bavarian hops have been known as an esteemed kind
since the 11th century. A grant alleged to have been made by William
the Conqueror in 1069, of hops and hop-lands in the county of Salop,'^
would indicate, were it free from doubt, a very early cultivation of the
hop in England.
As to the use made of hops in these early times, it would appear
that they were regarded in somewhat of a medicinal aspect. In the
Herhariiim of Apuleius,^ an English manuscript written about A.D.
1050, it is said of the hop (hymcle) that its good qualities are such that
men put it in their usual drinks ; and St. Hildegard,'* a century later,
states that the hop (liopplio) is added to beverages, partly for its whole-
some bitterness, and partly because it makes them keep.
Hops for brewing were among the produce which the tenants of the
abbey of St Germain in Paris had to furnish to the monastery in the
beginning of the 9th century ; yet in the middle of the 14th century,
beer without such addition was still brewed in Paris.
The brewsters, bakers and millers of London were the subject of a
mandate of Edward I. in A.D. 1298; but there is no reason for inferring
that the manufacture of malt liquor at this period involved the use of
hops. It is plain indeed that somewhat later, hops were not generally
used, for in the 4th year of Henry VI. (1425-26), an information was
laid against a person for putting into beer " an unwholesome weed called
' Stewart, Punjab Plants, Lahore, 1869.
216.
- Blount, Tenures of Land and Customs
of Manors, edited by Hazlitt, 1874. 165.
Leechdoms, Worlcunning and Starcraft
of Early England, edited by Cockayne, i.
(1864) 173 ; ii. (1865) ix.
^ Opera Omnia, accurante J. P. Migne,
Paris, 1855. 1153.
^ Guerard, Polyptique de Vahhi Irminon, i,
(1844) 714. 896.
552
'CANNABINE^.
an ho'pp ;" ' and in the same reign, Parliament was petitioned against
" that wicked weed called hops."
But it is evident that hops were soon found to possess good qualities,
and that though their use was denounced, it was not suppressed. Thus
in the regulations for the household of Henry VIII. (1530-31), there is
an injunction that the brewer is "not to put any hops or brimstone
into the ale" f while in the very same year (1530), hundreds of pounds
of Flemish hops were purchased for the use of the noble family of
L'Estranges of Hunstanton.^
In 1552 the cultivation of hops in England was distinctly sanctioned
by the 5th and 6th of Edward VI. c.5, which directs that land formei-ly in
tillage should again be so cultivated, excepting it should havebeensetwith
hops or saffron. Notwithstanding these facts, hops were for a long period
hardly regarded an essential in brewing, as may be gathered from the
remark of Gerarde {oh. A.u. 1G07), who speaks of them as used "to season"
beer or ale, explaining that notwithstanding their manifold virtues, they
" rather make it a physical drinke to keepe the body in health, than an
ordinary di'inke for the quenching of our thirst." In reality, other herbs
were for a long period employed to impart to malt liquor a bitter or
aromatic taste, as Ground Ivy {Nepeta Glechoma Benth.); anciently called
Ale-hoof or Gill; Alecost {Balsamita vulgaris L.); Sweet Gale {Myrica
Gale L.); and Sage {Salvia ojficinalis L.). Even Long Pepper and Bay
Berries were used for the same purpose,'* but in addition to hops.
Though English hops were esteemed superior to foreign, and were
extensively grown as early as 1603, as shown by an act of James I.,^
Flemish hops continued to be imported in considerable quantities down
to 1693.
Structure — The inflorescence of the male plant constitutes a large
panicle ; that of the female is less conspicuous, consisting of stalked
catkins which by their growth develope large leafy imbricating bracts,
ultimately forming an ovoid cone or strobile, which is the officinal part.
This catkin consists of a short central zigzag stalk, bearing overlapping
rudimentary leaflets, each represented by a pair of stipules. Between
them are 4 female florets, each supported by a bract. After flowering,
the stipules as well as the bracts are much enlarged, and then form the
persistent, yellowish-green, pendulous strobile. At maturity, each bract
infolds at its base a small lenticular closed fruit or nut, of an inch in
diameter. The nut is suri'ounded by a membranous, one-leafed perigone,
and contains within its fraoile, brown shell an exalbuminous seed.
These fruits, as well as the axis and the base of all the leaf-like organs,
are beset with numerous shining, translucent glands, to which the
aromatic smell and taste of hops are due.
Description — Hops as found in commerce consist entirely of the
fully developed strobiles or cones, more or less compressed. They have
a greenish yellow colour, an agreeable and peculiar aroma, and a bitter
aromatic burning taste. When rubbed in the hand they feel clammy,
and emit a more powerful odour. By keeping, hops lose their greenish
1 The authority for this statement is an - Archceoloyia, iii. (1786) 157.
isolated memorandum in a MS. volume ^ 76iW. xxv. (1834) 505.
(No. 980) by Thomas Gybbons, preserved in ■* Holinshcd, Chronicles, vol. i. book 2.
the Harleian collection in the British cap. 6.
Museum. * 1 James I. (anno 1603) cap. 18.
STROBILI HUMULI.
553
colour and become brown, at the same time acquiring an unpleasant
odour, by reason of the formation of a little valerianic acid. Exposure
to the vapour of sulphurous acid retards or prevents this alteration. For
medicinal use, hops smelling of sulphurous acid should be avoided,
though in reality the acid speedily becomes innocuous. Liebig has
refuted the objections raised by brewers to the sulphuring of hops.
Chemical Composition — Besides the constituents of the glands
which are described in the next article, hops contain according to Etti's
elaborate investigations (187C, 1878) luimulotannic acid and phloha-
phene. The former is a whitish amorphous mass, soluble in alcohol, hot
water or acetic ether, not in ether. By heating the humulotannic acid at
130° C, or by boiling its aqueous or alcoholic solutions, it gives off water,
and is transformed into phlobaphene, a dark red amorphous substance,
humulotaiinic acid. phlobaphene.
The latter substance, on boiling it with dilute mineral acids, again
loses water and furnishes glucose.
From raw phlobaphene ether removes the hitter princi'ples of hops,
a colourless crj'-stallizable and a brown amorphous resin, besides chloro-
phyll, and essential oil.
By distilling hops with water, ()"9 per cent, of essential oil are
obtained. Personne (1854) stated it to contain Valerol,^ C^WO, which
passes into valerianic acid; the latter in fact occurs in the glands, yet
according to Mehu" only to the extent of O'l to ()"17 per cent. When
distilled from the fresh strobiles the oil has a greenish colour, but a
reddish-brown when old hops have been employed. We find it to be
devoid of rotatory power, neuti-al to litmus paper, and not striking any
remarkable coloration with concentrated sulphuric acid.
Griessmayer (1874) has shown that hops contain Trimethylamine,
and in small proportion a liquid volatile alkaloid not yet analysed,
which he terms Liqnd in e. The latter is stated to have the odour ot
Conine, and to assume a violet hue when treated with ehromate of
potassium and sulphuric acid.
I Lastly, Etti also found arable (pectic) acid, phosphates, nitrates,
malates, citrates, and also sulphates, chiefly of potassium, to occur in
hops. The amount of ash afforded by hops dried at 100° C. would
appear to be on an average about G-7 per cent.
Production and Commerce — England was estimated as having in
1873, 63,276 acres under hops. The chief district for the cultivation is
the county of Kent, where in that year 39,040 acres were devoted to this
plant. Hops are grown to a much smaller extent in Sussex, and in still
diminished quantity in Herefordshire, Hampshire, Worcestershire and
Surrey. The other counties of England and the principality of Wales
produce but a trifling amount, and Scotland none at all.
In continental Europe, hops are most largely produced in Bavaria and
Wiirtemberg, Belgium and France, but in each on a smaller scale than in
England. France in 1872 is stated to have 9223 acres under hops.^
1 A substance with which we are not
acquainted.
2 TMse, Montpellier, 1867.
' Agricultural Returns of Great Britain,
&c., 1873, presented to Parliament, 48. 49.
70. 71.
554
CANNABINEA
Notwithstanding the extensive production of hops in England, there
is a large importation from other countries. The importation in 1872
was 135,965 cwt., valued at £679,276: of this quantity, Belgium supplied
66,630 cwt, Germany 36,612 cwt, Holland 16,675 cwt, the United
States 10,414 cwt, France 5328 cwt. During the same period hops
were exported from the United Kingdom to the extent of 31,215 cwt.^
Uses — Hops are administered medicinally as a tonic and sedative,
chiefly in the form of tincture, infusion or extract.
GLANDULE HUMULI.
Lupidina; Lttpidin, Luimlinic Grains; F.Lujmline; G.Hoj)fendrusen,
Hopfenstaub.
Botanical Origin — Humulus Lupulus L. (see preceding article).
The minute, shining, translucent glands of the strobile constitute when
detached therefrom the substance called Lupidln.
History — The glands of hop were separated and chemically ex-
amined by L. A. Planche, a pharmacien of Paris, whose observations
were first briefly described by Loiseleur-Deslongchamps in 1819.'^ In
the following year. Dr. A. W. Ives of New York^ published an account
of his experiments upon hops and their glands, to which latter he applied
the name Lvpulin. Payen and Chevallier, Planche and others,made
further experiments on the same subject, endorsing the recommendation
of Ives that lupulin (or, as they preferred to call it, Lupuline) might be
advantageously used in medicine in place of hops.
Production — Lupulin is obtained by stripping off" the bracts of hops,
and shaking and rubbing them ; and then separating the powder by a
sieve. The powder thus detached ought to be washed hy decantation,
so as to remove from it the sand or earth with which it is alwa5^s con-
taminated ; finally it should be dried, and stored in well-closed bottles.
From the dried strobiles, 8 to 12 per cent, of lupulin may be obtained.
Description — Lupulin seen in quantity appears as a yellowish-
brown granular powder, having an agreeable odour of hops and a bitter
aromatic taste. It is gradually wetted by water, instantly by alcohol or
ether, but not by potash or sulphuric acid. By trituration in a mortar
the cells are ruptured so that it may be worked into a plastic mass.
Thrown into the air and then ignited, it burns with a brilliant flame
like lycopodium.
Microscopic Structure — The lupulinic gland or grain, like the
generality of analogous organs, is formed by an intumescence of the
cuticle of the nucuke and bracts of hop (see p. 552). Each grain is
originally attached by a very short stalk, which is no longer perceptible
in the drug. The gland, exhausted by ether and macerated in water, is
a globular or ovoid thin-walled sac, measuring from 140 to 240 mkm.
It consists of two distinct, nearly hemispherical parts ; that originally
^ Animal Statement of the Trade of the ^ Silliman's Jmtrn. of Science, ii. (1820)
United Kingdovi for 1872. 49. 93. 302.
2 Manuel des Plantes usuelles et indi-
gbies, 1819. ii. 503.
GLANDULE HUMULI.
provided with the stalk is built up of tabular polj'hedric cells, whilst
the upper hemisphere shows a continuous delicate membrane. This
part therefore easily collapses, and thus exhibits a variety of form, the
greater also as the grains turn pole or equator to the observer/
The hop gland is filled with a thick, dark brown or yellowish liquid,
which in the drug is contracted into one mass occupying the centre of
the gland. It may be expelled in minute drops when the wall is made
to burst by warming the grain in glycerin. The colouring matter, to
which the wall owes its fine yellow colour, adheres more obstinately to
the thinner hemisphere, and is more easily extracted from the thicker
part by means of ether.
Chemical Composition — The odour of lupulinic grains resides in
the essential oil, described in the previous article. The bitter principle
formerly called Lupulin or Lxvpulite was first isolated by Lermer (1863)
who called it the hitter acid qfhoj^s {Ho'pfenbittevsdure) . It crystallizes
in large brittle rhombic prisms, and possesses in a high degree the
peculiar bitter taste of beer, in which however it can be present only in
very small proportion, it being nearly insoluble in water, though easily
dissolved by many other liquids. The composition of this acid,
C'''H'"'0^ appears to approximate it to absinthlin ; it is contained in the
glands in but small proportion. Still smaller is the amount of another
crystallizable constituent, regarded by Lei'mer as an alkaloid.
The main contents of the hop gland consist of wax {Myricylic
'palmitate, according to Lermer), and resins, one of which is crystalline
and unites with bases.
A good specimen of German lupulin, dried over sulphuric acid,
yielded us 7'3 per cent, of ash. The same drug exhausted by boiling
ether, afibrded 76'8 per cent, of an extremely aromatic extract, which
on exposure to the steam bath for a week, lost 3'()3 per cent., this
loss corresponding to the volatile oil and acids. The residual part was
soluble in glacial acetic acid and could therefore contain but very little
fatty matter.
Uses — The drug has the properties of hops, but with less of
astringency. It is not often prescribed.
Adulteration — Lupulin is apt to contain sand, and on incineration
often leaves a large amount of ash. Other extraneous matters which
are not unfrequent may be easily recognized by means of a lens. As
the essential oil in lupulin is soon resinified, the latter should be pre-
ferred fresh, and should be kept excluded from the air.
^ For a full account of the formation of
the glands, see Trecul, A)i>iales drs iScience.'i
Nat., Bot., i. (1854) 299. An abstract may
be found in Mehu's Etude du Houhlon et du
Lupulin, Montpellier, 1867.
556
ULMACE^.
ULMACE^.
CORTEX ULMI.
Elm Bark ; F. Ecorce d'Orme ; G. Ulmenrinde, Riisterrmdc.
Botanical Origin — Ulmus crmvpestris Smith, the Common Ehii, a
stately tree, widely diffused over Central, Southern and Eastern Europe,
southward to Northern Africa and Asia Minor, and eastward as far as
Amurland, Northern China, and Japan. It is probably not truly
indigenous to Great Britain ; but the Wych Elm, U. montaiia With.,
is certainly wild in the northern and western counties ;^ the latter is,
according to Schlibeler, the only species indigenous to Norway.
History — The classical writers, and especially Dioscorides, were
familiar with the astringent properties of the bark of irreXea, by which
name Ulmus campestvis is understood. Imaginary virtues are ascribed
by Pliny to the bark and leaves of Ulmtts. Elm bark is frequently
prescribed in the English Leech Books of the 11th century, at which
period a great many plants of Southern Europe had already been
introduced into Britain." Its use is also noticed in Turner's Herbal
(1568) and in Parkinson's Theater of Plants (1640), the author of the
latter remarking that " all the parts of the Elme are of much use in
Physicke."
In the Scandinavian antiquity the fibrous bark of Ulmus montana
used to be made up into ropes.'
Description — Elm bark for use in medicine should be removed from
the tree in early spring, deprived of its I'ough corky outer coat, and then
dried. Thus prepared, it is found in the shops in the form of broad
flattish pieces, of a rusty yellowish colour, and striated surface especially
on the inner side. It is tough and fibrous, nearly inodorous, and has a
woody, slightly astringent taste.
Microscopic Structure — The liber, which is the only ofiicinal part,
consists of thick-walled, tangentially extended parenchyme, in which
there are some large cells filled with mucilage, while the rest contain a
red-brown colouring matter. The mucilage forms a stratified deposit
within the cell. Large bast-bundles, ar-ranged in irregular rows, alternate
with the parenchyme, and are intersected by narrov/, reddish, medullary
rays consisting of 2 or 3 rows of cells. The bast-bundles contain
mimerous long tuljes about 30 mkm. thick, with narrow cavities; and
besides these, somewhat larger tubes with porous transverse walls
(cribriform vessels). Each cubic cell of the neighbouring bast-paren-
chyme encloses a large crystal, seldom well defined, of oxalate of
calcium.
' On the word elm, Dr. Prior remarks
tliat it is nearly identical in all the Ger-
manic and Scandinavian dialects, yet does
not find its root in any of them, but is an
adaptation of the Latin Ulmus. — Popular
Names of British Plants, ed. 2. 1870. 71.
^ Leechdoins, Wortcunnin'j and Starcraft
of Early England, edited Ly Eev. O.
Cockayne, ii. (18G5) pp. 53. 67. 79. 99. 127
and p. xii. — In the Anglo-Saxon recipes, both
Elm and Wtjch Elm are named in the Welsh
" Meddijgon Mi/ddfai" (see Appendix).
Elmwydd orllwyf and " Ulmus romanus,"
Ilwyf Rhufain, are met with.
3 Schlibeler, Pfanzemcelt Noriuegens,
1873-75, p. 216.
CORTEX ULMI FJJLYM.
557
Chemistry — The chief soluble constituent of elm hark is mucilage
with a small proportion of tannic acid, the latter, according to Johanson
(1875), probably agreeing with that of oak bark and bark of willows.
The concentrated infusion of elm bark yields a brown precipitate with
perchloride of iron; the dilute assumes a green coloration with that test.
Starch is wanting, or only occurs in the middle cortical layer, which is
usually rejected.
Ehns in summer-time frequently exude a gum which, by contact with
the air, is converted into a brown insoluble mass, called Ulmin. This
name has been extended to various decomposition-products of organic
bodies, the nature and affinities of which are but little known. ^
Uses— Elm bark is prescribed in decoction as a weak mucilaginous
astringent, but is almost obsolete.
CORTEX ULMI FULVi^:.
Slijypery Elm Bark.
Botanical Origin — Uhnusfulva Michaux, the Red or Slippery Elm,
a small or middle-sized tree,- seldom more than 30 to 40 feet high, grow-
ing on the banks of streams in the central and northern United States
from Western New England to Wisconsin and Kentucky, and found
also in Canada.
History — The Indians of North America attributed medicinal virtues
to the bark of the Slippery Elm, which they used as a healing application
to wounds, and in decoction as a wash for skin diseases. It is the " Salve
Bark" or " Cortex unguentarius " of Schopf ^ Bigelow, writing in 1824,
remarks that the mucilaginous qualities of the inner bark are well
known.
Description — The Slippery Elm Bark used in medicine consists of
the liber only. It forms large flat pieces, often 2 to 3 feet long by
several inches broad, and usually to ^ of an inch thick, of an ex-
tremely tough and fibrous texture. It has a light reddish-brown colour,
an odour resembling that of fenugreek (which is common to the leaves
also), and a simply mucilaginous taste.
In collecting the bark the tree is destroyed, and no effort is made to
I'eplace it, the wood being nearly valueless. Thus the supply is dimin-
ishing year by year, and the collectors who formerly obtained large
quantities of the bark in New York and other eastern states have now
to go westward for supplies.*
Microscopic Structure — The transverse section shows a series of
undulating layers of large yellowish bundles of soft liber fibres, alter-
nating with small brown parenchymatous bands. The whole tissue is
traversed by numerous narrow medullary rays, and interrupted b}^ large
intercellular mucilage-ducts. In order to examine the latter, longitu-
dinal sections ought to be moistened with benzol, aqueous liquids causing
great alteration. In a longitudinal section, the mucilage-ducts are seen
^ Gmelin, Chemistry, xvii. (18C6) 458.
' Fig. in Bentley and Tiiuien's Med.
Plants, part 34 (1878).
Mat. Med. Amerlc, Erlangte, 1787. 32.
■* Proceedin<]S of the American Pharma-
ceutical Association for 1873, xxi. 435,
558
EUPHORBIACE^.
to be 70 to 100 mkm. long, and to contain colourless masses of mucilage,
distinctly showing a series of layers. Crystals of calcium oxalate, as
well as small starch grains, are very plentiful throughout the surround-
ing parenchyme.
Chemical Composition — ^The most interesting constituent of the
bark is mucilage, which is imparted to either cold or hot water, but
does not form a true solution. The bark moistened with 20 parts of
water swells considerably, and becomes enveloped by a thick neutral
mucilage, whi-ch is not altered either by iodine or perchloride of iron.
This mucilage when diluted, even with a triple volume of water, will
yield onl}^ a few drops when thrown on a paper filter. The liquid which
drains out is precipitable by neutral acetate of lead. By addition of
absolute alcohol, the concentrated mucilage is not rendered turbid, but
forms a colourless transparent fluid deposit.
Adulteration — Farinaceous substances admixed to the powdered
drug may be detected by means of the microscope.
Uses — Slippery Elm Bark is a demulcent like althfea or linseed.
The powder is much used in America for making poultices; it is said
to preserve lard from rancidity, if the latter is melted with it and kept
in contact for a short time.
EUPHORBIACE^.
EUPHORBIUM.
E'uphorh 'mm, Gum EupJiorbium ; F. Gomme-resine d'Eujjhorhe ;
G. Eupliorhium.
Botanical Origin — Ettphoi-bia resinifera Berg, a leafless, glaucous,
perennial plant resembling a cactus, and attaining G or more feet in
height. Its stems are ascending, fleshy and quadrangular, each side
measuring about an inch. The angles of the stem are furnished at
intervals with pairs of divergent, horizontal, straight spines about | of
an inch long, and confluent at the base into ovate, subtriangular discs.
These spines represent stipules: above each pair of them is a depression,
indicating a leaf-bud. The inflorescence is arransred at the summits of
the branches, on stalks each bearing three flowers, the two outer of
which are supported on pedicels. The fruit is tricoccous, -^jj of an inch
wide, with each carpel slightly compressed and keeled.'
The plant is a native of Morocco, growing on the lower slopes of the
Atlas in the southern province of Suse. Dr. Hooker and his fellow-
travellers met with it in 1870 at Netifa and Imsfuia," south-east of the
city of Morocco, which appears to be its westwai'd limit.
History — Euphorbium was known to the ancients. Dioscorides^ and
Pliny* both describe its collection on Mount Atlas in Africa, and notice
its extreme acridity. According to the latter writer, the drug received
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Med. the Linnean Soc. 'Rot. (\S1Si) Q&2,.
Plants, part 24 (1877). ' Lib. iii. c. 86.
- Or Mesfioua, according to Ball, who also * Lib. v. c. 1 ; lib. xxv. c. 38.
quotes the province Demenet. — Journ. of
EUPHORBIUM.
5.59
its name in honour of Euphorbus, physician to Juba II., king of Mauri-
tania. This monarch, who after a long i-eign died about A.D. IS, was
distinguished for his litei'ary attainments, and was the author of several
books' which included treatises on opium and euphorbium. The latter
work was apparently extant in the time of Pliny.
Euphorbium is mentioned by numerous other early writers on medi-
cine, as Rufus Ephesius, who probably flourished during the reign of
Trajan, by Galen in the 2nd century, and by Vindicianus and Oribasius
in the 4th. Aetius and Paulus J^gineta, who lived respectively in the
0th and 7th centuries, were likewise acquainted with it ; and it was
also known to the Arabian school of medicine. In describing the route
from Aghmat to Fez, El-Bekri" of Granada, in 1068, mentioned the
numerous plants " El-forbioun " growing in the country of the Beni
Ouareth, a tribe of the Sanhadja ; the author noticed_ the spiny herba-
ceous stems of the shrub abounding in the purgative milky juice.
Host^ (1760-1768) stated that the plant, which he also correctly
compared with Opuntia, is growing near Agader, south of Mogadcjr.
The plant yielding euphorbium was further described at the
beginning of the present century by an English merchant named Jack-
son, who had resided many years in Morocco. From the figures he
published,^ the species was doubtfully identified with Eupliorhia cana-
riensis L., a large cactus-like shrub, with quadrangular or hexagonal
stems, abounding on scorched and arid rocks in the Canaiy Islands.
In the year 1749 it was pointed out in the {Admiralty) Mcmual of
Scientific JEnqiiiry, that the stems of which fragrants are found in com-
mercial euphorbium, do not agree with those of E. ccmariensis. Berg
carried the comparison further, and finally from the fragments in ques-
tion drew up a botanical description, which with an excellent figure he
published as ^«^)/ior6/«. resinifera. The correctness of his observa-
tions has been fully justified by specimens'^ which were transmitted to
the Royal Gardens, Kevv, in 1870, and now form flourishing plants.
The drug has a place in all the early printed pharmacopoeias.
Collection — Euphorbium is obtained by making incisions in the
green fleshy branches of the plant. These incisions occasion an abun-
dant exudation of milky juice which hardens by exposure to the air,
encrusting the stems down which it flows; it is finally collected in the
latter part of the summer. So great is the acridity of the exudation,
that the collector is obliged to tie a cloth over his mouth and nostrils,
to prevent the entrance of the irritating dust. The drug is said to be
collected in districts lying east and south-east of tlie city of Morocco.
Description — The drug consists of irregular pieces, seldom more
than an inch across and mostly smaller, of a dull yellow or brown waxy-
' Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Bio-
graphy, ii. (1846) 636.
Description de I'Afrique septenirionale,
traduite par M. de Slaae, Joiirnal asiatique,
xiii. (Paris, 1859) 413.
^ Nnchrichten von Mai-okos und Fes,
Kopenliagen, 1781. 308.
"* Account of the Empire of Morocco and
the district of Suse, Loud. 1809. 81. pi.
7. — The plate represents an entire plant,
and also what purports to be a portion of
a branch of the natural size. The latter is
really the figure of a ditt'erent species, —
apparently that which has been recently
nawed by Cosson Euphorbia Beaumierana.
^ Berg und Schmidt, Offizinelle Gewcichse,
iv. (1863) xxxiv. d.
" They were procured by Mr. William
Grace, and forwarded to England by Mr.
C. F. Carstensen, British Vice-Consul at
Mogadon
560
EUPHORBIACEiE.
looking substance, among which portions of the angular spiny stem of
the [)lant may be met with. Many of the pieces encrust a tuft of spines
or a flower-stalk or are hollow. The substance is brittle and trans-
lucent; splinters examined under the microscope exhibit no particular
structure, even by the aid of polarized light; nor are starch granules
visible.' The odour is slightly aromatic, especially if heat is applied ;
but 10 lb. of the drug which we subjected to distillation afforded no
essential oil, Euphorbium has a persistent and extremely acrid taste ;
its dust excites violent sneezing, and if inhaled, as when the drug is
powdered, occasions alarming symptoms.
Chemical Composition — Analysis of euphorbium performed by
one of us - showed the composition of the drug to be as follows: —
Amorphous resin, C'ff'O^ 38
Euphorbon, C^H'^^O 22
Mucilage ... ... ... ... ... ... 18
Malates, chiefly of calcium and sodium ... 12
Mineral compounds ... ... ... ... 10
100
The amorphous resin is readily soluble in cold spirit of wine con-
taining about 70 per cent, of alcohol. The solution has no acid re-
action, but an extremely burning acrid taste : in fact it is to the
amorphous indifferent resin that euphorbium owes its intense acridit3^
By evaporating the resin with alcoholic potash and neutralizing the
residue with a dilute aqueous acid, a brown amorphous substance, the
Euphovhic Acid of Buchheim,^ is precipitated. It is devoid of the
acridity of the resin from which it originated, but has a bitterish
taste.
Fi'om the drug deprived of the amorphous resin as above stated, ether
(ether or petroleum) takes up the Euphorhon, which may be obtained
in colourless, although not very distinct crystals, which are at flrst not
free from acrid taste. But by repeated crystallizations and finally
boiling in a weak solution of permanganate of pot;issium, they may be
so f;xr purified as to be entirely tasteless. Euphorbon is insoluble
in water ; it requires about 60 parts of alcohol, sp. gr. 0'830, for
solution at the ordinary temperature. In boiling alcohol euphorbon
dissolves abundantly, also in ether, benzol, amylic alcohol, chloroform,
acetone, or glacial acetic acid.
Euphorbon melts at 116° C. (113° to 114°, Hesse)without emitting any
odour. By dry distillation a brownish oily liquid is obtained, which
claims further examination. If euphorbon dissolved in alcohol is
allowed to form a thin film in a ]:)orcelain capsule, and is then
moistened with a little concentrated sulphuric acid, a fine violet hue is
produced in contact with strong nitric acid slowly added by means of
a glass rod. The same reaction is displayed by Lactucerin (see Lactu-
carium), to which in its general characters euphorbon is closely allied.
^ By careful investigation a very few are
fciunil at last.
- FlUckiger in Wittstein's Vierteljahrcs-
schri/t ftir prakt. Pharmacie, xvii. (1808)
82-102. — The drug analysed consisted of
selected fragrants, free from extraneous
substances.
* Wiggers and Husemann, Jahresbericht,
1873. 559.
CORTEX CASCARILLvE.
561
Hesse (1878) assigns to euphorbon the formula C^^H'^^O, aud points
out that its sokitions in chloroform or ether are dextrogyrate.
As to the mucilage of euphorbium, it may be obtained from that
portion of the drug which has been exhausted by cold alcohol and
by ether. Neutral acetate of lead, as well as silicate or borate of
sodium, precipitate this mucilage, which therefore does not agree with
gum arabic.
If an aqueous extract of euphorbium is mixed with spirit of wine,
and the liquid evaporated, the residual matter assumes a somewhat
crystalline appearance, and exhibits the reactions of Malic Acid.
Subjected to dry. distillation, white scales and acicular crystals of
Maleic and Fumaric Acids, produced Ijy the decomposition of the
malic acid, are sublimed into the neck of the retort. A sublimate of
the same kind may sometimes be obtained directly by heating frag-
ments of euphorbium. Among the mineral constituents of the drug,
chloride of sodium and calcium ai'e noticeable ; scarcely any salt of
potassium is present.
Commerce — The drug is shipped from Mogador. The quantity
imported into the United Kingdom in 1870 is given in the Amnud
Statement of Trade as 12 cwt.
Uses — Euphorbium was formeidy employed as an emetic and pur-
gative, but as an internal remedy it is completely obsolete. We have
been told that it is now in some demand as an ingredient of a paint for
the preservation of ships' bottoms.
CORTEX CASCARILL^.
Cortex Eleidherice ; Cascarilla Bark, Stveet Wood Bark, EleiUhera^
Bark; F. Ecorce de Oascarille ; G. Gascarill-Rmde.
Botanical Origin — Groton Eliiteria Bennett,- a shrub or small
tree, exclusively native of the Bahama Islands.
History — It is not improbable that cascarilla bark was imported
into Europe in the first half of the I7th century, as there was much
intercourse subsequent to the year 1630 between England and
the Bahamas.^ These islands were occupied in 1641 by the
Spaniards, who became at that time acquainted with the
Peruvian bark or Cascarilla (see page 346), as we have shown
at page 343. The external appearance of' the bark of Eluteria
being somewhat similar to that of Cinchona quills, the former
beo;an soon to be known under the name of China nova. This
^ From Eleutliera, one of the Bahama
Islands, so named from the Greek £\£vt)£fio5,
signifying yj'ee or independent.
-Bentley and Trimen's Aled. Plants,
part i. (1875).
* In that year a patent was granted by
Charles I. for the incorporation of a Com-
pany for colonizing the Bahama Islands,
and a complete record is extant of the pro-
ceedings of the Company for the first eleven
years of its existence. In some of the
documents, particular mention is made of
the introduction, actual or attempted, of
useful plants, as cotton, tobacco, fig, pepper,
pomegranate, palma Christi, mulberry, flax,
indigo, madder, and jalap ; and there is
also frequent allusion to the importation of
the produce of the islands, but no mention
of Gascnrilla. See Calendar of State Papers.
Colonial Series, 1574-1660, edited by Sain s-
Imry, Lond. 1860. pp. 146. 148. 149. 164.
168. 185. etc.
562
EUPHORBIACEiE.
drug occurs along with true Cinchona bark, Chrna de China, in the
tariff of the year 1691 of the pharmaceutical shops of the German
town Minden, in Westphalia. There can be no doubt that the cheaper
kind of " China," called China nova, was really the bark under exami-
nation, for in many other tariffs a few years later distinct mention is
made of Cortex Chinee novce seu Schacorillce ; and Savary, in his
" Dictionnaire de Commerce" (1723,1750), confirms the fact, adding
that it was first seen in the great fair of Brunswick.^ Another early
statement concerning Cascarilla bark likewise refers to the duchy of
Brunswick. Stisser, a professor of anatomy, chemistry, and medicine
in the University of Helmstedt in Brunswick, relates that he received
the drug under the name of Cortex Eleuterii from a person who had
returned from England, in which country, he was assured, it was
customary to mix it with tobacco for the sake of correcting the smell
of the latter when smoked. He also mentions that it had been
confounded with Peruvian bark, from which however it was very
distinct in odour, etc.^ Eleutheria bark was then frequently prescribed
as a febrifuge in the place of Cinchona bark, then a more expensive
medicine. Hence the name cascarilla, signifying in Spanish little
hark, which was the customary designation of Peruvian bark, was
erroneously applied to the Bahama bark, until at larst it quite super-
seded the original and more correct appellation. That of China nova
was subsequently applied to a quite different bark (see page 364).
The drug under notice was first introduced into the London Pharma-
copoeia in 1746 as Eleutherice Cortex, which was its common name
among druggists down to the end of the last centur3^ In the Bahamas
the name cascarilla is still hardly known, the bark being there called
either Siueet Wood Bark or Eleuthera Bark.
The plant affording cascarilla has been the subject of much dis-
cussion, arising chiefly from the circumstance that several nearly allied
West Indian species of Croton yield aromatic barks resembling more
or less the officinal drug. Catesby in 1754 figured a Bahama plant,
Croton Cascarilla Bennett, from which the original Eleuthera Bark
was probably derived, though it certainly affords none of the cascarilla
of modern commerce. Woodville in 1794, and Lindley in 1838, both
investigated the botany of the subject, the latter having the advantage
of authentic specimens communicated by the Hon. J. C. Lees of New
Providence, to whom one of us also is indebted for a similar favour.
The question was not however finally set at rest until 1859, when J. J.
Bennett by the aid of specimens collected in the Bahamas by DanicU
in 1857-8, drew up lucid diagnoses of the several plants which had
been confounded, and disentangled their intricate synonymy.'*
Description — Cascarilla occurs in the form of tubular or channelled
'Fliickiger, Pharm. Journ., vi, (187C)
1022, and " Documente " quoted there, pj).
74-77, etc.
-Stisser (J. A.) Acloriun Lahoratorii
Cheniici specimen secundum, Helmestadi,
1693. c. ix. Stisser is said to have men-
tioned Cascarilla bark in his xjamphlet
" De maohinis fumiductoriis," Hamburg,
1686, but we found this to be incon-ect.
Nor have we seen the jDaper of Vincent
Garcia Salat, " Unica quasstiuncula, in qua
examinatur pulvis de Burango, vulgo Cas-
carilla, in curatione tertiame," Valentioe.
1692. It is quoted by Haller, Bibl. But.
ii. (1772) 688, and several later authors,
but appears to be extremely rare.
'^Journal of Proceedings of Linn. Sac. iv.
(1860) Bot. 29.
CORTEX CASCARILLiE.
563
pieces of a dull brown colour, somewhat rough and irregular, rarely
exceeding 4 inches in length by an inch in diameter. The chief bulk
of that at present imported is in very small thin quills and fragments,
often scarcely an inch in length, and evidently stripped from very
young wood. The younger bark has a thin suberous coat easily
detached, blotched or entirely covered with the silveiy-white growth
of a minute lichen (Verrucaria albissima Ach.), the perithecium of
which appears as small black dots. The older bark is more rugose,
irregulai'ly tessellated by longitudinal cracks and less numerous
transverse fissures. Beneath the corky envelope the bark is greyish-
brown.
The bark breaks readily with a short fracture, the broken surface
displaying a resinous appearance. It has a very fragrant odour,
especially agreeable when several pounds of it are reduced to coarse
powder and placed in a jar ; it has a nauseous bitter taste. When
burned it emits an ai'omatic smell, and hence is a common ingredient
in fumigating pastilles.
Microscopic Characters — The suberous coat is made up of
numerous rows of tabular cells, the outermost having their exterior
walls much thickened. The mesophloeum exhibits the usual tissue,
containing starch, chlorophyll, essential oil, crystals of oxalate of
calcium, and a brown colouring matter. The latter assumes a dark
bluish coloration on addition of a persalt of iron. In the inner portion
of that layer ramified laticiferous vessels are also present. The liber
consists of parenchyme and of fibrous bundles, intersected by small
medullary rays. On the transverse section, the fibrous bundles show a
wedge-shaped outline; they are for the most part built up, not of true
liber-fibres, but of cylindrical cells having their transverse walls
perforated sieve-like (vasa erihriformia). The contents of the
parenchymatous part of the liber are the same as in the meso-
phloeum ; as to the oxalate of calcium, the variety of its crystals is
remarkable.^
Chemical Composition — Cascarilla contains a volatile oil, which
it yields to the extent of 1"1 per cent. According to Volckel (1840), it
is a mixture of at least two oils, the more volatile of which is probably
free from oxygen. Gladstone (1872) as.signs to the hydrocarbon of
cascarilla oil the composition of oil of turpentine. By examining the
oil optically we found it to have a weak rotatory power — some samples
deviated to the right, some to the left. The resin, in which cascarilla
is rich, has not yet been examined more exactly.
The bitter principle was isolated in 1845 by Duval, and called
Cascarillin. C. and E. Mylius (1873) have obtained it from a deposit
in the officinal extract, in microscopic prisms readily soluble in ether
or hot alcohol, very sparingly in water, chloroform or spirit of wine.
It melts at 205° C, is not volatile, nor a glucoside. Its composition
answers to the formula C^^jjisO'i.
Commerce — The bark is shipped from Nassau, the chief town of
New Providence (Bahamas), and is usually packed in sacks. The
quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1870 was 12,261 cwt.,
^ For more particulars see Pocklington, Pharm. Journ. iii. (1873) 664.
564
EUPHORBIACE^.
valued at £16,482. The exports from the Bahamas were G7G cwt. in
1875, and 1,093 cwt. in 1876.
Uses — Cascarilla is prescribed as a tonic, usually in the form of
a tincture or infusion.
Adulteration — A spurious cascarilla bark has lately been noticed in
the London market ; it was imported from the Bahamas mixed with the
genuine, to which it bears a close similarity. The quills of it resemble
the larger quills of cascarilla ; though covered with a lichen, the latter
has not the silvery whiteness of the Verrucaria of cascarilla. The
spurious bark has a suberous coat that does not split off; its inner
surface is pinkish-brown, and distinctly striated longitudinally. In
microscopic structure the bark may be said to resemble cascarilla and
still more copalchi. But it is at once distinguishable by its numerous
roundish growps of sclerenchymatous cells, which become very evident
when thin sections are moistened with ammonia, and then with solution
of iodine in iodide of potassium. The bark has an astringent taste,
without bitterness or aroma ; its tincture is not rendered milky by
addition of water, but is darkened by ferric chloride, — in these respects
differing from a tincture of cascarilla. Mr. Holmes^ suggests that this
spurious cascarilla is probably the bark of Croton lucidus L.
Copalchi Bark ; Quina blanca of the Mexicans.
This drug is derived from Croton niveus"- Jacquin {G. Pseudo-China
Schlechtendal), a shrub growing 10 feet high, native of the West Indian
Islands, Mexico, Central America, New Granada and Venezuela. It has
oceasionallj^ been imported into Europe, in quills a foot or two in length,
much stouter and thicker than those of cascarilla, to which in odour and
taste it nearly approximates. The bark has a thin, greyish, paper};-
suberous layer, which when removed shows the surface marked with
minute transverse pits, like the lines made by a file ; it has a short
fracture.'*
Copalchi bark was examined by J. Eliot Howard,'* and found to con-
tain a minute proportion of a bitter alkaloid soluble in ether, which
resembled quinine in yielding a deep green colour when treated with
chlorine and ammonia, though it did not afford any characteristic com-
pound with iodine. Mauch,^ who also analysed the bai-k, could not obtain
from it any organic base. He extracted by distillation the essential oil,
which he found to consist of a hydrocarbon and an organic acid, — the
latter not examined ; he likewise got from the bark an uncrystallizable
bitter principle, which proved to be not a glucoside.
1 Pharm. Journ. iv. (187-i) 810.
-De Caudolle's Prodromuti, xv. part 2.
(1862) 518; beautifully figured in Hayne,
Arzne'KjfArikhsp, xiv. (184,3) plate 2.
^ For more jjarticulars see Oberliu and
Schlagdenliauffen, Journ. df. Pharm. S8
(1878) 248.
^ Pharm Journ. xiv. (1855) 319.
Wittsteiu's V ierteljarhm.'isdi rifl fi'tr
pral-t. Pharm. xviii. (1869) IGl.
SEMEN TIGLII.
565
SEMEN TIGLII.
Semen Crotonis ; Groton Seeds ; F. Oraines de Tilly ou des Moluques,
Petits Plgnons d'Inde ; G. Purgirkorner, Granatin.
Botanical Origin — Croton Tiglium^ L. {Tigliiim q^cMia^eKlotzsch),
a small tree, 15 to 20 feet high, indigenous to the Malabar Coast and
Tavoy, cultivated in gardens in many parts of the East, from Mauritius
to the India Archipelago. The tree lias small inconspicuous flowers,
and brown, capsular, three-celled fruits, each cell containing one seed.
The leaves have a disagreeable smell and nauseous taste.
History — In Europe, the seeds and wood of the tree were first
described in 1578 by Christoval Acosta — the former, with a figure of
the plant, appearing under the name of Pi nones de Mal aco} The plant
was also described and figured by Rheede (1679)^ and Rumphius (1743).*
The seeds, which were officinal in the 17th century, but had become
obsolete, were recommended about 1812 by English medical officers in
India,^ and the expressed oil b}^ Perry, Frost, Conwell and others about
1821-24. The oil then in use was imported from India, and was often
of doubtful purity, so that some druggists felt it necessary to press the
seeds for themselves.''
Description — Croton seeds are about half an inch long, by nearly
|- of an inch broad, ovoid or bluntly oblong, divided longitudinally into
two unequal parts, of which the more arched constitutes the dorsal and
the flatter the ventral side. From the hilum, a fine raised line (raphe)
passes to the other end of the seed, terminating in a darker point,
indicating the chalaza. The surface of the seed is more or less covered
with a bright cinnamon-brown coat, which when scraped shows the thin,
brittle, black testa filled with a whitish, oily kernel, invested with a
delicate seed-coat. The kernel is easily split into two halves consisting
of oily albumen, between which lie the large, veined, leafy cotyledons
and the radicle. The taste of the seed is at first merely oleaginous, but
soon becomes unpleasantly and persistently acrid.
Microscopic Structure — The testa consists of an outer layer of
radially arranged, much elongated and thick-walled cells ; the inner
parenchymatous layer contains small vascular bundles. The soft tissue
of the albumen is loaded with drops of fatty oil. If this is removed by
means of ether and weak potash lye, there remain small granules of
albuminoid matter, the so-called Aleuron, and crystals of oxalate of
calcium.
Chemical Composition — The principal constituent of croton seeds
is the fatty oil, the Oleum Crotonis or Oleum Tiglii of pharmacy ot
^ Fig. in Beiitley and Trimen's Medic.
Plants, part 1 (1875).
- Tractado, etc., Burgos, 1578. c. 48. —
After speaking of the virtues of the seeds,
ho adds — " tambien las buenas mugeres de
aquellas partes, amigas de sus maridos, les
da hasta quatro destos por la boca, para
embiar a los pobretos al otro mundo " !
^ Hortus Malaharicus, ii. tab. 33.
Herbarium Avibotiiense, iv. tab. 42.
^ Ainslie, Mat. Med. of Hindoostan, 1813.
292.
The oil was very expensive. I find by
the books of Messrs. Allen and Hanbur3's,
that the seeds cost in 1824, 10s., and in 1827,
18s. per lb. The oil was purchased in 1826
by the same house at 8s. to 10s. per ounce. —
D. H.
506
EUPHORBIACEiE.
which the kernels afford from 50 to GO per cent. That used in England
is for the most part expressed in London, and justly regarded as more
reliable than that imported from India, with which the market was
formerly supplied. It is a transparent, sherry-coloured, viscid liquid,
slightly fluorescent, and having a slight rancid smell and an oily, aciid
taste. Its solubility in alcohol ('794) appears to depend in great measure
on the age of the oil, and the greater or less freshness of the seeds from
which it was expressed, — oxidized or resinified oil dissolving the most
readily.' We found the oil which one of us had extracted by means of
bisulphide of carbon to be levogyre.
Croton oil consists chiefly of the glycerinic ethers of the common
fatty acids, such as stearic, palmitic, myristic and lauric acids. They
partly separate in the cold ; the acids also may partly be obtained by
passing nitrous acid through croton oil. There are also present in the
latter, in the form of glycerinic ethers, the more volatile acids, as
formic, acetic, isobutyric and one of the valerianic acids.^ The volatile
part of the acids yielded by crofcon oil contains moreover an acid which
was regarded by Sehli[)pe (1858) as angelic acid, C'^H^O^. Yet in 1809
it was shown by Geutlaer and Frolich to be a })eculiar acid, which
they called Tiglinic acid. Its composition answers to the same formula,
C^H^COOH, as that of angelic acid; but the melting points (angelic
acid 45°, tiglinic 04° C.) and boiling points (angelic acid 185°, tiglinic
198°"5) are different. Both these acids have been mentioned in our
article on Flores Anthemidis, at page 386. Tiglinic acid may also be
obtained artificially ; it is the methylcrotonic acid of Frankland and
Duppa (1805).
Schlippe also stated croton oil to afford a peculiar liquid acid
termed Crotonic Acid, C'^H'^O-. According to Geuther and Frolich,
however, an acid of this formula does not occur at all in croton oil.
By synthetic methods three different acids of that composition are
obtainable.
The drastic 'princi'ple of croton oil has not yet been isolated.
Buchheim^ suggested that the action of the oil depends upon
" C rotonoleic acid," which however he failed in isolating satisfactorily.
It is remarkable that the wood and leaves of Croton Tiglium appear to
partake also of the drastic properties of the seeds.
Schlippe asserts that he has separated the vesicating matter of
croton oil: if the oil be agitated with alcoholic soda, and afterwards
with water, the supernatant liquor will be found free from acridity,
while the alcoholic solution will yield, on addition of hydrochloric acid,
a small quantity of a dark brown oil, called C'rotonol, possessing
vesicating properties. We have not succeeded in obtaining it, nor, so
far as we know, has any other chemist except its discoverer.
The shells of the seeds (testa) yield upon incinei'ation 2 0 per cent,
of ash ; the kernels dried at 100° C. 3 0 per cent.
Commerce — The shipments of croton seeds arrive chiefly from
Cochin or Bombay, packed in cases, bales or robbins; but there are no
statistics to show the extent of the trade.
1 Warrington, Pharm. Journ. vi. (1865)
382-387.
' Schmidt and Berendes, 1878.
•* In the Jalireshericht of Wiggers and
Husemann, 1873. 560.
SEMEN RICINI.
567
Uses — Croton seeds arc not administered. The oil is given
internally as a powerful cathartic, and is applied externally as a
rubefacient.
Substitutes— The seeds of Croton Pavance Hamilton, a native of
Ava and Camrup (Assam), and those of G. ohhmgifolius Roxb., a small
tree connnou about Calcutta, are said to resemble those of G. Tigliiim L.,
but we have not compared them. Those of Baliospermurn montanum
Mull. Arg. {Groton j^olyandrus Roxb.) partake of the nature of croton
seeds, and according to Roxburgh are used by the natives of India as
a purgative.
SEMEN RICINI.
Semen Cataputice majoris ; Castor Oil Seeds, Falma Christi Seeds;
F. Semence de Ricin ; G. Ricinussamen.
Botanical Origin — Ricinus communis L., the castor oil plant, is a
native of India where it bears several ancient Sanskrit names.^ By
cultivation, it has been distributed through all the tropical and many
of the temperate countries of the globe. In the regions most favourable
to its growth, it attains a height of 40 feet. In the Azores, and the
warmer Mediterranean countries as Algeria, Egypt, Greece, and the
Riviera, it becomes a small tree, 10 to 15 feet high; while in Fr'ance,
Germany, and the south of England, it is an annual herb of noble foliage,
growing to a height of 4 or 5 feet. In good summers, it ripens seeds in
England and even as far north as Christiania in Norway.
Ricinus communis exhibits a large number of varieties, several of
which have been described and figured as distinct species. Miiller,
after a careful examination of the whole series, maintains them as a
single species, of which he allows 16 forms, more or less well marked.^
History — -The castor oil plant was known to Herodotus who calls
it K//cf, and states that it furnishes an oil much used by the Egyptians,
in whose ancient tombs seeds of Ricinus ai'e, in fact, met with.^ At the
period when Herodotus wrote, it would appear to have been already in-
troduced into Greece, where it is cultivated to the present day under
the same ancient name.'* The Kikajon of the Book of Jonah, rendered
by the translators of the English Bible gourd, is believed to be the same
plant. KIki is also mentioned by Strabo as a production of Egypt, the
oil from which is used for burning in lamps and for unguents.
Theophrastus and Nicander give the castor oil plant the name of
KpoTcov. Dioscorides, who calls it KIki or Kporwv, describes it as of
the stature of a small fig-tree, with leaves like a plane, and seeds in a
prickly pericarp, observing that the name l^porwv is applied to the
seed on account of its resemblance to an insect [Ixodes Ricinus Latr.],
known by that appellation. He also gives an account of the process
for extracting castor oil (KIkivov eXaiov), which he says is not fit for
food, but is used externally in medicine ; he represents the seeds as
1 The most ancient and most usual is Journ. of Botany, 1879, 54.
Eranda ; this word has passed into several * Heldreich, Nxdzpjiamcn Grkchenlands,
other Indian languages. Athen, 1862. 58.
2 De Candolle, Frodr., xv. sect. 2. 1017.
568
EUPHORBIACE^.
extremely purgative. There is a tolerably correct-fig'ure of Ricinu.s in
the famous MS. Dioscorides which was executed for the Empress Juliana
Anicia in a.d. 505, and is now preserved in the Imperial Library at
Vienna.
The castor oil plant was cultivated by Albertus Magnus, Bishop of
Ratisbon, in the middle of the 13th centur3^^ It was well known as a
garden plant in the time of Turner (15G8), who mentions the oil as
Oleum cicinum vel ricininum,^ Gerarde, at the end of the same century,
was familiar with it under the name of Ricinus or Kik. The oil he
says is called Oleum cicinum or Oleum de Gherua,^ and used externally
in skin diseases.
After this period the oil seems to have fallen into complete neglect,
and is not even noticed in the comprehensive and accviY&tePharmacologia
of Dale (1693). In the time of Hill (1751) and Lewis (1761) Palma
Christi seeds were rarely found in the shops, and the oil from them was
scarcely known.*
In 1764 Peter Canvane, a physician who had practised many years
in the West Indies, published a " Dissertation on the Oleum Palmai
Christi, sive Oleum Ricini; or (as it is commonly calVd) Castor Oil"^
strongly recommending its use as a gentle purgative. This essay, which
passed through two editions, and was translated into French, was
followed by several others,'' thus thoroughly drawing attention to the
value of the oil. Accordingly we find that the seeds of Ricinus were
admitted to the London Pharmacopoeia of 1788, and directions given
lor preparing oil from them. Woodville in his Medical Botany (170O)
speaks of the oil as having " lately come into f requent use."
At this period and for several years subsequently, the small supplies
of the seeds and oil required for European medicine were obtained from
Jamaica.'^ This oil was gradually displaced in the market by that
produced in the East Indies: the rapidity with which the consumption
increased may be inferred from the following figures, representing the
value of the Castor Oil shipped to Great Britain from Bengal in
three several years, namely 1813-14, £610; 1815-16, £1269; 1819-20,
£7102.«
Description — The fruit of Ricinus is a tricoccous capsule, usually
provided with weak prickles, containing one seed in each of its three
cells. The seeds attain a length of xV> ^ maximum breadth
of Yo of an inch, and are of a compressed ellipsoid form. The apex of
the seed is prolonged into a short beak, on the inner side of which is a
' De Vegdahilihus, ed. Jessen, 1867. 347.
- Turner's Herbal, pt. ii. 116.
^From the Arabic Icliirva, i.e. Palma
Christi.
Hill, Hid. of the Mat. Med., Lond. 1751.
537.— Lewis, Hht. of the Mat. Med., Loud.
1761. 468.
° The word castor in connection with the
seeds and oil of Ricinus has come to us
from Jamaica, in which island, by some
strange mistake, the plant was once called
Afjnus Caatiis. The true Agnus Castus
( Vitex A (/mis castus L. ) is a native of the
Mediterranean countries and not of the
West Indies.
" For a list of which consult Mcrat et De
Lens, Hid. de Mat. MM. vi. (1834) 95.
' How small was the traffic in Castor Oil
in those days, may be judged from the fact
that the stock in 1777 of a London whole-
sale druggist (Josejah Gurney Bevan, pre-
decessor of Allen and Hanburys) was 2
Bottles {1 Bottle = 18 to 20 ounces) valued
at 8s. 23er bottle. The accounts of the same
house show at stocktaking in 1782, 23
Bottles of the oil, which had cost 10s. per
bottle. In 1799 Jamaica exported 236
Casks of Castor Oil and 10 Casks of seeds
(Kenny, Hist, of Jamaica, 1807. 235).
* H. H. Wilson, Eevinv of the Kcterncd
Comme7xe of Bengal from 1813 to 1828,
Calcutta, 1830, tables pp. 14-15.
SEMEN RICINI.
569
large tumid caruncle: irom this latter proceeds the raphe as far as the
lower end of the ventral surface, where it forks, its point of disappear-
ance tlirough the testa being marked by a minute protuberance. If the
caruncle is broken off, a black scar, formed of two little depressions,
remains.
The shining grey epidermis is beautifully marked with brownish
bands and spots, and in tliis respect exhibits a great variety of colours
and markings. It cannot be rubbed off, but may after maceration be
peeled off in leathery strips. The black testa, grey Avithin, is not
thicker than in croton seed, but is much more brittle. The kernel or
nucleus fills the testa completely, and is easily separated, still covered
by the soft white inner membrane.
The kernel in respect to structure and situation of the embrj'o, agrees
exactly with that of Croton Tiglium (p. 565), excepting that the some-
Avhat gaping cotyledons of Ricinus are proportionately broader, and have
their thick midrib provided with 2 or 3 pairs of lateral veins. If not
rancid, the kernel has a bland taste, with but very slight acridity.
Microscopic Structure — The thin epidermis consists of pentagonal
or hexagonal porous tabular cells, the walls of which are penetrated in
certain spots by brownish colouring matter, whence the singular
markings on the seed. It is these cells only that become blackened
when a thin tangential slice is saturated with a solution of ferric chloride
in alcohol.
Beneath these tabular cells there is found in the unripe seed^ a row
of encrusted colourless cells, deposited in a radial direction on the testa.
In the mature seed this layer of cells is not perceptible, and therefore
appears to perish as the seed ripens. The testa itself is built up of
cylindrical, densely packed cells, 300 to 320 mkm. long, and G to 10
mkm. in diameter. The kernel shares the structure of that of C. Tiglium,
but is devoid of crystals of oxalate of calcium. If the endopleura
of Ricinus is moistened with dilute sulphuric acid, acicular crystals of
sulphate of calcium separate from it after a few hours.
When thin slices of the kernel are examined under concentrated
glycerin, no drops of oil are visible, notwithstanding the abundance of
this latter ; and it becomes conspicuous only by addition of much water.
Hence it is probable that the oil exists in the seed as a kind of
compound with its albuminoid contents.' As to the latter, they partly
form in the albumen of Ricinus beautiful octohedra or tetrahedra,
which are also found in many other seeds. ^
Chemical Composition — The most important constituent of the
seed is the fixed oil, called Castor Oil, of Avhich the peeled kernels
afford at most half of their weight.
The oil, if most carefully prepared from peeled and winnowed seeds
by pressure without heat, has but a slightly acrid taste, and contains
only a very small proportion of the still unknown di-astic constituent of
the seeds. Hence the seeds themselves, or an emulsion prepared with
^ Gris, Annales des Sciences Nat., Bot.,
XV. (18C11 5-9.
2 Sachs, Lehrhuch der BotaniJc, 1874. 54.
^ For further particulars, seeTrecul, Ann.
dcsSc. A7(<., Bot., X., (1858) 355 ; Eadlkofer,
Krystalle profeinardger Korper, Leipzio-
1859. 61. and tab. 2 fig. 10 ; Pfeffer, Pro-
tc'inkurner in Pringsheim's Jalirhucher fi'ir
ivksenschaftliche Botanik, viii. (1872) 429
464.
570
EUPHORBIACE^.
them, act much more strongly than a corresponding quantity of oil.
Castor oil, extracted by absolute alcohol or by bisulphide of carbon,
likewise purges much more vehemently than the pressed oil.
The castor oil of commerce has a sp. gr. of about 0'96, usually a
pale yellow tint, a viscid consistence, and a very slight yet rather
mawkish odour and taste. Exposed to cold, it does not in general
entirely solidify until the temperature reaches - 18° C. In thin layers
it dries up to varnish-like film.
Castor oil is distinguished by its power of mixing in all proportions
with oiacial acetic acid or absolute alcohol. It is even soluble in four
parts of spirit of wine ('838) at 15° C, and mixes without turbidity
with an equal weight of the same solvent at 25° C. The commercial
varieties of the oil however differ considerably in these as well as in
some other respects.
The optical properties of the oil demand further investigation, as
we have found that some samples deviate the ray of polarized light to
the right and others to the left.
By saponification castor oil yields several fatty acids, one of which
appears to be Palmitic Acid. The prevailing acid (peculiar to the oil)
is Ricvaohic Acid, C"ff''0'; it is solid below 0° C, does not solidif}^ in
contact with the air by absorption of oxygen, and is not homologous
with oleic or linoleic acid, neither of which is found in castor oil.
Castor oil is nevertheless thickened if 6 parts of it are warmed with
1 part of starch and 5 of nitric acid (sp. gr. 1'25), Ricinelaidin being
thus formed. From this Ricinclaidic Acid may easily be obtained in
brilliant crystals.
As to the albuminoid matter of the seed, Fleur}^ (1865) obtained
3'2o per cent, of nitrogen which would answer to about 20 per cent, of
such substances. The same chemist further extracted 46 6 per cent, of
fixed oil, 2"2 of sugar and mucilage, besides 18 per cent, of cellulose.
Tuson in 1864, by exhausting castor oil seeds with boiling water,
obtained from them an alkaloid which he named Ricinine. He states
that it crystallizes in rectangular prisms and tables, which when heated
fuse, and upon cooling solidify as a crystalline mass ; the crystals may
even be sublimed. Ricinine dissolves readily in water or alcohol, less
freely in ether or benzol. With mercuric chloride, it combines to form
tufts of silk}'' crystals, soluble in water or alcohol. Werner (1869) on
repeating Tuson's process on SO lb. of Italian castor oil seeds, also ob-
tained a crop of crystals, which in appearance and solubility had many
of the characters ascribed to ricinine, but differed in the essential point
that when incinerated they left a residuum of magnesia. Werner
regarded them as the magnesium salt of a new acid. Tuson^ repudiates
the suspicion that ricinine may be identical with Werner's magnesium
compound. E. S. Wayne of Cincinnati (1874) found in the leaves of
Ricinus a substance apparently identical with Tuson's ricinine; but
he considers that it has no claim to be called an alkaloid.
The testa of castor oil seeds afforded us 10 7 per cent, of ash, one
tenth of which we found to consist of silica. The ash of the kernel
previously dried at 100 C. amounts to only 3'5 per cent.
Production and Commerce — Castor oil is most extensively pro-
' Chemical A^ews, xxii. (1870) 229.
SEMEN RICINI.
571
duced in India, whei'e two varieties of the seeds, the large and the small,
are distinguished, the latter being considered to yield the better pi'o-
duct. In manufacturing the oil, the seeds are gently crushed between
rollers, and freed by hand from husks and unsound grains. At Calcutta,
100 parts of seed yield on an average 70 parts of cleaned kernels, which
by the hydraulic press aftbrd 46 to 51 per cent, of their weight of oil;
the oil is afterwards subjected to a very imperfect process of purifica-
tion by heating it with water.^
The exports of castor oil from Calcutta^ in the year 1870-71
amounted to 054,917 gallons, of which 214,959 gallons were shipped to
the United Kingdom. The total imports of castor oil into the United
Kingdom'* in the year 1870 were returned as 36,986 cwt. (about 416,000
gallons), valued at £82,490. Of this quantity, British India (chiefly
Bengal) furnished about two-thirds; and Italy 11,856 cwt. (about
133,000 gallons), while a small remainder is entered as from " other
parts." In 1876 the imports were 79,677 cwt., valued at £133,838.
Italian Castor Oil, which has of late risen into some celebrity, is
pressed fi'om the seed of plants grown chiefly about Verona and Legnago,
in the north of Italy. The manufactory of Mr. Bellino Valeri at the
latter town produced in the year 1873, 1200 quintals of castor oil,
entirely from Italian seed. Two varieties of Ricinus are cultivated in
these localities, the black-seeded Egyptian and the red-seeded American;
the latter yields the larger percentage, but the oil is not so pale in
colour. The seeds are very cai-efully deprived of their integuments,
and having been crushed, are submitted to pressure in powerful
hydraulic presses, placed in a room which in winter is heated to about
21° C. The outflow of oil is further promoted by plates of iron wanned
to 32-38° C. being placed between the press-bags. The peeled seeds
yield about 40 per cent, of oil.^
All the castor oil pressed in Italy is not pressed from Italian seed.
By an official return' it appears that in the year 1872-73 there were
exported from Bombay to Genoa 1350 cwt. of castor oil seeds, besides
2452 galloiis of castor oil. There are no data to show what was ex-
ported from the other presidencies of India in that year.
Uses — Castor oil is much valued as a mild and safe purgative; while
the commoner qualities are used in soap-making, and in India for burning
in lamps. The seeds are not now administered. The leaves of the
plant applied in decoction to the breasts of women are said to promote
or even to occasion the secretion of milk. This property, which has
long been known to the inhabitants of the Cape Verd Islands," was par-
ticularly observed by Dr. M'William about the year 1850. It has even
been found that the galactagogue powers of the plant are exerted when
the leaves are administered internally.
' Bladras Exldhition of Baw Products, etc.
of Southern India, — Reports by the Juries,
Madras, 1856. 28.
-Annual Volume of Trade and Naviga-
tion for the Bengal Presidency for 1870-71,
Calcutta, 1871. 119.
^Annual Statement of the Trade, etc. of
the U.K. for 1870. — No later returns.
*H. Groves, Pharm. Journ. viii. (1867)
250.
^ Animal Statement of the Trade and
Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay for
1872-73, part ii. 87. 88.
Frezier, Voyage to the South Seas, Lond.
1717. p. 13.— Turner in his Herbal (1568)
gives the j)lant an opposite character, for
the bruised leaves, says he, "swage the
brestes or pappes swellinge wyth to muche
plenty of milke. "
572
EUPHORBIACE.?^.
KAMALA.
Kamela, Glanduke Rottlerce.
Botanical Origin — Mallotus j^hilippinensis^ Miiller Arg. {Croton
]}hilippevs(s Lam., Rottlera tindoria Roxb., Echinus j)hilippinensis
Baillon), a large shrub, or small tree, attaining 20 or 45 feet in height,
of very wide distribution. It grows in Abyssinia and Southern Arabia,
throughout the Indian peninsulas, ascending the mountains to oOOO
feet above the sea-level, in Ceylon, the Malay Archipelago, the Philip-
pines, the Loo-choo islands, Formosa, Eastern China and in North
Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.
The tricoccous fruits of many of the Eupliorhiacem are clothed with
prickles, stellate hairs, or easily removed glands. This is especially
the case in the several species of Mallotus, most of which have the
capsules covered with stellate hairs, together with small glands. In
that under notice, the capsule is closely beset with ruby-like glands
which, when removed by brushing and rubbing, constitute the powder
known by the Bengali name of Kamala. These glands are not con-
fined to the capsule, but are scattered over other parts of the plant,
especially among the dense tomentum with which the under side of the
leaf is covered.
History — In India the glands of Mallotus have been long known,
for they have several ancient Sanskrit names : one of these is Kapila,
which as well as the Telugu Kapila-iJodi, is sometimes used by
Europeans, though not so frequently as the word Kdmald or
Kamela, which belongs to the Hindustani, Bengali and Guzratti
languages. The Sanskrit word Kapila signifies tawny or dusky
red, the Tamil Podi means the pollen of a fiower or dust in
general.
It does not appear that as a drug the glandular powder of Mallotus,
or as it is more conveniently called, Kanuda, attracted any particular
notice in Europe until a very recent period, though it is named by
Ainslie, Roxburgh, Royle and Buchanan, the last of whom gives an
interesting account of its collection and uses." In 1852, specimens of it
as found in the bazaar of Aden, under the old Arabic name of Wars,
were sent to one of us by Port-Surgeon Vaughan, with information as
to its properties as a dye for a silk and as a remedy in cutaneous
diseases.^ But the real introduction of the drug as a useful medicine is
due to Mackinnon, surgeon in the Bengal Medical Establishment, who
administered it successively in numerous cases of tapeworm. Anderson
of Calcutta, C. A. Gordon, and Corbyn in India, and Beared in London,
confirmed the observations of Mackinnon, and fully established the
fact that kamala is an efficient tsenifuge.^ It was introduced into the
British Pliarmacopoeia in 1864.
'Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Med. (Lond. 1807) i. 168. 204. 211, ii. 343.
Plants, part i. (1875. )— A beautiful figure ^ Hanbury, Pliarm. Jourii. xii. (1853)
in Roxburgh, Plants of the Coast of Core- 386. 589 ; or Science Papers, 73.
mandel, ii. (1798) tab. 168. Jbid. xvii. (1858) 408 ; Science Papers,
-Joarney tliroutjh Mysore, Canara, etc., 75.
KAMALA.
573
An analogous drug is mentioned by Paulus Aegiueta^ in the
7th century as well as by the Arabian physicians ^ as early as
the 10th century, under the name of Kanhil or Wars. Ibn
Khurdadbah, an Arab geographer, living a.d. 869-885, states that
from Yemen come striped silks, ambergris, wars, and gum;' It is
described to be a reddish yellow powder like sand, which falls on the
ground in the valleys of Yemen, and is a good remedy for tapeworm
and cutaneous diseases. One Avriter compares it to powdered salfron ;
another speaks of two kinds, — an Abyssinian which is hlach (or violet),
and an Indian which is red. Masudi,* in the first half of the 10th cen-
tury speaks of qmhil, which he says consists of sandy fruits of red
hue. They are useful as an anthelminthic and for cutaneous diseases.
A similar explanation of the qinbil is found in Qamus, a dictionary
writer in the 13th century in Yemen. About the year 121G, a learned
traveller, Abul Abbas Ahmad Annabati,' (Annabati==the botanist) or
Abul Abbas el-Nebati, who was a native of Seville, remarks that the
drug is known in the Hejaz and brought from Yemen, but that it is
unknown in Andalusia and .does not grow there.
Kazwini,'' nearly at the same period, was also acquainted with %vars,
a plant soion in Yemen and resembling Sesam; Constantinus Africanus
likewise mentioned "kuars." Wars, Wors, Wurrus or Warras in
Arabia propei'ly signifies saffron.
In modern times, we find Niebuhr ' speaks of the s ame substance
(as " ivars "), stating it to be a dye-stuff, of which quantities are con-
veyed from Mokha to Oman.
Production — Kamala is one of the minor products of the Govern-
ment forests in the Madras Presidency, but is also collected in many
other parts of India. The following particulars have been communi-
cated to us by a correspondent* in the North-west Provinces :■ — ■
" . . . Enormous quantities of Rottlera t 'mctoria are found
growing at the foot of these hills, and every season numbers of people,
chiefl}' women and children, are engaged in collecting the powder for
exportation to the plains. They gather the berries in large quantities
and throw them into a great basket in which they roll them about,
rubbing them with their hands so as to divest them of the powdei',
which falls through the basket as through a sieve, and is received below
on a cloth spread for the purpose. This powder forms the Kamala of
commerce, and is in great repute as an anthelminthic, but is most ex-
tensively used as a dye. The adulterations are chiefiy the powdered
leaves, and the fruit-stalks with a litMe earthy matter, but the percentage
is not large. The operations of picking the fruit and rubbing off the
powder commence here in the beginning of March and last about a
month "
A similar powder is collected in Southern Arabia, whence it is
shipped to the Persian Gulf and Bombay. It is also brought, under
the name of Wars, from Hurrur, a town in Eastern Africa, which is a
^ Adams' translat. iii. 457.
- Quoted by Ibn Bay tar, — see Sontliei-
mer's translation, ii. (1842) 326. 585.
^ Ibn KhordadlDeh, Livre des routes etc. —
Journ. Asiatique, v. (1865) 295,
' *Les Prairies (Vor, i. (Paris, 1861) 367.
^ Quoted by Ibn Baytar.
"Ed. Lichtenfels, i. (Gottingen, 1849).
'' Description de r Arable, 1774. 1.33.
s F. E. G. Matthews, Esq., of Nainee Tal.
574
EUPHORBIACEiE.
great trading station between the Galla countries and Berbera.^ Yet
the Arabian and African drug consists in most cases not of kamala, but
of those dark glands which we describe further on, at p. 575.
Description — Kamala is a fine, granular, mobile powder, consisting
of transparent, crimson granules, tlie bright colour of which is mostly
somewhat deadened by the admixture of grey stellate hairs, minute
fragments of leaves and similar foreign matter. It is nearly destitute of
taste and smell, but an alcoholic solution poured into water emits a
melon-like odour. Kamala is scai'cely acted on by water, even at a
boiling heat ; on the other hand, alcohol, ether, chloroform or benzol
extract from it a splendid red resin. Neither suljihuric nor nitric acid
acts upon it in the cold, nor does oil of turpentine become coloured by
it unless wai-med. It floats on water, but sinks in oil of turpentine.
When sprinkled over a flame, it ignites after the manner of lycopodiura.
Heated alone, it emits a slight aromatic odour ; if pure, it leaves after
incineration about 137 per cent, of a grey ash.
Microscopic Structure — The granules of kamala are irregular
spherical glands, 50 to GO mkm. in diameter ; they have a wavy surface,
are somewhat flattened or depressed on one side, and enclose within
their delicate yellowish membrane a structureless yellow mass in
Avhich are imbedded numerous, simple, club-shaped cells containing a
homogeneous, transparent, red substance. These cells are grouped in a
radiate manner around the centre of the flattened side, so that on the
side next the observer, 10 to 30 of them may easily be counted, while
tlie entire gland may contain 40 to GO. In a few cases, a very short
stalk-cell is also seen at the centre of tlie base.
When the glands are exhausted by alcohol and potash, and broken
by pressure between flat pieces of glass, they separate into individual
cells which swell up slightly, while the membranous envelope is com-
pletely detached, and appears as a simple coherent film. After this
treatment the cells, but not their membranous envelope, acquire by
prolonged contact with strong sulphuric acid and iodine water a more
or less brown or blue colour: the wllas of the cells alone correspond
therefore to cellulose. Vogl (18G4) supposes that a cell of the epidermis
of the fruit first developes a young cellule, which by partition is resolved
into the stalk-cell and the true mother-cell of the small clavate resin-
cellules. At first, the contents of the latter do not differ from the mass
in which they are imbedded, and perhaps pass gradually into resin by
metamorphosis of the cellular substance.
The glands of kamala are always accompanied by colourless or
brownish, thick-walled, stellate hairs, two or three times as long as the
glands, often containing air, which do not exhibit any peculiarity of
form, but resemble the hairs of other plants, as Verbascmn or Althwa.
Chemical Composition — Kamala has been analysed by Anderson
of Glasgow (1855) and by Leube (18G0). From the labours of these
chemists, it appears that the powder yields to alcohol or ether nearly
80 per cent, of resin. We find it to be soluble also in glacial acetic acid
or in bisulphide of carbon, not in petroleum ether. By treatment of
the resin extracted by ether with cold alcohol, Leube resolved it into
^ Burton, Journ. of R. Geogr. Society,
XXV. (1855) 146. Haggenniacher, ReUe in
das Somaliland, in Petermann's Geogr.
MUtheilungen, Ergiinzungsheft, xlvii. (1874)
39.
KAMALA.
675
two brittle reddish yellow resins, of which the one is more easily soluble
and fuses at 80° C, and the other dissolves less readily and fuses at
191°. Both dissolve in alkaline solutions, and can be precipitated by
acids without apparent change.
Anderson found that a concentrated ethereal solution of kamala
allowed to stand for a few days, solidified into a mass of granular
crystals, which by repeated solution and crystallization in ether were
obtained in a state of purity. This substance, named by Anderson
Rotilerin^ forms minute, platy, yellow crystals of a fine satiny lustre,
readily soluble in ether, sparingly in cold alcohol, more so in hot, and
insoluble in water. The mean of four analyses gave the composition of
rottlerin as C22H--^«0«.
We have been able to confirm the foreijoing observations so far as
that we have obtained an abundance of minute acicular crystals, by
allowing an ethereal solution of kamala to evaporate spontaneously to
a syrupy state. But the purification of these crystals, which was also
attempted by our friend Mr. T. B. Groves,' was unsuccessful, for when
freed from the protecting mother-liquor, they underwent a change and
assumed an amorphous form. We have, on the other hand, succeeded
in isolating the crystals from the " Kariialin," as sold by E. Merck of
Darmstadt. By fusing them with caustic potash we obtained paraoxy-
benzoic acid (see page 408).
Uses — The drug is administered for the expulsion of tapeworm ; it
has also been used as an external application in herpes circinnatus.
In India it is employed for dyeing silk a rich orange-brown.
Adulteration — Kamala is very liable to adulteration with earthy
substances, even to the extent of GO per cent. This contamination may
easily be known by the grittiness of the drug, and by a portion of it
sinking when it is stirred up with water, but in the most decisive
manner by incineration. Sometimes kamala contains an undue pro-
portion of foreign vegetable matter, as remains of the capsules, leaves,
etc., which can partly be separated by a lawn sieve. We have met
with a large quantity of very impure Kamala in the London market
(1878), which was offered for cleaning polished metallic surfaces.
Substitute — A very remarkable form of so-called kamala was
imported in 18G7 from Aden by Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, druggists,
of London.^ It arrived neatly packed in oblong, white calico bags, of
three sizes, each inscribed with Arabic characters, indicating with the
name of the vendor or collector, a native of Hurrur, the net weight,
which was either 100, 50, or 25 Turkish ounces. No more than two
supplies, in all 13G lb., could be obtained.
The drug was in coarser particles than kamala, of a deep
purple, and had a distinct odour resembling that which is produced
when a tincture of kamala is poured into water. It had been
carefully collected and was free from earthy admixture, yet it left upon
incineration 12 per cent, of ash. Under the microscope it presented
still greater diff'ei'ences, the grains being cylindrical or subconical, 170
to 200 mkm. long, by 70 to 100 mkm. broad, with oblong resin-cells,
^ See Science Papers, 78.
2 Yea rbook of Pharmacy, 1872. 599.
^ It has been particularly described by
one of us in Pharm. Jovrn. ix. (1868) 279,
with wood-cuts.
57G
PIPERACEiE.
arranged perpendicularly in three or four storeys ; mixed with the
grains were a few long, simple hairs. Another fact of some interest is,
that at a temperature of 93° to 100° C, this drug becomes quite black,
while kamala undergoes no chanfje of colour.
In 1878 our friend Professor Schar was informed by a Swiss firm,
Messrs. Furrer and Escher of Aden, that Kanbil, Qinbil or Kamala are
unknown there. But they sent under the name of Vars a powder,
which Prof. Schiir as well as one of us (F.) find identical with the
drug whicli had been imported by Messrs. Allen and Hanbury. Prof.
Schiir was also informed that Vars is used chiefly in the coast districts
of Mascat (Oman) and Hadramaut, in skin diseases, for expelling the
tape worm and as a dye.
Thus the appellation Wurrus or Waras is to be restricted to the
dark purple or violet glands occurring in eastern Africa and Yemen,
although the Waras sent to one of us' by Vaughan was kamala.
As to the mother-plant of Waras " we have no information to offer ;
we attempted in vain to ascertain its origin. It is evident that it is
the " black Abyssinian " powder already alluded to at page 573.
PIPERACEJE.
FRUCTUS PIPERIS NIGRl.
Piper oiigrum; Bhich Pepper ; F. Poivre iioir ; G. Schwarzer Pfeffer.
Botanical Origin — Piper nigrtim L. — The pepper plant is ^
perennial climbing shrub, with jointed sterns branching dichotomoiisly,
and broadly ovate, 5- to 7-nerved, stalked leaves. The slender flower-
spikes are opposite the leaves, stalked, and from 3 to G inches long ;
and the fruits are sessile and fleshy.
Piper vigritm is indigenous to the forests of Travancore and
Malabar, whence it has been introduced into Sumatra, Java, Borneo,
the Malay Peninsula, Siam, the Philippines and the West Indies.
History — Pepper^ is one of the spices earliest used by mankind,
and although now a commodity of but small importance in comparison
with sugar, coffee, and cotton, it was for many ages the staple article
of trade between Europe and India. It would require in fact a volume
to give a full idea of the prominent importance of pepper during the
middle ages.
In the 4th century B.C., Theophrastus noticed the existence of two
kinds of pepper {Treirepi), probably the Black Pepper and Lcmg Pepj^er
of modern times. Dioscorides stated pepper to be a production of
India, and was acquainted with White Pepper (XevKov TreVepO- Pliny's
information on the same subject is curious ; he tells us that in his time
a pound of long pepper was worth 15, of white 7, and of black pepper
4 denarii; and expresses his astonishment that mankind should so
1 Hanbury, Science Papers, 73.
- Some information will be met with in
Capt. Hunter's Account of Aden, 1877. p.
107. In 1875-1876 there were exported
from Aden 42,975 lb. of Waras.
^The word pfi'pir, which with slight
varieties has passed into almost all lan-
guages, comes from the Sanskrit name for
Loncj Pepper, pippali, the change of the /
into r having been made by the Persians, in
whose ancient language the / is wanting.
FRUCTUS PIPERIS NIGRI.
577
highly esteem pepper, which was neither a sweet taste nor attractive
appearance, or any desirable quality besides a certain pungency.
In the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, written about A.D. 04, it is
stated that pepper is exported from Barake, the shipping place of
Nelkunda, in which region, and there only, it grows in great quantity.
These have been identified with places on the Malabar Coast between
Mangalore and Calicut.^
Long pepper and Black pepper are among the Indian spices on
which the Romans levied duty at Alexandria about A.D. 176.^
Cosmas Indicopleustes,^ a merchant, and in later life a monk, who
wrote about A.D. 540, appears to have visited the Malabar Coast, or at
all events had some information about the pepper-plant from an eye-
witness. It is he who furnishes the first particulars about it, stating
that it is a climbing plant, sticking close to high trees like a vine. Its
native country he calls Male^ The Arabian authors of the middle ages,
as Ibn Khurdadbah (circa A.D. 869-885), Edrisi in the middle of the
12th, and Ibn Batuta in the 14th century, furnished nearly similar
accounts.
Among Europeans who described the pepper plant with some exact-
ness, one of the first was Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the Malabar
Coast in A.D. 1166. Another was the Catalan friar, Jordanus,^ about
1.330 ; he described the plant as something like ivy, climbing trees and
forming fruit, like that of the wild vine. " This fruit," he says, " is at
first green, then, when it comes to maturity, black." Nearly the same
statements are repeated by Nicolo Conti, a Venetian, who at the
beginning of the loth century, spent twenty-five years in the East.
He observed the plant in Sumatra, and also described it as resembling
ivy.»
In Europe, pepper during the middle ages was the most esteemed
and important of all spices, and the very symbol of the spice trade, to
which Venice,'' Genoa, and the commercial cities of Central Europe
were indebted for a large part of their wealth ; and its importance as a
means of promoting commercial activity during the middle ages, and
the civilizing intercourse of nation with nation, can scarcely be
overrated.
Tribute was levied in pepper,^ and donations were made of this
spice, which was often used as a medium of exchange when money
was scarce. During the siege of Rome by Alaric, king of the Goths,
A.D. 408, the ransom demanded from the city included among other
things 5000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, and 3000 pounds
' Vincent, Commerce and Navkjation of
the Ancients, ii. (1807) 458.
- Vincent, op. cit. ii. 754 ; also Meyer,
Geschichte da- Botanih, ii. (1865) 167.
^ Migue, Pairologice C'lirsus, series Grteca,
Ixxxviii. (1860) 443. 446.
^ Bar (as in Mala6ar) merely signifies in
Arabic, coast.
5 Mirahilia descrlpta by Friar Jordanus,
translated by Col. Yule. London, Hakluyt
Society, 1863. 27.
" " Piperis arbor persimilis est ederaa,
grana ejus viridia ad formam grani juniperi,
quae modico cinere aspersa torrentur ad
2 o
solem." — Kunstmann, Kenntniss Indiens ini
XV. Jahrhundert, Munchen (1863) 40.
^ In the beginning of the 15th century
the great emporium of the trade in pepper
appears to have been the vicinity of the
Church S. Giacomo de Rialto at Venice.
In the ' ' capitolare dei Visdomini del
fontego dei Todeschi (German court) in
Venezia," edit, of Thomas, Berlin, 1874,
the chapter 228, page 116, is devoted to
"La mercadantia del pevere."
^ For some examples of this, see Histoire
de la vie privde des Fran(;ais, par le Grand
d'Aussy, nouvelle (Jd., ii. (1815) 182.
578
PIPERACE^.
0^ pepper} After the conquest of Csesarea in Palestine, A.D. 1101, by
the Genoese, each of them received two pounds of pepper and -48 soldi
for his part of the booty Facts of this nature, of which a great
number might be enumerated, sufficiently illustrate the part played
by this spice in mediaeval times.
The general prevalence during the middle ages of ^^epper-im^s,
which consisted in an obligation imposed upon a tenant to supply his
lord with a certain quantity of pepper, generally a pound, at stated
times, shows how acceptable was this favourite condiment, and how
great the desire of the wealthier classes to secure a supply of it when
the market was not always certain.^
The earliest reference to a trade in pepper in England that we have
met with, is in the Statutes of Ethelred, A.D. 978-1016,* where it is
enacted that the Easterlings coming with their ships to Billingsgate
should pay at Christmas and Easter for the privilege of trading with
London, a small tribute of cloth, five pairs of gloves, ten pounds of
pepper^ and two barrels of vinegar.
The merchants who trafficked in spices were called Piperarii, — in
English Pepperers, in French Poivriers or Pehriers. As a fraternity or
guild, they are mentioned as existing in London in the Reign of Henry
II. (A.D. 11.54-1189). They were subsequently incorporated as the
Grocers' Company, and had the oversight and control of the trade in
spices, drugs, dye-stuffs, and even metals.'^
The price of pepper during the middle ages was always exorbitantly
high, for the rulers of Egypt extorted a large revenue from all those
who were engaged in the trade in it and other spices.'' Thus in England
between A.D. 1203 and 1399, it averaged Is. per lb., equivalent to about
8s. of our present money. It was however about 2s. per lb. (= 16s.)
between 1350 and 1360.^ In 1370 we find pepper in France valued 7
sous 6 deniers per lb. (= fr. 21. c. 30) : — in 1542 at a price equal to fr.
11 per lb."
The high cost of this important condiment contributed to incite
the Portuguese to seek for a sea-passage to India. It was some
time after the discovery of this passage (A.D. 1498) that the price
of pepper first experienced a considerable fall ; while about the
same period the cultivation of the plant was extended to the
western islands of the Malay Archipelago. The trade in pepper
continued to be a monopoly of the Crown of Portugal as late as the
18th century.
The Venetians used every effort to retain the valued traffic in their
own hands, but in vain ; and it was a fact of general interest when on
the 21st of January 1522 a Portuguese ship brought for the first time
1 Zosimus, Historia (Lips. 1784) lib. v. c.
41.
^ Belgrano, Vita privata dei Genovesi
1875. 152.
3 Rogers, Agriculture and Prices in Eng-
land, i. (1866) 626. The term pepjxrcoi'n
rent, whicli has survived to our times, nov7
only signifies a nominal payment.
* Ancient Laws and Institutes of England,
published by the Record Commission, i.
(1840) 301.
^ A striking contrast to the announce-
ment in a commercial paper, 27 Feb. 1874,
that the stock of pepper in the public
warehouses of London the previous week
was 6035 tons !
° Herbert, Hist, of the twelve great Livery
Companies of London, Lond. 1834. 303, 310.
' Reinaud, JVouveau Journal asiatique,
1829, Juillet, 22-51.
s Rogers, op. cit. i. 641.
' Leber, Appriciation de la fortune privde
au moyen-dge, 6d. 2, Paris, 1847. 95. 305.
FRUCTUS PIPERIS NIGRI.
579
the spices of India direct to the city of Antwerp. Strange to say, they
were received with great mistrust!
Pepper was heavily taxed in England. In 1623 the imposts levied
on it amounted to 5s per lb.; and even down to 1823 it was subject to
a duty of 2s. Gd. per lb.
Production — In the south-west of India, the plant, or Pepper Vine
as it is called, grows on the sides of the narrow valleys where the soil
is rich and moist, producing lofty trees by which a constant, favourable
coolness is maintained. In such places tlae pepper-vine runs along the
gi'ound and propagates itself by striking out roots into the soil. The
natives tie up the end of the vines lying on the ground to the nearest
tree, on the bark of which the stems put out roots so far as they have
been tied, the shoots above that hanging down. The plant is capable
of growing to a height of 20 or 30 feet, but for the sake of convenience
it is usually kept low, and is often trained on poles. In places where
no vines occur naturally, the plant is propagated by planting slips near
the roots of the trees on which it is to climb.
The pepper plants if grown on a rich soil begin to bear even in the
first year, and continue to increase in productiveness till about the
fifth, when they yield 8 to 10 lb. of berries per plant, which is about
the average produce up to the age of 15 to 20 years; after this they
begin to decline.
When one or two berries at the base of the spike begin to turn red,
the whole spike is pinched off. Next day the berries are rubbed off
with the hands and picked clean ; then dried for three days on mats, or
on smooth hard ground, or on bamboo baskets near a gentle fire.
In Malabar the pepper-vine flowers in May and June, and the
fruits become fit for gathering at the commencement of the following
year.^
The largest quantities of pepper are produced in the island of Rhio,
near Singapore, in Djohor (in the south-eastern coast of the Malayan
Peninsula), and in Penang. The latter island affords on an average
about one-half of the total crop.
Description — The small, round, berry-like fruits grow somewhat
loosely to the number of 20 to 30, on a common pendulous fruit-stalk.
They are at first green, then become red, and if allowed to ripen,
yellow ; but they are gathered befoi'e complete maturity, and by drying
in that state turn blackish grey or brown. If left until quite ripe they
lose some of their pungency, and gradually fall off.
The berries after drying are spheiical, about \ inch in diameter,
wrinkled on the surface, indistinctly ])ointed below by the remains of
the very short pedicel, and crowned still more indistinctly by the 3- or
4-lobed stigma. The thin pericarp tightly encloses a single seed, the
embryo of which in consequence of premature gathering is undeveloped,
and merely replaced by a ca.vity situated below the apex. The seed
itself contains within the thin red-brown testa a shining albumen, grey
and horny without, and mealy within. The pungent taste and peculiar
smell of pepper are familiar to all.
Microscopic Structure — The transverse section of a grain of
^ For a full account of the cultivation of
pepper, seeBuchauan, Journey from Madras
through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, ii.
(1807) 455-520 ; iii. 158.
580
PIPERACE^.
black pepper exhibits a soft yellowish epidermis, covering the outer
pericarp. This is formed of a closely-packed j'ellow layer of large,
mostly radially arranged, thick-walled cells, each containing in its
small cavity a mass of dark-brown resin. The middle layer of the
pericarp consists of soft, tangentially-extended parenchyme, containing
an abundance of extremely small starch granules and drops of oil. The
shrinking of this loose middle layer is the chief cause of the deep
wrinkles on the surface of the berry. The next inner layer of the
pericarp exhibits towards its circumference tangentially-arranged, soft
parenchyme, the cells of which possess either spiral striation or spiral
fibres, but towards the interior loose parenchyme, free from starch,
and containing very large oil-cells.
The testa, is formed in the first place of a row of small yellow
thick-walled cells. Next to them follows the true testa, as a dense,
dark-brown layer of lignified cells, the individual outlines of which are
undistinguishable.
The albumen of the seeds consists of angulai-, radially-arranged,
large-celled parenchyme. Most of its cells are colourless and loaded
with starch ; others contain a soft yellow amorphous mass. If thin
slices are kept under glycerin for some time, these masses are slowly
transformed into needle-shaped crystals of piperin.
Chemical Composition — Pepper contains resin and essential oil,
to the former of which its sharp pungent taste is due. The essential
oil has more of the smell than of the taste of pepper.^ The drug yields
from 1'6 to 2 2 per cent, of this volatile oil, which agrees with oil of
turpentine in composition as well as in specific gravity and boiling
point. We find it, in a column 50 mm. long, to deviate the ray of
polarized light 1°'2 to 3°'4 to the left.
The most interesting constituent of pepper, Fiperin, which pepper
yields to the extent of 2 to 8 per cent., agrees in composition with the
formula C^'^H^NO^ like morphine. Piperin has no action on litmus
paper ; it is not capable of combining directly with an acid, yet unites
with hydrochloric acid in the presence of mercx;ric and other metallic
chlorides, forming crystallizable compounds. It is insoluble in water ;
when perfectly pure, its crystals are devoid of colour, taste and smell.
Its alcoholic solution is without action on polarized light. Piperin may
be resolved, as found bj' Anderson in 1850, into Pij9e9'?'c Acid, C^'WO*,
and Pii^eridine, C^H"N. The latter is a liquid colourless alkaloid,
boiling at 106 ° C, having the odour of pepper and ammonia, and directly
yielding crystallizable salts.
Besides these constituents, pepper also contains some fatty oil in
the mesocarp. Of inorganic matter, it yields upon incineration from
4"1 to 5'7 per cent.
Commerce — Singapore is the great emporium for pepper, of which
197,478 peculs (26 J- million lb.) were imported there in 1877. The largest
part of it finds its way to England. The import of pepper into the
United Kingdom during 1872, was 27,576,710 lb. valued at £753,970.
' As noticed by Rheede in 1 688 : " . . .
oleum ex pipere destillatuni levem piperis
odorem spirans, saporis parum acris." —
Hort, Malah, vii. 24. — The oil was how-
ever obtained long before by Valerius
Cordus, Guintherus Andernacensis and
Porta (see our article Cortex Cinnamomi,
page 526).
FRUCTUS PIPERIS NIGRI.
581
Of this quantity, the Straits Settlements supplied 25,000,000 lb., and
British India 256,000 lb. Of the quantity of 25,917,070 lb., imported
in 1876 into Great Britain, the home consumption was 9 million lb.
The exports of pepper from the United Kingdom in 1872 amounted
to 17,891,620 lb., the largest quantity being taken by Germany
(5,201,574 lb.) Then follows Italy (2,288,647 lb.) ; and Russia, Holland
and Spain, each of which took more than a million pounds.^
The varieties of pepper quoted in price-currents are Malabar, Aleppee
and Cocldn, Penang, Smga.pore, Siam.
A large quantity is also shipped from Singapore to China, the im-
ports of that country in 1877 of both black and white pepper, being
53,844 peculs (7,179,200 lb.)
Uses — Pepper is not of much importance as a medicine, and is
rarely if ever prescribed, except indirectly as an ingredient of some
preparation.
Adulteration — Whole pepper is not, we believe, liable in Europe
to adulteration f but the case is widely different as regards the pulver-
ized spice. Notwithstanding the enormous penalty of £100, to which
the manufacturer, possessor, or seller of adulterated pepper is liable,^ and
the low cost of the article, ground pepper has hitherto been frequently
sophisticated by the addition of the stai-ches of cereals and potatoes, of
sago, mustard husks, linseed and capsicum. The admixture of these
substances may for the most part be readily detected, after some
practice, by the microscope.*
White Pepper.
This form of the spice is prepared from black pepper by removing
its dark outer layer of pericarp, and thereby depriving it of a portion
of its pungency. It is mentioned by Dioscorides, yet was evidently
very little known in Europe even during the middle ages. In the time
of Platearius,^ white pepper was supposed to be derived from a plant
different from Piper nigrum.
Buchanan," referring to Travancore, remarks that white pepper is
made by allowing the berries to ripen ; the bunches are then gathered,
and having been kept for three days in the house, are washed and
bruised in a basket with the hand till all the stalks and pulp are
removed.
The finest white pepper is obtained from Tellicherry, on the Malabar
Coast, but only in small quantity. The more important places for its
preparation are the Straits Settlements, chiefly Rhio. The export of
white pepper from Singapore in 1877 was 48,460 peculs. Most of, the
spice finds its way to China, where it is highly esteemed. In Europe,
pepper in its natural state is with good reason preferred.
^ Annual Statement of the Trade of the
U.K. for 1872. 59. 125.
- According to Moodeen Sheriff (Siippl. to
Pharm. of India, 134) the berries of j&mftcZi'a
(Samara) liibes, order Myrainece, are said to
be sometiraes used for adulterating black
pepper in the Indian bazaars.
» By the 59 George III. c. 53 § 22 (1819).
^ Consult, Hassall, Food and its Adulter -
ationf-, Lond. 1855. 42 ; Evans, Pharm.
Journ. i. (1860) 605.
^ Glossce in antidotarium Nicolai. ccxlvi.
verso.
6 In the work quoted, page 579, ii. 465,
533, and iii. 224.
582
PIPERACE^.
The grains of white pepper are of rather larger size than those of
black, and of a warm greyish tint. They are nearly spherical or a little
flattened. At the base the skin of the fruit is thickened into a blunt
prominence, whence about 12 light stripes run meridian-like towards
the depressed summit. If the skin is scraped off, the dark-brown testa
is seen enclosing the hard translucent albumen. In anatomical struc-
ture, as well as in taste and smell, white pepper agrees with black,
which in fact it represents in a rather more iully-grown state.
White pepper appears to afford on an average not more than 1'9 per
cent, of essential oil, but to be richer in piperin, of which Cazeneuve
and Caillol (1877) exti'acted as much as 9 per cent. The amount of
ash yielded by white pepper is I'l per cent, on an average, that is to
say, considerably less than by black pepper.
FRUCTUS PIPERIS LONGI.
Piper longum ; Long Pepper ; F. Poivre long ; G. Langer Pfeffer.
Botanical Origin — Piper officinarum C. DC. (Chavica ^ offici-
narum Miq.), a dioecious shrubby plant, with ovate-oblong acuminate
leaves, attenuated at the base, and having pinnate nerves. It is a
native of the Indian Archipelago, as Java, Sumatra, Celebes and Timor.
Long pepper is the fruit spike, collected and di-ied shortly before it
reaches maturity.
Piper longuvi JJ (Chavica Roxhurgliii Miq.), a shrub indigenous to
Malabar, Ceylon, Eastern Bengal, Timor and the Philippines, also yields
long pepper, for the sake of which it is cultivated along the eastern and
western coasts of India. It may be distinguished from the previous
species by its 5 -nerved leaves, cordate at the base.^
History — A drug termed IleVe/ot ixaKpov, Piper longum, was known
to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and may have been the same as the
Long Pepper of modern times.
In the Latin verses bearing the name of Macer Floridus,* which were
probably written in the 10th century, mention is made of Black, White,
and Long Pepper. The last-named spice, or Macropi'per, is named by
Simon of Genoa,' who was physician to Pope Nicolas IV. and chaplain
to Boniface VIII. (a.d. 1288-1303), and travelled in the East for the
study of plants. Piper longum is also met with in the list of drugs on
which (A.D. 1305) duty was levied at Pisa." Nicolo Conti of Venice,
who lived in India from 1419 to 1444, noticed Long Pepper.'' Sala-
dinus* in the middle of the 15th century enumerates long pepper among
the drugs necessary to be kept by apothecaries, and it has had a place
in the pharmacopoeias to the present time.
^ The genus C'/(«?;2V« separated from Piper
by Miquel, has been re-united to it by
Casimir de Candolle (Prod. xvi. s. 1). The
latter genus is now composed of not fewer
than 620 species !
- Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Med.
Plants, part 18 (1877).
^ For good figures of the two plants, see
Hayne's Arzney-Geivdchse, xiv. (1843) tab.
20. 21.
* Choulant, Macer Floridiis de Viribus
Herbarura, Lipsia?, 1832. 114.
^ Glavis Sanalionis, Venet. 1510.
^ Bonaini, Statuti inediti della cittd di
Pisa, iii. (1857) 492.
Kunstmann, Kenntniss Indiejis im IS'*^"
Jahrlimidert, Miinchen, 1863. 40.
8 See Appendix.
FRUCTUS PIPERIS LONG!
583
Production — In Bengal the plants are cultivated by suckers, and
require to be gi-own on a rich, high and dry soil ; they should be set
about five feet asunder. An English acre will yield in the first year
about three maunds (1 maund = 80 lbs.) of the pepper, in the second
twelve, and in the third eighteen; after which, as the plant becomes
less and less productive, the roots are grubbed up, dried, and sold as
Pipli-mul, of which there is a large consumption in India as a medicine.
The ])epper is gathered in the month of January, when full grown, and
exposed to the sun until perfectly dry. After the fruit has been col-
lected, the stem and branches die down to the ground.^
Description — Long pepper consists of a multitude of minute baccate
fruits, closely packed around a common axis, the whole forming a spike
of 1|- inch long and ^ of an inch thick. The spike is supported on
a stalk |- an inch long; it is rounded above and below, and tayjers slightly
towards its upper end. The fruits are ovoid, of an inch long, crowned
with a nipple-like point (the remains of the stigma), and arranged
spirally with a small peltate bract beneath each. A transverse section
of a spike exhibits 8 to 10 separate fruits, disposed radially with their
narrower end pointed towards the axis. Beneath the pericarp, the thin
brown testa encloses a colourless albumen, of which the obtuser end is
occupied by the small embryo.
The long pepper of the shops is greyish-white, and appears as if it
had been rolled in some earthy powder. When washed, the spikes
acquire their proper colour, — a deep reddish-brown. The drug has a
burning ai'omatic taste, and an agreeable but not powerful odour.
The foregoing description applies to the long pepper of English
commerce, which is now obtained chiefly from Java (see next page),
where P. offi,cinaruvi is the common species. In fact the fruits of this
latter, as presented to us by Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical Garden,
Buiteuzorg, near Batavia, offer no characters by which we can distin-
guish them from the article found in the London shops. Those of
P. Beth L. var. y. densum are extremely similar, but we do not know
that they are collected for use.
Microscopic Structure — The structure of the individual fruits
resembles that of black pepper, exhibiting however some characteristic
diflferences. The epicarp has on the outside, tangentially-extended,
thick- walled, narrow cells, containing gum; the middle layer consists of
wider, thin-walled, obviously porous parenchyme containing starch and
drops of oil. In the outer and middle layers of the fruit numerous
large thick-walled cells are scattered, a.? in the external pericarp of Piper
nigrum; in long pepper, however, they do not form a close circle. The
inner pericarp is formed of a row of large, cubic or elongated, radially-
arranged cells, filled with volatile oil. A row of smaller tangentially-
extended cells sepai'ates these oil-cells from the compact brown-red testa,
which consists of lignified cells like the inner layer of the testa of black
pepper, but without the thick-walled cells peculiar to the latter. The
albumen of long pepper is distinguished from that of black pepper by the
absence of volatile oil.
Chemical Constituents — The constituents of long pepper appear
to be the same as those of black pepper. We ascertained the presence
1 Roxburgh, Flora Indka, i. (1832) 155.
584
PIPERACE.E.
of pi]ieiin; 8 pounds of the drug were not sufficient to afford us an
appreciable quantity of the volatile oil. The resin and volatile oil
reside exclusively in the pericarp. Long pepper, according to Blyth
(1874), yields 8} per cent of ash.
Commerce — Long pepper is at present exported from Penang and
Singapore, whither it is brought chiefly from Java, and to a much
smaller extent from Rhio. The quantity exported from Singapore in
1871 amounted to 3,366 cwt., of which only 447 cwt. were shipped to
the United Kingdom, the remainder being sent chiefly to British India.^
The export from Penang is from 2,000 to 3,000 peculs annually. There
is also a considerable export of long pepper from Calcixtta.
Uses — Long pepper is scarcely used as a medicine, black pepper
having been substituted in the few preparations in which it was formerly
ordered, but it is employed as a spice and in veterinary medicine.
The aromatic root of Pij)er longum, called in Sanskrit Piiypali-mula'
(whence the modern name 'pipli-mul), is a favourite remedy of the
Hindus and also known to the Persians and Arabs.
CUBEByE.
Fructus vel Baccce vet Filter Cubeboi'^; Cuhcbs; F. CuMbes;
G. Cubeben.
Botanical Origin — Fiper Cubeba Linn. £ (Cubeba officinalis Miq.),
a climbing, woody, dioecious shrub, indigenous to Java, Southern Borneo
and Sumatra.*
History — Cubebs have been introduced into medicine by the
Arabian physicians of the middle ages, who describe them as having
the form, colour, and properties of pepper. Masudi^ in the 10th
century stated them to be a production of Java. Edrisi," the geographer,
in A.D. 1153 enumerated them among the imports of Aden.
Among European writers, Constantinus Africanus of Salerno was
acquainted with this drug as early as the 11th century; and in the
beginning of the 13th its virtues were noticed in the writings of the
Abbess Hildegard in Germany, and even in those of Henrik Harpestreng
in Dennaark.'^
Cubebs are mentioned as a productioii of Java ("gixmt isle deJavva")
by Marco Polo; and by Odoric, an Italian friar, who visited the island
about forty years later. In the 18th century the drug was an article
of European trade, and would appear to have already been regularly
imported into London.* Duty was levied upon them as Cubebas
silvestres at Barcelona in 1271." They are mentioned about this period
as sold in the fairs of Chaaxipagne in France, the price being 4 sous per
lb.^° They were also sold in England: in accounts under date 1284
1 Blue Book of the Straits Settlementt for
1871.
- Already in the Eamayana.
^ Cubeba from the Arabic Kahdbah.
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Med.
Plants, part 27 (1877).
® Les Prairies d'or, i. 341.
® Gcofjraphie, trad, jsar Jaiibert, i. 51. 89.
^ Meyer, Geschichte der Botanih, iii. 537.
^ Munimenta GildhallcB Londoniensk;
Liber albus, i. (1859, State papers) 230.
" Capmany, Mernorias sabre la Marina,
etc., de Barcelona, i. (Madrid, 1779) 44.
Bourquelot, Etudes sur les foires de la
Cliampagne, M6moires etc. de I'lnstitut, v.
(1865) 288.
CUBEBiE.
585
they are enumerated with almonds, saffron, raisins, white pepper, grains
[of paradise], mace, galangal, and gingerbread, and entered as costing
2s. per lb. In 1285 — 2s. 6(Z. to 3s. per lb.; while in 1307, 1 lb. purchased
for the King's Wardrobe cost 9s}
From the journal of expenses of John, king of France, while in
England during 1359-60, it is evident that cubebs were in frequent
use as a spice. Among those who could command such luxuries, they
were eaten in powder with meat, or they were candied whole. A
patent of pontage granted in 1305 by Edward I., to aid in repairing and
sustaining the Bridge of London, and authorizing toll on various articles,
mentions among groceries and spices, cubebs as liable to impost.^ Cubebs
occur in the German lists of medicines of Frankfort and Nordlingen,
about 1450 and 1480;^ they are also mentioned in the Confectbucli of
Hans Folcz of Nuremberg, dating about 1480.'*
It cannot however be said that cubebs were a common spice, at all
comparable with pepper or ginger, or even in such frequent use as grains
of paradise or galangal. Garcia de Orta (1563) speaks of them as but
seldom used in Europe ; yet they are named by Saladinus as necessary
to be kept in every apotlieca.^ In a list of drugs to be sold in the
apothecaries' shops of the city of Ulm, A.D. 1596, cubebs are mentioned
as Fructus carpesiormn vel cubebariim, the price for half an ounce being
quoted as 8 kreiizers, the same as that of opium, best manna, and amber,
while black and white pepper are priced at 2 kreuzersf'
Although it was always well known that the cubebs were a product
of Java and that island is stated to have exported in 1775 as much as
10,000 lb. of this spice,'^ its mother plant was made known only in 1781
by the younger Linnaeus.
The action of cubebs on the urino-genital organs was known to the
old Arabian physicians. Yet modern writers on materia medica even at
the commencement of the present century, mentioned the drug simply as
an aromatic stimulant resembling pepper, but inferior to that spice and
rarely employed,^— in fact it had so far fallen into disuse that it was
omitted from the London Pharmacopoeia of 1 809. According to Crawfurd,
its importation into Europe, which had long been discontinued, recom-
menced in 1815, in consequence of its medicinal virtues having been
brought to the knowledge of the English medical officers serving in
Java, by their Hindu servants.''
Cultivation and Production^" — Cubebs are cultivated in small
^ Eogers, Hist, of Agricidiure and Prices
in Emjland, i. 627-8, ii. 544. — To get some
idea of the relative value of commodities
then and now, multiply the ancient prices
by 8.
-Liber niger Scaccarii, Lond. 1771, i.
*478. — A translation may be found in the
Chronicles of London Bridge, 1827, 155.
Archiv der Pharmacie, 201 (1872) 441
and 211 (1877) 101.
* Choulaut, Macer Floridus, etc., Lips.
1832, 188.
° Compendium aromatarioriim, Bonon.,
1488.
6 Richard, Beitrage zur Gescliichte der
Apntheken, 1825. 124.
' Miquel, Covvnentarii phytographici, i.
(Lugd. Bat., 1839).
8 In Duncan's Edinburgh Nev) Dispensa-
tory, ed. 2. 1804, Piper Cidjeha is very
briefly described, but with no allusion to its
possessing any special medicinal properties.
In the 6th edition of the same work (1811)
it was altogether omitted. See also Mur-
ray's System of Mat. Med. and Pharm. i.
(1810) 26G.
^ Dictionary of the Indian Islands, 1856.
117. — Mr. Crawfurd himself communicated
to the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
Journnl of 1818 (xiv. 32) a paper making
known the "wonderful success" with which
cubebs had been used in gonorrhoea.
We are indebted for some particulars
under this head to our friends Mr. Binnen-
dyk, of the Buitenzorg Botanical Garden
near Batavia, and Dr. De Vry.
586
PIPERACE^.
special plantations and also in coffee plantations, in the district ot
Banjoemas in the south of Java. The fruits are bought by Chinese who
carry them to Batavia. They are likewise produced in Eastern Java
and about Bantam and Soebang in the north-west ; and extensively in
the Lampong country in Sumatra. There has of late been a large dis-
tribution of plants among the European coffee planters.
The cultivation of cubebs is easy. In the coffee estates certain trees
are required for shade : against these Pi^^er Cubeba is planted, and
climbing to a height of 18 to 20 feet, forms a large bush.
Description — The cubebs of commerce consist of the dry globose
fruits, gathered when full grown, but before they have arrived at
maturity. The fruit is about 4 of an inch in diameter, when very young
sessile, but subsequently elevated on a straight thin stalk, a little longer
or even twice as long as itself By this stalk the fruit is attached in
considerable numbers (sometimes more than 50) to a common thickened
stalk or rachis, about Ij inch long.
Commercial cubebs are sphei'ical, sometimes depressed at the base,
very slightly pointed at the apex, strongly wrinkled by the shrinking of
the fleshy pericarp ; they are of a greyish-brown or blackish hue,
frequently covered with an ashy-grey bloom. The stalk is the
elongated base of the fruit, and remains permanently attached. The
common axis or rachis, which is almost devoid of essential oil, is also
fi'equently mixed with the drug.
The skin of the fruit covers a hard, smooth brown shell containing
the seed, which latter when developed has a compressed spherical form,
a smooth surface, aud adheres to the pericarp only at the base ; its apex
either projects slightly or is pressed inwards. The albumen is solid,
whitish, oily, and encloses a small embryo below the apex. In the
cubebs of the shops, the seed is mostly undeveloped and shrunken, and
the pericarp nearly empty.
Cubebs have a strong, aromatic, persistent taste, with some bitterness
and acridity. Their smell is highly aromatic and by no means dis-
agreeable.
Microscopic Structure — This exhibits some peculiarities. The
skin of the fruit below the epidermis, is made up of small, cubic, thick-
walled cells, forming an interrupted row, and only half as large as in
black pepper. The broad middle layer consists of small cubic thick-
walled cells, forming an interrupted row, and only half as large as in
black pepper. The broad middle layer consists of small-celled un-
developed tissue containing drops of oil, granules of starch, and crystalline
groups of cubebin, probably also fat. This middle layer is interrupted
by very large oil-cells, which frequently enclose needle-shaped crj'stals
of cubebin, united in concentric groups. The much narrower inner
layer consists of about four rows of somewhat larger tangentially-
extended soft cells, holding essential oil. Next to these comes the
light-yellow brittle shell, formed of a densely packed row of encrusted,
radially-arranged, elongated thick-walled cells. Lastly, the embryo is
covered with a thin brown membrane, and exhibits the structure
and contents as that of Piper nigrum, excepting that in P. Cubeba
the cells are rounder, and the crystals consist of cubebin and not of
piperin.
CUBEBJi.
587
Chemical Composition — The most obvious constituent of cubebs
is the volatile oil, the proportion of which yielded by the drug varies
from 4 to 13 per cent. The causes of this great variation may be found
in the constitution of the drug itself, as well as in the alterability of the
oil, and the fact that its prevailing constituents begin not to boil
below 264° C. It is, as shown in 1875 by Oglialoro, a mixture of an oil
C^'ff", boiling at 158°-163°, which is present to a very small amount,
and two oils of the formula C^■'H"^ boiling at 2G2°-2G5° C. One of the
latter deviates the place of polarization strongly to the left, and yields
the crystallized compound C^'^H"^ 2 HCl, melting at 118° C. The other
hydrocarbon is less laevogyrate and cannot be combined with HCl.
One part of oil of cubebs, diluted with about 20 parts of bisulphide
of carbon, assumes at first a greenish, and afterwards a blue coloration,
if one drop of a mixture of concentrated sulphuric and nitric acids
(equal weight of each acid) is shaken with the solution.
The oil distilled from old cubebs on cooling at length deposits large,
transparent, inodorous octohedra of camphor of cubebs, C'"'H'^ + 2 0I1^
belonging to the rhombic system. They melt at 65° and may be
sublimed at 148°. We have not succeeded in obtaining them by keeping
the oil of fresh cubebs for two years in contact with water, to which a
little alcohol and nitric acid was added.
Another constituent of cubebs is Gitbebin, crystals of which may
sometimes be seen in the pericarp even with a common lens. It was
discovered by Soubeiran and Capitaine in 1839 ; it is an inodorous
substance, crystallizing in small needles or scales, melting at 125°,
having a bitter taste in alcoholic solution; it dissolves freely in boiling
alcohol, but is mostly deposited upon cooling ; it requires 30 jiarts of cold
ether for solution, and is also abundantly soluble in chloroform. We
found this solution to be slightly Itevogyre ; it turns red on addition of
concentrated sulphuric acid. If the solution of cubebin in chloroform is
shaken with dry pentoxide of phosphorus, it turns blue and gradually
becomes red by the influence of moisture. Cubebin is nearly insoluble in
cold, but slightly soluble in hot water. Bernatzik (1866) obtained from
cubebs 0'40 per cent, of cubebin, Schmidt (1870) 2"5 per cent. The
crystals, which are deposited in an alcoholic or ethereal extract of
cubebs, consist of cubebin in an impure state. Cubebin is devoid of
any remarkable thei-apeutic action. Its composition, according to
Weidel (1877) answers to the formula C'»H"0'; by melting it with
caustic potash, cubebin is resolved as follows : —
QiojjioQs 5 0 = CO' . C'H^O' . C''ff(OH)^COOH.
Acetic Acid. Protocatechuic Acid.
The resin extracted from cubebs consists of an indifferent portion,
nearly 3 per cent., and of Cubebic Acid, amounting to about 1 per cent,
of the drug. Both are amorphous, and so, according to Schmidt, are the
salts of cubebic acid. Beraatzic however, found some of them, as that
of barium, to be crystallizable. Schulze (1873) prepared cubebic acid
from the crystallized sodium-salt, but was unable to get it other than
amorphous. The resins, the indifferent as well as the acid, possess the
therapeutic properties of the drug.
Schmidt further pointed out the presence in cubebs, of gum (8 per
cent.), fatty oil, and malates of magnesium and calcium.
588
PIPERACE^.
Commerce — Cubebs were imported into Singapore in 1872 to the
extent of 3062 cwt., of which amount 2348 cwt. were entered as from
Netherlands India. The drug was re-shipped during the same year to
the amount of 27CG cwt., the quantity exported to the United Kingdom
])eing 1180 cwt., to the United States of America 1244? cwt., and to
British India 104 cwt.' In the previous year, a hirger quantity was
shipped to India tlian to Great Britain.
Uses — Cubebs are much employed in the treatment of gonorrhoea.
The drug is usually administered in powder; less frequently in the form
of ethereal or alcoholic extract, or essential oil.
Bernatzik and Schmidt, wdiose chemical and therapeutical experi-
ments have thrown much light on the subject, have shown that the
efficacy of cubebs being dependent on the indifferent I'esin and cubebic
acid, preparations which contain the utmost amount of these bodies and
exclude other constituents of the drug, are to be preferred. They would
reject the essential oil, as they find its administration devoid of thera-
peutic effects.
The preparations which consequently are to be recommended, are the
berries deprived of their essential oil and constituents soluble in water,
and then dried and powdered ; an alcoholic extract prepared from the
same, or the purified resins.
Adulteration — Cubebs are not much subject to adulteration, though
it is by no means rare that the imported drug contains an undue pro-
portion of the inert stalks (rachis)^ that require to be picked out before
the berries are ground. Dealers judge of cubebs by the oiliness and
strong characteristic smell of the berries when crushed. Those which
have a large proportion of the pale, smooth, ripe berries, which look dry
when broken, are to be avoided.
We have occasionally found in the commercial drug a small, smooth
two-celled fruit, of the size, shape, and colour of cubebs, but wanting the
long pedicel. A slight examination suffices to recognize it as not being
cubebs. We have also met with some cubebs of larger size than the
ordinary sort, much shrivelled, with a stouter and flattened pedicel, one
and a half times to twice as long as the berry. The drug has an agree-
able odour different from that of common cubebs, and a very bitter taste.
From a comparison with herbarium specimens, we judge that it may
possibly be derived from Pij^er crassipes Korthals (Ctibeha crassijycs
Miq.), a Sumatran species.
The fruits of Piper Loiuong Bl. (Cuheha Lowot\g Miq.), a native of
Java, and those of P. ribesioicles Wall. {Cuheha Wallichii Miq.) are
extremely cubeb-like.^ Those of Pijjer caninum A. Dietr. (Cuheha
canina Miq.), a plant of wide distribution throughout the Malay Archi-
pelago as far as Borneo, for a specimen of which we have to thank Mr.
Binnendyk of Buitenzorg, are smaller than true cubebs, and have stalks
only half the diameter of the berry.
In the south of China the fruits of Laurus Cuheha Loui\ have been
1 Straits Settlements Blue Book for 1872.
294. 338. — There are no statistics for show-
ing the total import of cubebs into the
United Kingdom.
- Thoy yielded to Schmidt 1 '7 per cent,
of oil and 3 per cent of resin.
^ Figured in Nees von Esenbeck, Plantce
medicinales, Dusseldorf, i. (1828), tab. 22.
A different figure is given by Miquel, Com-
ment, lihytoyr. (1839), tab. 3.
HERBA MATICO.
589
frequently mistaken by Europeans for cubebs. The tree which affords
them is unknown to modern botanists ; Meissner refers it doubtfully to
the genus Tetvmithera}
Ashantee Pepper, African Cubebs, or West African
Black Pepper.
This spice is the fruit of Piiicr Glusii Gas. DC. {Ctibeba Chtsii Miq.),
a species of wide distribution in tropical Africa, most abundantly
occurring in the country of the Niamniam, about 4° to 5° N. lat., and
28° to 29° E. long. Its splendid red fruit bunches are spoken of with
admiration by Schweinfurth,- who states that Piper Glusii is one of the
characteristic and most conspicuous plants of those regions. The dried
fruit is a round berry having a general resemblance to common cubebs
but somewhat smaller, less rugose, attenuated into a slender pedicel once
or twice as long as the berry and usually curved. The berries are
crowded around a common stalk or rachis ; they are of an ashy grey
tint, and have a hot taste and the odour of pepper. According to Sten-
house, they contain piperin and not cubebin.^
The fruit of Piper Clusii was known as early as ISG-i to the
merchants of Rouen and Dieppe, who imported it from the Grain Coast,
now Liberia,^ under the name of pepper. Tiie Portuguese likewise
exported it from Benin as far back as 1485, as Pimienta de raho, i.e.
tailed pepper, snd. Siiiem.^iQdi in vain to sell it in Flanders.'^ Glusius
received from London a specimen of this drug, of which he has left a
good figure in his Exotica.^ He says that its importation was forbidden
by the King of Portugal for fear it should depreciate the pepper of
India. The spice was also known to Gerarde and Pai'kinson ; in our
times it has been afresh brought to notice by the late Dr. Daniell.'' In
tropical Western Africa it is used as a condiment, and might easily be
collected in large quantities, provided it should prove a good substitute
for pepper.*
HERBA MATICO.
Matico.
Botanical Origin — Pilfer angustifoliuTiv' Ruiz et Pavon (Artanthe
elongata Miq.), a shrub growing in the moist woods of Bolivia, Peru,
Brazil, New Granada and Venezuela, also cultivated in some localities.
A slightly dilferent, somewhat stouter form of the plant with leaves
7 to 8 inches long (var. a. cordulatmn Cas. DC), occurs in the Brazilian
provinces of Bahia, Minas Geraes and Ceara, as well as in Peru and the
northern parts of South America.
1 De Candolle, Prod. xv. sent. i. 199 ;
Hanbury in Pharm. Journ. iii. (1862) 205,
with figure ; also Science Papers, 247.
- Im Herzen Africas, i. (1874) 507; ii.
399.
Pharm. Journ. xiv. (1855) 363.
* Margry, Les navigations fran^aises et la
revolution maritime du XI V" cm X VI" siicle,
1867. 26.
^ Giovanni di Barros, I'Asia, i. (Venet.
1561) 80.
« Lib. i. c. 22, p. 184 (1605).
' Pharm. Journ. xiv. (1855) 198.
s One cask of it was offered for sale in
London as " Cubebs," 11 Feb. 1858.
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Mecl.
Plants, part 18 (1877).
590
PIPERACE^.
History — The styptic properties of this plant are said to have been
discovered by a Spanish soldier named Matico/ who having applied
some of the leaves to his wounds, observed that the bleeding was thereby
arrested ; hence the plant came to be called Verba or Palo del Soldado
(soldier's herb or tree). The story is not very probable, but it is current
in many parts of South America, and its allusion is not confined to the
plant under notice.
The hfemostatic powers of matico, which are not noticed in the
Avorks of Ruiz and Pavon, were first recognized in Europe by J eff'reys,''
a physician of Liverpool, in 1839, but they had already attracted
attention in North America as early as 1827.
Description — Matico, as it arrives in commerce, consists of a com-
pressed, coherent, brittle mass of leaves and stems, of a light green hue
and pleasant herby odour. More closely examined, it is seen to be made
up of jointed stems bearing lanceolate, acuminate leaves, cordate and
unequal at the base, and having very short stalks. The leaves are rather
thick, with their whole upper surface traversed by a system of minute
sunk veins, which divide it into squares and give it a tessellated appear-
ance. On the under side, these squares form a corresponding series of
depressions which are clothed with shaggy hairs. The leaves attain a
length of about 6 inches by 1 J inches broad. The flower and fruit spikes
which are often 4 to 5 inches long, are slender and cylindrical with the
flowers or fruits densely packed. The leaves of matico have a bitterish
aromatic taste ; their tissue shows numerous cells, filled with essential
oil.3
Chemical Composition — The leaves yield on an average 2'7 per
cent.* of essential oil, which we find slightly^ dextrogyre ; a large pro-
portion of it distills at 180° to 200° C, the i-emainder becoming thickish.
Both portions are lighter than water ; but another specimen of the oil
of matico which we had kept for some years, sinks in water. We have
observed that in winter the oil deposits remarkable crystals of a cam-
phor, more than half an inch in length, fusible at 103° C ; they belong
to the hexagonal system, and have the odour and taste of the oil from
which they separate.
Matico further affords, according to Marcotte (1864?),'' a crystallizable
acid, named Artanthic Acid, besides some tannin. The latter is made
evident by the dark brown colour which the infusion assumes on addition
of ferric chloride. The leaves likewise contain resin, but as shown by
Stell in 1858, neither piperin, cubebin, nor any analogous principle such
as the so-called Maticin formerly supposed to exist in them.
Commerce — The drug is imported in bales and serons by way of
Panama. Among the exports of the Peruvian port of Arica in 1877,
we noticed 195 quintales (19,773 ft) of Matico.
Uses — Matico leaves, previously softened in Avater, or in a state of
1 Matico is the diminutive of Mateo, the
Spanish for Mattheio.
2 Remarks on the effiatcy of Matico as a
styptic and astringent, 3rd ed., Lond. 1845.
3 Microscopic examination of the leaves,
Pocklington, Pharm. Journ. v. (1874)
301.
^As Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig,
kindly informed me. — F. A.F.
''Deviating only in a column 50
mm. long.
6 Guibourt (et Planchon), Hist, des
Drogues, ii. (1869) 278.— We are not
acquainted with "artanthic acid."
RADIX SERPENTARI^.
591
powder, are sometimes employed to arrest the bleeding of a wound.
The infusion is taken for the cure of internal hgemorrhage.
Substitutes — Several plants have at times been brought into the
market under the name of niatico. One of these is Piper adiLncum L}
(Artanthe aduiica Miq.), of which a quantity was imported into London
from Central America in 1863, and first recognized by Bentley (1864).
In coloui', odour, and shape of leaf it nearly agrees with ordinary matico ;
but differs in that the leaves are marked beneath by much more pro-
minent ascending parallel nerves, the spaces between which are not
rugose but comparatively smooth and nearly glabrous. In chemical
characters, the leaves of P. aduncum appear to accord with those of
P. angusti folium.
Piper aduncum is a plant of wide distribution throughout Tropical
America. Under the name of Nhandi or Piper longuvi it was men-
tioned by Piso in 1648^ on account of the stimulant action of its leaves
and roots, — a property which causes it to be still used in Brazil, where
however no particular styptic virtues seem to be ascribed to it.^ The
fruits are there employed in the place of cubebs. Sloane's figure* of
" Piper longuin, arbor folio latissimo" also shows Pijjer aduncum.
According to Triana, Piper lanceoefolium HBK. (Artanthe Miq.), and
another species not recognized, yield matico in New Granada.^ Wal-
theria glomerata Presl (Sterculiacece) is called Palo del Soldado at
Panama and its leaves are used as a vulnerary.** In Riobamba and
Quito, Eupatorium glutinosum Lamarck, is also called Chusalonga or
Matico.'^
AEISTOLOCHIACE^.
RADIX SERPENTARIiE.
Radix Serpentarioi Virginiance ; Virginian Snake-root, Serpentary
Root ; F. Serpentaire de Virginie ; G. Schlangenwurzel.
Botanical Origin — Aristolochia Serp)enta,ria L., a perennial herb,
commonly under a foot high, with simple or slightly branched, flexuose
stems, producing small, solitary, dull purple flowers, close to the ground.
It grows in shady woods in the United States, from Missouri and Indiana
to Florida and Virginia, — abundantly in the AUeghanies and in the
Cumberland Mountains, less frequently in New York, Michigan and the
other Northern States. The plant varies exceedingly in the shape of
its leaves.
History — The botanists of the 16th century, being fond of appella-
tions alluding to the animal kingdom, gave the names of 8erp>entaria
^ For a good figure, see Jacquin, Icones
II. (1781-1793) tab. 210.
^ De Aledicind Brasiliend, lib. 4. c. 57.
^ Langgaard, Diccionario de Medicina
domestica e impular, Rio de Janeiro, ii.
(1865) 44.
Voyage to Jamaica I. (1707) 135, and
tab. 88.
5 Exposition de 1867 — Catalogue de M.
Jose Triana, p. 14.
^ Seemann, Botany of the Herald, 1852-
57. 85.
''Bentham, Plantae Hartwegiance, Lon.
1839. 198.
592
ARISTOLOCHIACE^.
or Colubrina, i.e. snake-root, to the rhizome of Polygonum Bistorta, L.
In America it was not the appearance, but the application of the drug-
under notice to v/hich it owes the name snake-root.
The earliest account of Vifginian snake-root is that of Thomas
Johnson, an apothecary of London who published an edition of Gerarde's
Herbal in 163G. It is evident however that Johnson confounded a
species of Aristolochia from Crete with what he calls " that snake-weed
that was brought from Virginia and grew with Mr. John Tradescant
at South Lambeth, anno 1032." It was very briefly noticed by
Cornuti in his Canadensium Plantarum Historia (1635), and in a
much more intelligent manner by Parkinson in 1640. These authors,
as well as Dale (1G93) and Geoffroy (1741), extol the virtues of the
root as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake, or of a rabid dog.
Serpentary was introduced into the London Pharmacopoeia in 1650.
Description — The snake-root of commerce includes the rhizome,
which is knotty, contorted, scarcely 1 inch in length by \ of an inch in
thickness, bearing on its upper side the short bases of the stems of
previous years, and throwing off from the under, numerous, slender,
matted, bi'anching roots, 2 to 4 inches long. The rhizome is often still
attached to portions of the weak, herbaceous stem, which sometimes
bears the fruit, — more rarely flowers and leaves. The drug has a dull
brown hue, an aromatic odour resembling valei-ian but less unpleasant,
and a bitterish aromatic taste, calling to mind camphor, valerian and
turpentine.
Microscopic Structure — In the rhizome, the outer layer of the
.bark consists of a single row of cuboid cells ; the middle cortical portion
(mesopJdcvum) of about six layers of larger cells. In the liber, which
is built up of numerous layers of smaller cells, those belonging to the
medullary rays are nearly cuboid with distinctly porous walls, those of
the liber biindles being smaller and arranged in a somewhat crescent-
shaped manner. Groups of short, reticulated or punctuated vessels
alternate in the woody rays with long, porous, ligneous cells; those close
to the pith having thick walls. The largest cells of all are those com-
posing the pith ; the latter, seen in transverse section, occupies not the
very centre of the rootstock, but is found nearer to its upper side. The
rootlets exhibit a central fibro- vascular bundle, surrounded by a nucleus
sheath. In the mesophlosum both of the rootstock and the rootlets,
there occur a few cells containing a yellow essential oil. The other
cells are loaded with starch.
Chemical Composition — Essential oil exists in the drug to the
extent of of about ^ per cent. ; and resin in nearly the same proportion.
The outer cortical layer, as well as the zone of the nucleus-sheath, con-
tains a little tannin, and a watery infusion of the drug is coloured
greenish by perchloride of iron. Neutral acetate of lead precipitates
some mucilage as well as the bitter principle, which latter may also be
obtained by means of tannic acid. It is an amorphous, bitter substance,
which deserves further investigation. By an alkaline solution of tartrate
of copper the presence in serpentary of sugar is made evident.
Commerce — Virginian snake-root is imported from New York and
Boston, in bales, casks or bags.
CORTEX QUERCUS.
593
Uses — The drug is employed in the form of an infusion or tincture
as a stimulating tonic and diaphoretic ; it is more often prescribed in
combination with cinchona bark than by itself Its ancient reputation
for the cure of snake-bites is now disregarded.
Adulteration and Substitution — Virginian snake-root is said to
be sometimes adulterated with the root of S2ngelia T,iarilanclica L.,
which has neither its smell nor taste (see p. 433) ; or with that of
Gyprijyedium puhescens L., which it scarcely at all resembles. It is not
uncommon to find here and there in the serpentary of commerce, a root
of Panax quinquefolium L. accidentally collected, but never added for
the purpose of adulteration.
The root of Aristolochia reticulata. Nutt., a plant of Louisiana and
Arkansas, has been brought into commerce in considerable quantity as
Texan or Red River Snahe-root} We are indebted for an authentic
specimen from the Cherokee country to Mr. Merrell, a large dealer in
herbs at St. Louis, Missouri, who states that all the serpentary grown
south-west of the Rocky Mountains is the produce of that species. The
late Prof Parrish of Philadel))hia was kind enough to supply us with
specimens of the same drug, as well as with reliable samples of true
VirginiaM or Middle States Snake-root.
The Texan snake-root is somewhat thicker and less matted than that
derived from A. Serpentaria, but has the odour and taste of the latter ;
some say it is less ai'omatic. The plant, portions of which are often
present, maj^ be easily distinguished by its leaves being coriaceous,
sessile and strongly reticidated on their under surface.
CUPULIFER^.
CORTEX QUERCUS.
Ofl/.' Bark ; F. Ecorce de CJieve ; G. EieJieiiriv.de.
Botanical Origin — Quercus Rohur L., a tree, native of almost the
whole of Europe, from Portugal and the Greek Peninsula as far north as
58° N. lat. in Scotland, 62° in Norway, and 56° in the Ural Mountains.
There are two remarkable forms of this tree which are regarded b}'
many botanists as distinct species, but which are classed by De CandoUe-
as sub-species.
Sub-species I. irnhmcidata. — with leaves sessile or shortly stalked,
and acorns borne on a long peduncle, and acorns either sessile or grow-
ing on a short peduncle.
Sub-species II. sessiliflora — with leaf-stalks more or less elongated.
Both forms occur in Britain. The first is the common oak of the
greater part of England and the lowlands of Scotland. The second is
frequently scattered in woods in which the first variety prevails, but it
rarely constitutes the mass of the oak woods in the south of England.
In North Wales however, in the hilly parts of the north of England,
and in Scotland, it is the commoner of the two forms (Bentham).
' Vil\eg2a\dL\n American Journ. of Pliarm. Am. Pharm. Assodatiov, xxi. (1873) 441.
X. (1845) 10 ; also Proceedings of the - Prodromus, xvi. (18G4) sect. 2. fasc. 1.)
2 P
594<
CUPULIFERiE.
History — The astringent properties of all parts of the oak^ were
well known to Discorides, who recommends a decoction of the inner
bark in colic, dysentery and spitting of blood. Yet oak bark seems at
no time to have been held in great esteem as a medicine, probably on
account of its commonness; and it is now almost superseded by other
astringents. For tanning leather it has always been largely employed.
Description — For medicinal use the bark of the younger stems or
branches is collected in the early spring. It varies somewhat in appear-
ance according to the age of the wood from which it has been taken:
that usually supplied to English druggists is in channelled pieces of
variable length and a tenth of an inch or less in thickness, smooth, of a
shining silvery grey, variegated with brown, dotted over with little scars.
The inner surface is light rusty-brown, longitudinally striated. The
fracture is tough and fibrous. A. transverse section shows a thin, greenish
cork-layer, within which is the brown parenchyme, marked with nume-
rous rows of translucent colourless spots. The smell of dry oak bark is
very faint; but when the bark is moistened the odour of tan becomes
evident. The taste is astringent and in old barks slightly bitter.
Microscopic Structure — The outer layer of young oak bark con-
sists of small flat cork-cells; the middle layer of larger thick- walled
cells slightly extended in a tangential direction, and containing brown
grains and chlorophyll. This tissue passes gradually into the softer
narrower parenchyme of the inner bark, which is irregularly traversed
by narrow medullary rays. It exhibits moreover a ring, but slightly
interrupted, of thick-walled cells (sclerenehyme) and isolated shining
bundles of liber fibres.
Groups of crystals of calcium oxalate are frequent in the middle and
inner bark, but the chief constituents of the cells are brown granules of
colouring matter and tannin. As the thickness of the bark increases
the liber is pushed more to the outside, the middle cortical layer being
partly thrown oft" by secondary cork-formation (rhytidoma, see pp. 354
and 538). Hence the younger barks, which alone a,re medicinal, are
widely different from the older in structure and appearance.
Chemical Composition — The most interesting constituent is a
peculiar kind of tannin. Stenhouse pointed out in 1843 that the
tannic acid of oak bark is not identical with that of nutgalls; and such
many years afterwards was proved to be the case.
The first-named substance, now called Querci-tannic Acid, yields
by destructive distillation pyrocatechin, and according to Johanson
(1875) very little pyrogallol. By boiling it with dilute sulphuric acid
querci-tannic acid is split up into a red derivative and sugar. A
solution of gelatine is precipitated by querci-tannic acid as well as by
gallo-tannic acid; yet the compound formed with the latter is very
liable to putrefaction, whereas the tannin of oak bark, which is accom-
panied by a large amount of extractive matter, furnishes a stable com-
pound, and is capable of forming good leather.
As querci-tannic acid has not yet been isolated in a pure state, the
exact estimation of the strength of the tanning principle in oak bark
has not been accomplished, although it is important from an economic
as well as from a scientific point of view. The method of Neubauer
1 Probably not Q. Rohur L.
GALL^ HALEPENSES.
595
(1873) depends upon the amount of permanganate of potassium decom-
posable by the extract of a given weight of oak bark. Neubauer found
in the bark of young stems, as grown for tanning purposes, from 7 to
10 per cent, of querci-tannic acid, soluble in cold water.
Braconnot (1849) extracted from the seeds of the oaks under notice
a crystallized sugar, which was shown in 1851 by Dessaignes to be a
peculiar substance, which he termed Quercite. Prunier proved (1877-
1878) that it agrees with the formula C'5m(OH)5 + 4 0H2, and is
closely allied to kinic acid, CeH'(OH)*COOH (see page 3G3). Quercite
gives off water at 100°, melts at 225° C, and again losing water yields
a crystallized anhydride. In the oak bark extremely small quantities
of querite appear also to be present, as pointed out by Johanson.
A colourless, crystallizable, bitter substance, soluble in water, but
not in absolute alcohol or ether, was extracted from oak bark in 1843
by Gerber, and named Quercin. It requires further examination:
Eckert (1864) could not detect its existence in young oak bark.
Uses — Occasionally employed as an astringent, chiefly for external
application.
GALLiE HALEPENSES.
Gallce Turcica} ; Galls, Nutgalls, Oak Galls, Alepfo or Turkey Galls;
F. Noix de Galle, Galle d'Alep; G. Levantische oder Aleppische
Gallen, Gallapfel.
Botanical Origin — Quercus lusitanica Webb, var. infectoria (Q.
infectoria Oliv.),^ a shrub or rarely a tree, found in Greece, Asia Minor,
Cyprus and Syria. It is probable that other varieties of this oak, as
well as allied species, contribute to furnish the Aleppo galls of commerce.
History — Oak galls are named by Theophrastus, and were well
known to other ancient writers. Alexander Trallianus prescribed them
as a remedy in diarrhcea."
The earliest accurate descriptions and figures of the oak and the
insect producing the galls are due to Olivier.'^ Pliny ^ mentions the
interesting fact that paper saturated with an infusion of galls may be
used as a test for discovering sulphate of iron, when added as an
adulteration to the more costly verdigris: this, according to Kopp, is
the earliest instance of the scientific application of a chemical reaction.'*
For tanning and dyeing, galls have been used from the earliest times,
during the middle ages however they were not precisely an article of
great importance, being then, no doubt, for a large part replaced by
sumach.
Nutgalls have long been an object of commerce between Western
Asia and China. Barbosa in his Description of the East Indies^ written
in 1514 calls them MagicanJ and says they are brought from the Levant
' De CandoUe, Prodromxis, xvi. sect. 2.
fasc. i. 17.
2 Puschmann's edition, quoted in the
Appendix, i. 237.
I'oyai/p dans VEmpire Othoman, ii.
(1801), pi. 14-15.
^ Lib. 34. c. 26.
° Geschichte der Chemie, ii. (1844) 51.
^ Published by the Hakluyt Society,
Lend. 1866. 191.
' Nearly the same name is still used in
the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalim and Cauarese
languages.
596
CTJPULIFERiE.
to Cambay by way of Mekka, and that they are v/ortli a great deal in
China and Java. From the statements of Porter Smith^ we learn that
they are still prized by the Chinese.
Formation — Many plants are punctured by insects for the sake of
depositing their eggs, which oi)eration gives rise to those excrescences
which bear the general name of gallJ-
Oaks are specially liable to be visited for this purpose by insects of
the order Hymenoptem and the genus Cynips, one species of which,
Cynips Gallce tinctorice Olivier {Diplolepis Gallce tindorice Latreille),
occasions the galls under notice.
The female of this little creature is furnished with a delicate borer or
ovipositor, which she is able to protrude from the extremity of the
abdomen; by means of it slie pierces the tender shoot of the oak, and
deposits therein one or more eggs. This minute operation occasions an
abnormal affluence to the spot of the juices of the plant, the result of
which is the growth of an excrescence often of great magnitude, in the
centre of which (but not as it appears until the gall has become full-
grown) the larva is hatched and undergoes its transformations.
When the larva has assumed its final development and become a
winged insect, which requires a period of five to six months, the latter
bores itself a cylindrical passage from the centre of the gall to its
surface, and escapes.
In the best kind of gall found in commerce, this stage has not yet
arrived, the gall having been gathered while the insect is still in the
larval state. In splitting a number of galls, it is not difficult to find
specimens in all stages, from those containing the scarcely distinguishable
remains of the minute larva, to tliose which show the perfect insect to
have perished when in the very act of escaping from its prison.
Description — Aleppo galls ^ are spherical, and have a diameter
of to of an inch. They have a smooth and rather shining surface,
marked in the upper half of the gall by small pointed knobs and ridges,
arranged very irregularly and wide apart ; the lower half is more
frequently smooth. The aperture by which the insect escapes is always
near the middle. When not perforated, the galls are of a dark olive'
green, and comparatively heavy ; but after the fly has bored its way out,
they become of a yellowish brown hue, and lighter in weight. Hence
the distinction in commerce of Blue or Green Galls, and White Galls.
Aleppo galls are hard and brittle, splitting under the hammer; they
have an acidulous, very astringent taste followed by a slight sweetness,
but have no marked odour. Their fractured surface is sometimes close-
grained, with a waxy or resinous lustre ; sometimes (especially towards
the kernel-like centre) loosely granular, or sometimes again it exhibits a
cr3^stalline-looking radiated structure or is full of clefts. The colour of
the interior varies from pale brown to a deep greenish yellow. The
1 Mat. Med. and Nat. Hist, of China,
1871. 100.
- French writers, as Moquin-Tandoii, dis-
tinguish the thick-walled galls of Cynips
from the thin, capsular galls formed by
Aphis, terming the former f/aUes and the
latter coques (shells).
^ There are many other varieties of oak
gall, for descriptions of some of which, see
Guibourt, Hist, des Dro<jues, ii. (1869)292;
and for information on the various gall-
insects of tlie family Ci/nipsidw. and the ex-
crescences they produce, consult a paper
by Abl in Wittstein's VierteljahresschriJ'i
fVirpraU. Pharm. vi. (1857) 343-.S61.
GALLJE HALEPENSE8.
597
central cavity, sometimes nearly | of an inch in diameter, which served
as a dwelling for the insect, is lined with a thin hard shell. If the
insect has perished while still very young, the central cavity and the
aperture contain a mass of loose starchy cellular tissue, or its pulverulent
remains : if the insect has not been developed at all, the centre of the
gall is entirely composed of this tissue.
Microscopic Structure — The cellular tissue of the gall is formed
in the middle layer of large spherical cells with rather thick porous
walls, becoming considerably smaller towards the circumference. The
outermost rows are built up of cells having but a very small lumen and
comparatively thick walls, so that they form a sort of rind. Here and
there throuofhout tlie entire tissue, there occur isolated bundles of vessels
which pass through the stalk into the gall. Towards the kernel, the
parenchyme gradually passes into radially-extended, wider, thin-walled
cells, the walls of which are marked with spiral stria3. The hard shell
of the chamber^ is composed of larger, radially-extended, thick- walled
cells, with beautifully stratified porous walls. On the inner side of this
shell there are found, after the escape of the insect, the remains of the
starchy tissue already mentioned, which oi'iginally filled the chamber
and had been consumed by the insect as nourishment.
The parenchyme-cells outside the shell contain chlorophyll and
tannin; the latter is in transparent, colourless, sharp-edged masses,
insoluble in benzol, but dissolving slowly in water, quickly in alcohol.
Thin slices soaked in glycerin appear after some time covered with
beautiful crystals of gallic acid. The thick-walled cells (stone-cells)
and the neighbouring striated cells, are rich in octahedra of calcium
oxalate. The tissue of the gall situated within the shell of thick-walled
cells contains starch in large, compressed, mostly spherical granules ;
also isolated masses of brown resin. Besides these, there appears to be
in this part of the tissue an albuminoid compound.
Chemical Composition — The rough taste of galls is due to
their chief constituent. Tannic or Gallo-tannic Acid, C"H"'0^, or
which vegetables owe their astringent properties. Tannic matter was
long supposed to be of one kind, namely that found in the oak gall,
but the researches of later years have proved the tannin of different
plants to possess distinctive characters : hence the term gallo-tamiic
acid to distinguish that of galls, fi-om which it is principally derived.
It was however shown by Stenhouse as far back as the year 1843,
again in 1861, as well as by still more recent unpublished experiments,
that the tannic acid found in Sicilian sumach, the leaves of Rhus
Coriaria L., is identical with that of oak galls. Lowe in 1873 came to
the same conclusion. The best oak galls yield of this acid, from 60 to
70 per cent.
Gallic Acid is also contained in galls ready- formed to the extent of
about 3 per cent. Free sugar, resin, protein-substances, have also been
found. Neither gum nor dextrin is present.
Commerce — The introduction into dyeing of new chemical sub-
^ Coudie protectrice oi Lacaze-Duthiers — — Ann. des Sckncef N(d., Bot. xix. (1853)
Becherches pour servir a Vhistoire des gcdlcf. 273-354.
O, the type of a numerous family of substances to
598
CUPULIFERiE.
stances, and the increased employment of sumachi and myrobalans, have
caused the trade in nutgalls to decline considerably during the last few
years. The province of Aleppo which used to export annually 10,000
to 12,000 quintals, exported in 1871 only 3000 quintals/ A staple
market for the galls which are collected in the mountains of Kurdistan
is Diarbekir, whence they are sent to Trebizond for shipment. Galls
are also shipped in some quantity at Bussorah, Bagdad, Bushire, and
Smyrna.
There were imported into the United Kingdom from ports of Tui key
and Persia during 1872, 6349 cwt. of galls, valued at £18,581.
Uses — Oak galls in their crude state are seldom used in medicine
unless it be externally ; but the tannic and gallic acids extracted from
them are often administered.
Other kinds of Gall.
Chinese or Japanese Galls — The only kind of galls, besides those
of the oak, which are of commercial importance. They are described
at page 167.
Pistacia Galls — The genus Pistacia, which belongs to the same
order as Rhus, is very liable to the attacks of A'plds, which produce
upon its leaves and branches excrescences of exactly the same nature
as Chinese galls. In the south of Europe, horn-like follicles, often
several inches long,^ are frequently met with on the branches Pistacia
Terebinthus (page 165). These Gallce vet Folliculi Pistacince, in
Italian Carobbe di Oiudea, were formerly used in medicine and in
dyeing.^ They were noticed in 1555 by Belon, but already well
known as early as the time of Theophrastus.
Another much smaller gall of different shape is formed (by the same
insect ?) on the ribs of the leaves of Pistacia Terebinthus ; P. Lentiscus
(page 161) affords also a similar small excrescence.
Again, another growth of the same character constitutes the small
and very astringent galls known in the Indian bazaars by the names of
Bazghanj and Qule-pistah, the latter signifying flower of p>istachio;
they have been termed in Europe Bokhara Galls. They were imported
by sea into Bombay in the year 1872-73, to the extent of 184 cwt.,
chiefly from Sind;* and are also carried into North-western India by
way of Peshawar and by the Bolan Pass. Occasionally a package
finds its way into a London drug sale.
Tamorislc Galls — These are roundish knotty excrescences of the
size of a pea up to -|- an inch in diameter, found in North-western India
on the branches of Tamarix orientalis L., a large, quick-growing tree,
common on saline soils. The galls are used in India in the place of
oak galls, and are mentioned as " non-officinal " in the Pharmacopoeia
of India, 1867 We are not aware that they have been the subject of
any particular chemical research ; their microscopic structure has been
investigated by Vogl.'
^ Consul Skene — Reports of H.M. Con- ^Analysis by Martius maybe found in
suls. No. 1. 1872. 270. Liebig's Ann. d. Pharvi. xxi. (1837) 179.
^ For a figure, see Pharni. Journ. iii. * From the returns quoted at page 333,
(1844)387. Forthe structure see Marchand, note 3.
in the paper quoted at page 166, note 4, ^ Zeitschrift des Oestcrreichischen Apotlir-
plate iii. kervereines, 1877. 14.
LIGNUM SANTALI.
599
SANTALACE^.
LIGNUM SANTALI.
Lignum Santalinum album vel citrinum ; Sandal Wood ; F. Bois de
Santal citrin ; G. Weisses oder Gelbes Sandelholz.
Botanical Origin — Santalum alburn^ L., a small tree, 20 to 30
feet high, with a trunk 18 to 35 inches in girth, a native of the moun-
tainous parts of the Indian peninsula, but especially of Mysore and
parts of Coimbatore and North Canara, in the Madras Presidency ; it
grows in dry and open places, often in hedge-rows, not in forests.
The same tree is also found in the islands of the Eastern Archipelago,
notably of Sumba (otherwise called Chandane or Sandal-wood Island),
and Timur.
In later times, sandal wood has been extensively collected in the
Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, where its existence was first pointed
out about the year 1778, from Santalum Freycinetianum Gaud, and
S. pyrularium A. Gray;^ in the Viti or Fiji Islands from S. Yasi
Seem. ; in New Caledonia from S. austro-caledonicum, Vieill ^ ; and in
Western Australia from Fusanus spicatus Br. (Santalum spicatum
DC, S. cygnorum Miq.).'* The mother plants of Japanese and
West Indian sandal wood are not known to us.
In India the sandal-wood tree is protected by Government, and is
the source of a profitable commerce. In other countries it has been
left to itself, and has usually been extirpated, at least from all accessible
places, within a few years of its discovery.
History — Sandal wood, the Sanskrit name for which, Chandana,
has passed into many of the languages of India, is mentioned in the
Nivulda or writings of Yaska, the oldest Vedic commentary extant,
written not later than the 5th century B.C. The wood is also referred
to in the ancient Sanskrit epic poems, the Ramayana and Mahabha-
rata, parts of which may be of nearly as early date.
The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, written about the
middle of the 1st century, enumerates sandal wood (S(^Aa aayaXlva)
among the Indian commodities imported into Omana in the Persian
Gulf^
The "Y^avSava mentioned towards the middle of the 6th century by
Gosmas Indicopleustes," as brought to Taprobane (Ceylon) from China
and other emporia, was probably the wood under consideration. In
Ceylon its essential oil was used as early as the 9th century in
embalming the corpses of the princes.
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Medic.
Plants, part 18 (1877).
2 Seemann, Flora Vitiensis, 1865-73.
210-215.
^ The natural woods having been nearly
exhausted, the tree is now under culture
in the island. Catalogue des produits
des colonies franqaises. Exposition de 1878.
& 332 ; they state there that the island of
ossi-be, on the noi-th-WGstern coast of
Madagascar, also supplies some sandal
wood.
* Whether Santalum lanceolatum Br. , a
tree found throughout N. and E. Australia,
and called sanded ivood by the colonists, is
an object of trade, we know not.
° Vincent, Commerce and Navigation of
the Ancients, ii. (1807) 378.
" Migne, Patrologice Cicrsus, series Grseca,
torn, 88. 446.
GOO
SANTALACEiE.
Sandal wood is named by Masudi ^ as one of the costly aroiuatics of
the Eastern Archipelago. In India it was used in the most sacred
buildings, of which a memorable example still exists in the famous
gates of Somnath, supposed to be 1000 years old.-
In the 11th century sandal wood was found among the treasures of
the Egyptian khalifs, as stated in our article on camphor at page 511.
Among European writers, Constantinus Africanus, who flourished
at Salerno in the 11th century, was one of the earliest to mention
Sandalum.'' Ebn Serabi, called Serapion the Younger, who lived about
the same period, was acquainted with tvhite, yellow, and red sandal
wood.'^ All three kinds of sandal wood also occur in a list of drugs ^ in
use at Frankfort, circa A.D. 1450; and in the Covvpendium Aromata-
I'iorurii of Saladinus, published in 1488, we find mentioned as proper to
be kept by the Italian apothecary, — " Sandali trium genermii, scilicet
albi, rubii et citrini."
Whether the red sandal here coupled with ivhite and yelloxv was
the inodorous wood of Pterocarpus santalinus, now called Lignum
santalinum rubrum or Red Sanders (see p. 199), is extremely doubtful.
It may have meant real sandal wood, of which three shades, designated
luhite, red, and yellow, are still recognized by the Indian traders.*"
On the other hand, we learn from Barbosa" that about 1511 wliite
and yelloiv sandal wood were worth at Calicut on the Malabar Coast
from eight to ten times as much as the red, which would show that in
his day the red was not a mere variety of the other two, but something
far cheaper, like the Red Sanders Wood of modern commerce.
In 1635 the subsidy levied on sandal wood imported into England
was Is. per lb. on the wlilte, and 2s. per lb. on the yellow!^
The first figure and satisfactory description of Santalum albu/m
occur in the Herbarium Amboinense of Rumphius (ii. tab. 11).
Production — The dry tracts producing this valuable wood occupy
patches of a strip of country lying chiefly in Mysore and Coimbatore,
about 250 miles long, north and north-west of the Neilgherry Hills,
and having Coorg and Canara between it and the Indian Ocean; also a
piece of country further eastward in the districts of Salem and North
Arcot, where the tree grows from the sea-level up to an elevation of
3000 feet. In Mysore, where sandal wood is most extensively pro-
duced, the trees all belong to Government, and can only be felled by
the proper officers. This privilege was conferred on the East India
Company by a treaty with Hyder Ali, made 8 August 1770, and the
' I. 222 in the work quoted in the
Apijendix.
- They are 1 1 feet high and 9 feet wide,
and richly carved out of sandal wood ; they
were constructed for the temple of Som-
nath in Guzerat, once esteemed the holiest
temple in India. On its desti'uction in a. d.
1025, the gates were carried off to Ghuzni
in Afghanistan, where they remained until
the capture of that city by the English in
1842, when they were taken back to India.
They are now preserved in the citadel of
Agra. For a rej)resentation of the gates,
see Archa'o/oijia, xxx. (1844) pi. 14.
^ Opera, Basil. 1536-S9, Lih. de Gradihus,
369.
* Liber Sernpionis aggrecjatus in medicinis
fiimpUcihus, 1473.
^' Fluckiger, Die Franlcfurier Liste, Halle,
1873. 11.
^ Thus Milburn in his Oriental Commerce
(1813) says — " . . . the deejier the colour,
the higher is the perfume ; and hence the
merchants sometimes divide sandal intora/,
yellow, and ichite, but these are all dififereut
shades of the same colour, and do not arise
from any difference in the species of the
tree."— (i. 291.)
Ramusio, Navigationi et Viayiji, etc. ,
Veuet. 1554. fol. 357 b., Libra di Odoardo
Barbona Portoghese.
* The Eafe.i of Marcliandizes, Loud. 1635.
LIGNUM SAN TALI.
601
monopoly has been maintained to the present day. The Mysore
annual exports of sandal wood are about 700 tons, valued at £27,000.^
They are shipped from Mangalore.
A similar monopoly existed in the Madras Presidency until a few
years ago, when it was abandoned. But sandal wood is still a source
of revenue to the Madras Government, which by the systematic
management of the Forest Department has of late years been regularly
increasing. The quantity of sandal wood felled in the Reserved
Forests during the year 1872-3 was returned as 15,329 maunds (547i
tons).2
The sandal- wood tree, which is indigenous to the regions just men-
tioned, used to be reproduced by seeds sown spontaneously or by birds;
but it is now being raised in regular plantations, the seeds being sown
two or three in a hole with a chili (Capsicum) seed, the latter producing
a quick-growing seedling which shades the sandal while young.^ It is
probable that the nurse-plant affords sustenance, for it has been
shown* thsjt Santalum i« parasitic, its roots attaching themselves by
tuber-like processes to those of many other plants ; and it is also said
that young sandal plants thrive best when grass is allowed to grow up
in the seed-beds.
The trees attain their prime in 20 to 30 years, and have then
trunks as much as a foot in diameter. A tree having been felled, the
branches are lopped off, and the trunk allowed to lie on the ground for
several months, during which time the white ants eat away the greater
part of the inodorous sapwood. The trunk is then roughly trimmed,
sawn into billets 2 to 2^- feet long, and taken to the forest depots.
There the wood is weighed, subjected to a second and more careful
trimming, and classified according to quality. In some parts it is
customary not to fell but to dig the tree up; in others the root is dug up
after the trunk has been cut down, — the root affording valuable wood,
which with the chips and sawdust are preserved for distillation, or
for burning in the native temples. The sap wood and branches are
worthless.'
In 1863 a sort of sandal wood afforded by Fusanus spicatus (p. 599)
was one of the chief exports of Western Australia, whence it was
shipped to China. A trifling payment for permission to cut growing
timber of any kind was the only barrier placed on the felling of the
trees. The farmers employed their teams during the dull season in
bringing to Perth or Guildford the logs of sandal which had been felled
and trimmed in the bush; and the^e was a flourishing trade so long as
trees of a fair size could be obtained within 100 or even 150 miles of
the towns, where the commodity was worth £6 to £6 10«. per ton. But
the ill-regulated and improvident destruction of the trees in the more
easily accessible districts has so reduced their numbers that the trade
' B. H. Baden Powell, Report on the
Administration of the Forest Department in.
the several provinces under the Government of
India, 1872-73, Calcutta, 1874. vol. i. 27.
^ Report of the Administration of the
Madras Presidency during the year 1872-73,
Madras, 1874. 18. 143.
Beddome, Flora Sylvatica for Southern
India, 1872. 256.
* Scott in Jozirn. of Arjricult. and Horti-
culf. Soc. of India, Calcutta, vol. ii. part 1
(1871) 287.
^ Elliot, Experiences of a Planter in the
Junt/lcs of Mysore, ii. (1871) 237; also
verbal information communicated by Capt.
Campbell Walker, Deputy Conservator of
Forests, Madras.
602
SANTALACEiE.
in that part of Australia soon came to an end.' Australian sandal wood
appears however to be still an article of commerce, if one may draw
such an inference from the fact that 47,904) cwt. of sandal wood were
imported into Singapore from Australia in the year 1872. It was mostly
re-shipped to China.^
Description — Sandal wood is not much known in English commerce,
and is by no means always to be fouud even in London. That which
we have examined, and which we believe was Indian, was in cylindrical
logs, mostly about G inches in diameter (the largest 8 inches — smallest
3 inches) and 3 to 4 feet long, extremely ponderous; the bark had been
removed. A transverse section of sandal wood exhibits it of a pale
brown, marked with rather darker concentric zones and (when seen
under a lens) numerous open pores. The tissue is traversed by medul-
lary rays, also perceptible by the aid of a lens. The wood splits easily,
emitting when comminuted an agreeable odour which is remarkably
persistent; it has a strongish aromatic taste.
The varieties of sandal wood are not classified by the few persons
who deal in the article in London, and we are unable to point out cha-
racters by which they may be distinguished. In the price-currents of
commercial houses in China three sorts of sandal wood are enumerated,
namely. South Sea Island, Timor, and Malabar; the last fetches three
or four times as high a price as either of the others. Even the Indian
sandal wood may vary in an important manner. Beddome,^ consei-
vator of forests in Madras, and an excellent observer, remarks that the
finest sandal wood is that which has grown slowly on rocky, dry and poor
land; and that the trees found in a rich alluvial soil, though of very fine
growth, produce no heart- wood and are consequently valueless. A variety
of the tree with more lanceolate leaves (var. /3 myrtifoVmm DC), native
of the eastern mountains of the Madras Presidency, affords a sandal wood
which is nearly inodorous.
Microscopic Structure — The woody rays or wedges show a breadth
varying from 35 to ■420 mkm., the primary being frequently divided by
secondary medullary rays. These latter rays consist of one, often of two,
rows of cells of the usual form. The woody tissue which they enclose
is chiefly made up of small ligneous fibres with pointed ends, some larger
parenchymatous cells, and thick -walled vessels. The resin and essential
oil reside chiefly in the medullary rays, as shown by the darker colour
of these latter.
Chemical Composition — The most important constituent is the
essential oil, which the wood yields to the extent of from 2 to 5 per
cent.* In India, with imperfect stills, 2' .5 per cent, of the oil are obtained;
the roots yield the largest amount and the finest quality of it.'' It is a
light yellow, thick liquid, possessing the characteristic odour of sandal;
that which we examined had a sp. gr. of 0-963. "We did not succeed in
finding a fixed boiling point of the oil; it began to boil at 214° C, but
^ Millett, An Australian Parsonage,
Lond., 1872, 43. 95. 382.
2 Straits Settlements Blue Book for 1872,
Singapore, 1873. 298. 347.— It is possible
that the sandal wood in question may have
been the produce of the Soiith Sea Islands,
shipped from an Australian port.
3 Op. cit.
* Information obligingly communicated
by Messrs. Sohimmel and Co., Leipzig
(1878).
* Dr. Bidie, in Pharmacopoeia of India,
1868, p. 461.
LIGNUM SANTALI.
603
the temperatui'e quickly rose to 255°, the oil acquiring a darker hue.
Oil of sandal wood varies much in the strength and character of its
aroma, according to the sort of wood from which it is produced.
The oil as largely prepared by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., in a column
100 millimetres long, deviates the plane of polarization 18"6° to the left.
Oil of Venezuela sandal wood, from the same distillers, examined in the
same manner, deviates 6°"75 to the right.
From the wood, treated with boiling alcohol, we obtained about
7 per cent, of a blackish extract, from which a tannate was precipitated
by alcoholic solution of acetate of lead. Decomposed by sulphuretted
hydi'ogen, the tannate yielded a tannic acid having but little colour, and
striking a greenish hue with a ferric salt. The extract also contained a
dark resin.
Commerce — The greatest trade in sandal wood is in China, which
country in the year 186G imported at the fourteen treaty ports then open
87,321 peculs, equivalent to 5,197 tons; of this vast quantity the city of
Hankow on the river Yangtsze, received no less than 61,414 peculs, or
more than seven times as much as any other port.^ The imports into
Hankow have recently been much smaller, namely, 14,989 peculs in 1871
and 12,798 peculs in 1872.2 On the other hand, Shanghai lying near
the mouth of the same great river, imported in 1872, 59,485 peculs of
sandal wood, the estimated value of which was about £100,000. In
1877 the imports of all China were 72,934 peculs.
A considerable trade in sandal wood is done in Bombay, the quantity
imported thither annually being about 650 tons, and the annual export
about 400 tons.^
Oil of sandal wood is largely manfactured on the ghats between
Mangalore and Mysore, where fuel for the stills is abundant. Official
returns* represent the quantity of the oil imported into Bombay in
the year 1872-73 as 10,348 lbs., value £8,374; 4,500 lbs. were re-exported
by sea.
Uses — The essential oil has of late been prescribed as a substitute
for copaiba, otherwise sandal wood has hardly any uses in modern
European medicine. It is employed as a perfume and for the fabri-
cation of small articles of ornament. Among the natives of India
it is largely consumed in the celebration of sepulchral rites, wealthy
Hindus showing their respect for a departed relative by adding sticks of
sandal wood to the funereal pile. The powder of the wood made into a
paste with water is used for making the caste mark, and also for medicinal
purposes. The consumption of sandal wood in China appears to be
principally for the incense used in the temples.
^ Reports on Trade at the ports in Cliina
open to foreign trade for 18C6, published by
order of the Inspector-General of Customs,
Shanghai, 1867. 120. 121.— One pecul
= 133J lb.
- Commercial Reports of H.M. Consult in
China for 1871 (p. 50) and 1872 (pp. 62.
15S).
3 From the official document quoted at
p. 601, note 1.
^ See p. 333, note 3.
604
CONlFERiE.
CONIFERS.
TEREBINTHINA VULGARIS.
Crude or Common Turpentine ; F. Terebentltine cominimc ; G.
Gemeiver Terpentltin.
Botanical Origin — The trees which yield Common Turpentine
may be considered in two groups, namely, European and American.
1. European — In Finland and Russia Proper, the Scotch Pine,
Pinus silvestris L.; in Austria and Corsica, P. Lavicio Poiret ; and in
South-western France, P. Pinaster Solander (P. maritima Poiret),
extensively cultivated as the Pin maritime, 3'ield turpentine in their
respective countries.
2. American—In the United States, the conifers most important for
terebinthinous products are the Swamp Pine, Pinus australis Michaux
(P. 2^(('l^st7'is Mill.), and the Loblolly Pine, P. Twda L.
History — The resin of pines and firs was well known to the ancients,
who obtained it in much the same manner as that practised at the
present day. The turpentine used in this country has for many years
past been derived from North America. Up to the last century, both
it and the substance called Common Frankincense were imported from
France. The late civil war in the United States and the blockade of
the Southern ports, occasioned a gi'eat scarcity of American turpentine;
and terebinthinous substances from all other countries were poured into
the London market. The actual supplies, howevei', were mainly fur-
nished by France.
Kopp^ quotes a passage showing that the essential oil of turpentine
was known to Marcus Grsecus, who termed it Aqua arclens. This almost
unknown personage is the reputed inventor of Greek Fire, a dreaded
engine of destruction in mediaeval warfare.
Secretion — The primary formation of resin-ducts in the bark of
coniferous trees has been explained by Dippel,^ Midler,' and Frank."*
The subsequent diffusion of the resinous juice through the heart-wood,
sap-wood, and bark, has been elaborately investigated by Hugo von
Mohl.^ From the various forms under which this diffusion exists in the
^ Geschichte der Chemie, iv. (1847) 302. * Beifrcirje zxir Pflamenxihijuiologie, Lei'i)
- Botanische Zeitumj, 1863. zig, 1868. 119.
^ Pringslieim. Jahrh. fur wissenschaJ'U. ^ Botanische Zeituiuj. 1859. 329.
Botanik. 1866.
TEREBINTHINA VULGARIS.
605
different species have arisen the diverse methods of obtaining the
terebinthinous resins.
Thus in the wood of the Silver Fir (Pinus Ficea L.) resin-ducts are
altogether wanting; — and led by experience, the Alpine peasant collects
the turpentine of this tree by simply puncturing the little cavities which
form under its bark. In the Scotch Pine (P. silvestris L.), they are more
abundant in the wood than in the bark, a fact which might be anticipated
by observing how rarely this tree exudes resin spontaneously.
Oil of turpentine, like volatile oils in general, undergoes on exposure
to the air certain alterations giving rise to what is called resinijieation.
The formic acid which is produced in small quantity during this change
characterizes it as one of oxidation; the chief products however are not
exactly known, and not one of them has been proved identical with any
natural resin. The common assumption that resins are produced from
volatile oils by simple oxidation, is consequently not yet entirely
justified.
Extraction — In the United States ^ turpentine is obtained to the
largest extent from Pinus australis, of which tree there are vast forests,
the piny woods or pine-barrens, extending from Virginia to the Mexican
Gulf, especially through North and South Carolina, Georgia and Ala-
bama. But it is in North Carolina that the extraction of turpentine is
principally carried on.
In the winter, i.e. from November to March, the negroes in a
Turpenti'ne Orchard, as the district of forest to be worked is called, are
occupied in making in the trunks of the trees, cavities which are
technically known as boxes. For this purpose a long narrow axe is
used, and some skill is required to wield it properly. The boxes are
made from G to 12 inches above the ground, and are shaped like a dis-
tended waistcoat-pocket, the bottom being about 4 inches below the
lower lip, and 8 or 10 below the upper. On a tree of medium size, a
box should be made to hold a quart. The less the axe approaches the
centre of the tree the better, as vitality is the less endangered. An ex-
pert workman will make a box in less than 10 minutes. From one to
four boxes are made in each tree, a few inches of bark being left between
them. The gi'eater number of trees from which turpentine is now
obtained, are from 12 to 18 inches in diameter, and have three boxes
each.
The boxes having been made, the bark and a little of the wood
immediately beneath it, which are above the box, are hacked ; and from
this excoriation, the sap begins to flow about the middle of March,
gradually filling the box. Each tree requires to be freshly hacked every
8 or 10 days, a ver}^ slight wound above the last being all that is needed.
The hacking is carried on year after year, until it reaches 12 to 15 feet
or more, ladders being used. The turpentine, which is called clip, is
removed from the boxes by a spoon or ladle of peculiar form, and
collected into barrels, which are made on the spot and are of very rude
construction. The first year's flow of a new tree, having but a small
surface to traverse before it reaches the box, is of special goodness and
is termed Virgin dij).
1 The account here given is taken from Slave States, New York, 1850, p. 338, eto.
F. L. Olmsted's Journey in the Seaboard
606 CONIFERiE.
<
The turpentine which concretes upon the trunk is occasionally scraped
off and barrelled by itself, and is known in the market as scrape, or by
English druggists as Common Frankincense or Gum thus.
Although a large amount of turpentine is shipped to the northern
ports for distillation, a still larger is distilled in the neighbourhood of
the turpentine orchards. Copper stills are used, capable of containing
5 to 20 barrels of turpentine. The turpentine is distilled without water,
the volatile oil as it flows from the worm beinsf received in the barrel in
o
which it is afterwards sent to market. When all the oil that can be
profitably drawn off has been obtained, a spigot is removed from an
opening in the bottom of the still, and the residual Rosin, appearing
as a viscid fluid-like molasses, is allowed to flow out. Only the first
qualities of rosin, as that obtained ft-om Virgin dip, are generally
considered worth saving, the less pure sorts being simply allowed to run
to waste. When it is intended to save the rosin, the latter is drawn off
into a vat of water, which separates the chips and other rubbish, and
the rosin is then placed in barrels for the market. A North Carolina
turpentine orchard will remain productive under ordinary treatment
for fifty years.
The collection of turpentine in the departments of the Landes and
Gironde in the south-west of France, is performed in a more rational
manner than in America, inasmuch as the plan of making deep cavities
in the tree for the purpose of receiving the resin, is avoided by the
simple expedient of placing a suitable vessel beneath the lowest incision.'
The turpentine which concretes upon the stem is termed in France
Galipot or Barras.
Description — Common turpentine is chiefly of two varieties,
namely, American and Bordeaux ; the first alone is commonly found
in the English market.
American Turpentine — A viscid honey-like fluid, of yellowish
colour, somewhat opaque, but becoming transparent by exposure to the
air ; it has an agreeable odour and warm bitterish taste. When long-
kept in a bottle, it is seen to separate into two layers, the upper clear
and faintly fluorescent, the lower somewhat turbid or granular. When
the latter portion is examined under the microscope, it is found to con-
sist mainly of minute crystals of peculiar curved or bluntly elliptic
form. These crystals are abietic acid ; when the turpentine is warmed,
the crystals are speedily dissolved.
Bordeaux Turpentine — in all essential particulars agrees with
American Turpentine ; it appears to separate rather more readily than
the latter into two layers, — a transparent and an opaque or crys-
talline.
Chemical Composition — The turpentines are mixtures of resin
and essential oil. The latter, which amounts to from 15 to 30 per cent.,
consists for the greater part of various hydrocarbons, corresponding
to the formula C"H"^. Many of the crude turpentine oils, and some of
tliem even after rectification, are energetically acted on by metallic
'For further particulars, see Guibourt, 1874. 2-1 pages, 1 j^late ; Mattliieu, Flore
Hist, des drog. ii. (1869) 259, also Curie, foresUh-e 1860, p. 35.3.
Produits risineux du Phi maritime. Paris
TEREBINTHINA VULGARIS.
607
sodium. This re-action proves the presence of a certain quantity of
oxygenated oils, not one of which has thus far been isolated.
The turpentine oils, although agreeing in composition, exhibit a
series of physical differences accoi'ding to their origin. One and the
same tree, indeed, yields from its several organs oils of different proper-
ties. The boiling point varies between 152° and 172° C. The sp. gr.
at mean temperatures ranges from 0'856 to 0'870. Greater differences
are exhibited in the optical properties, some varieties of the oil turning
the plane of polarization to the right, others to the left. This rotatory
power differs in many cases from that of the turpentine from which
the oil was derived.^ The odour of oil of turpentine varies with the
species from which it has been obtained.
When crude turpentine is distilled with water, nearly the whole of
the oil passes over, while the resin remains. This resin is called Colophony
or Rosin. When it still contains a little water, it is distinguished in
English trade as Yelloiv Rosin ; when fully deprived of water, it
becomes what is called Transparent Rosin. That of deeper colour
acquired by a still longer application of heat, bears the name of Black
Rosin.
Colophony softens at 80° C, and melts completely at 100° into a clear
liquid. At about 150° it forms a somewhat darker liquid, but without
undergoing a loss in weight ; at higher temperatures, it gradually de-
composes. Pure colophony has a sp. gr. of 1'07, and is homogeneous,
transparent, amorphous, and very brittle. At temperatures between 15°
and 20° C, it requires for solution 8 parts of dilute alcohol (0'888). On
addition of a caustic alkali, it dissolves in spirit much more freely. It
is plentifully soluble in acetone or benzol.
The composition of colophony agrees with the formula C^*H"''0*.
By shaking coarsely powdered colophony with warm dilute alcohol, it is
converted into a crystalline body, Ahietic Acid, C*'H''*0°, — a result due
simpl}^ to hydration. Under such treatment, colophony yields 80 to 90
per cent, of abietic acid,^ and therefore consists chiefly of the anhydride
of that acid. This is probably the case with the resins of other conifers.
The living tree contains only the anhydride, for the fresh resinous juice
is clear and amorphous after the expulsion of the oil ; and when exposed
to the air it loses oil, takes up water and solidifies as the crystalline acid,
— a change which may easily be traced by the aid of the microscope,
in drops taken direct from the trunk. Amorphous colophony retains its
transparency even in a moist atmosphere, and appears to be capable of
passing into the state of abietic acid, only when the assumption of the
needful molecule of water is aided, in nature by the presence of the
essential oil, or artificially by that of alcohol.
Colophony when boiled with alkaline solutions foi'ms greasy salts
of abietic acid, the so-callen resin-soaps, which are used as additions
to other soaps.
Siewert's Silvic Acid is regarded by Maly (1864) as a product of the
decomposition of abietic acid ; and the Pimaric, Pinic and Silvic Acids
of former investigators, as impure abietic acid. Pimaric acid however,
which is the chief constituent of Galipot, appears to be decidedly
1 For some particulars, see my notice in ^ Fliickiger in loc. cit. 1867. 36. — Most
the/a7ire.s6erie/t<of WiggersandHusemann chemists assign to this acid the formula
for 1869, p. 36.— F. A. F. C^oHSfO^, and call it dlvlc add.
GOS
TEREBINTHINA VULGARIS.
different, so far as we can judge from the experiments of Duvernoy
(1865) and of one of ourselves (F.)
Abietic acid, as well as the unaltered coniferous resins, deviate the
ray of polarized light, whereas American colophony, dissolved in
acetone, is devoid of optical power.
Commerce — The supplies of turpentine are chiefly derived from the
United States, but the trade has undergone a great change, as shown by
the following figures, which represent the quantities imported in the
several years : —
1869 1870 1871 1872
60,468 cwt. 51,2.57 cwt. 2,231 cwt. 1,000 cwt.
This greatly diminished importation of the crude article is partially ex-
plained by a larger importation of Oil of Turpentine and Rosin ; but the
increase is by no means sufficient to account for the vast diminution
indicated by the above figures. The quantities of these latter articles
imported into the United Kingdom during the year 1872 were as
follows : — Oil of Turpentine, 220,292 cwt., value £470,085, six-sevenths
being furnished by the United States of America and the remainder
chiefly by France. Rosin, 919,494 cwt., value £492,240 ; of this
quantity, the United States supplied nine-tenths, and France the
larger part of the remainder.^
Uses — Turpentine, Common Frankincense and Colophony are
ingredients of certain plasters and ointments. Oil of turpentine is
occasionally administered internally as a vermifuge or diuretic, and
applied externally as a stimulant. But these substances are immea-
surably less important in medicine than in the arts.
Thus Americanum vel vulgare.
This substance, known among druggists as Common Franhincense
or Gum Thus, is the resin which, as explained at p. 605, concretes upon
the stems of the pines in the American turpentine orchards, and is
there called Scrape. It corresponds to the Gnlipot or Barras of the
French, which in old times supplied its place.
It is a semi-opaque, softish resin, of a pale yellow colour, smelling
of turpentine ; it is generally mixed with pine leaves, bits of wood and
other impurities, so that it requires straining before it is used. By
keeping, it becomes dr}^ and brittle, of deeper colour and milder odour.
Under the microscope, it exhibits a crystalline structure due to A hietic
Acid, of which it chiefly consists. It is imported from America in
barrels, but in insignificant quantities and only for the druggist's use.
Sometimes, however, it is distilled as common turpentine.
Dry pine resin, of which Common Frankincense is the type, evolves
when heated an agreeable smell ; hence in ancient times it was com-
monly used in English chm-ches in place of the more co.stly olibanum.
At present it is scarcely employed except in a few plasters.
' Amntfil Statnnciit of the Trcuh of the U.K. for 1872. pp. 53. m. 60. 210.
TEREBINTHINA VENETA.
609
TEREBINTHINA VENETA.
Terebinthina Laricina ; Venice Turpentine, Larch Turpentine ; F.
Ter^benthine de Venise ou de Briangon, Ter^benthine du meUze ;
G. Venetianischer TerpentJmi, Ldrchen-Terpenthin.
Botanical Origin — Pinus Larix L. (Larix europcea DC), a tall
forest tree of the mountains of Southern Central Europe, from Dauphiny
through the Alps to Styria and the Carpathians, ascending to an eleva-
tion of 3000 to 5500 feet above the sea-level. It is largely grown in
plantations in England and also, since 1738, in Scotland.
History — The turpentine of the larch was known to Dioscorides as
imported from the Alpine regions of Gaul.^ Pliny also was acquainted
with it, for he correctly remarks that it does not harden. Galen in the
2nd century also mentions it, admitting that it may well be substituted
for Chian turpentine (see p. 165), the true, legitimate Terebinthina.
Yet even in the beginning of the 17th century many pharmacologists
complained of such a substitution. Mattioli gave an account of the
method of collecting it about Trent in the Tii'ol, by boring the trees to
the centre, which is true to the present day. It used formerly to be
exported from Venice, then the great emporium for drugs of all kinds ;
the turpentine may even at times have been collected in the territories
of the Venetian republic. We find it expressly called Terebinthina
Veneta by Guintherus of Andernach.''
The name larch seems to belong to the turpentine I'ather than to the
tree. Dioscorides says the resin is called by the natives XapiKa, and
a similar name is mentioned by Galen. In Pasi's Tariffa de pesi e
misure, 1521 (see Appendix), we find " Termentina sive Larga," — and
larga is still an Italian name for larch turpentine. The peasants of the
Southern Tirol call it Lerget, and in Switzerland the common name in
German is Lortsch.
Extraction — Larch turpentine is collected in the Tirol, chiefly about
Mais, Meran, Botzen and Trent. A very small amount is obtained
occasionally in the Valais in Switzerland, and in localities in Piedmont
and France where the larch is found. The resin is obtained from the
heart-wood, by making in the spring a narrow cavity reaching to the
centre of the stem at about a foot from the ground. This is then
stopped up until the autumn of the same or of the following year, when
it is opened and the resin taken out with an iron spoon. If only one'
hole is thus made, the tree yields about half a pound yearly without
appreciable detriment. But if on the other hand a number of wide
holes are made, and especially if they are left open, as was formerly the
practice in the Piedmontese and French Alps, a larger product amount-
ing to as much as 8 lb. is obtained annually, but the tree ceases to yield
after some years, and its wood is much impaired in value.
Mohl, who witnessed the collection of this turpentine in the Southern
Lib. i. cap. 92. ^ De medicina veteri H nova etc., Basileae,
2 Comment, in lihr. i. Dioscoridis, Venetiis, 1571. 183.
1565. 106.
2 Q
610
CONIFERiE.
Tirol,' observed that wheu a growing larch stem was sawn through, the
resin flowed most abundantly from the heart-wood, and in smaller
quantity, though somewhat more quieklj^ from the sap-wood, and that
the bark contained but few resin-ducts. The practice of closing the
cavities is adopted, not only for the sake of preserving the wood
and for the greater convenience of removing the turpentine, but
also because it tends to maintain the transparency and purity of the
latter.
Description — Venice turpentine is a thick, honey-like fluid, slightly
turbid, yet not granular and crystalline ; it has a pale -yellowish colour
and exhibits a slight fluorescence. Its odour resembles that of common
turpentine, but is less powerful ; its taste is bitter and aromatic. When
exposed to the air, it thickens but slowly to a clear varnish, and hardens
but very slowly when mixed with magnesia. Larch turpentine, though
common on the Continent, is seldom imported into England,^ and the
article sold for it is almost always spurious.
Chemical Composition — Larch turpentine dissolves in spirit of
wine, forming a clear liquid which reddens litmus ; hot water agitated
with it also acquires a faint acid reaction, due to formic and probably
also to succinic acid. Glacial acetic acid, amylic alcohol, and acetone
mix with it perfectly. By distillation it yields on an average 15 per
cent, of essential oil of the composition, C^°H^**, which boils at 157° C.,
and when saturated with dry hydrochloric acid gas, easily produces
crystals of the compound 0^*^11^^ + HCl. The residual resin is soluble
in two parts of warm alcohol of 75 per cent., and more copiously in
concentrated alcohol.
Two parts of the turpentine diluted with one of benzol or acetone
deviate the ray of polarized light 9"5° to the riglit. The essential oil
deviates G'4° to the left; the resin perfectly freed from volatile oil and
dissolved in half its weight of acetone, deviates 12"6° to the right in a
column 50 mm. long.
We have not succeeded in preparing a crystallized acid from the
resin of Venice turpentine, although its composition according to Maty
(1864) is the same as that of American colophony, which is easily trans-
formed into crystallized abietic acid.
Uses — ^ Venice turpentine appears to possess no medicinal properties
that are not equally found in other substances of the same class, and as
a medicine it has fallen into disiTse. But in name at least it is in fre-
quent requisition for horse and cattle medicines.
Adulteration- — Alston (1740-60) said of Venice turpentine^ that it
is seldom found in the shoj^s, — a remark equally true at the present day,
for but few druggists trouble themselves to procure it genuine. The
Venice turpentine usually sold is an artificial mixture of common resin
and oil of turpentine, which may be easily distinguished from the pro-
duct of the larch by the facility with which it dries when spread on a
piece of paper,^ and by its stronger turpentine smell.
^ Botanische Zeitumj, xvii. (1859) 329,
abstracted in the Jahrenhericht of Wiggers,
1859. 18.
- On one occasion I observed Venice Tur-
pentine in a public drug sale in London, 21
barrels imported from Trieste being offered,
14 July, 1864.— D. H.
^ Lectures on the Materia Medica, Loud,
ii. (1770) 398.
' Tims if a tliin layer of true Venice tur-
CORTEX LARICIS.
611
CORTEX LARICIS.
Larch Barlx.
Botanical Origin — Pinus Larix L. — see p. 609.
History — The bark of the larch has long been known to possess
astringent properties; hence it has been used in tanning. Gerarde/ who
wrote near the close of the 16th century, likened it to that of the pine,
which he described to be of a binding nature; but there is no evidence
that it was an officinal drug.
About the year 1858 larch bark was recommended by Dr. Frizell of
Dviblin, and afterwards by other physicians, as a stimulating astringent
and expectorant. In consequence of the favourable effects which have
resulted from its use it has been included in the Additions to the Phar-
macopoeia of 1867.
Description — The bark that we have seen is in flattish pieces or
large quills, externally reddish-brown. In those taken from older wood
there is a large amount of an exfoliating corky coat, displaying as it is
removed bright rosy tints, while the liber is of a different texture, slightly
fibrous and whitish. The inner surface is smooth and of a pinkish-brown,
or pale yellow. The bark breaks with a short fracture, exhaling an
agi'eeable balsamic terebinthinous odour ; it has a well-marked astringent
taste. For medicinal use the inner bark is to be preferred.
Microscopic Structure — A transverse section exhibits resin-ducts,
hnt far less numerous than in the bark of many allied trees. The
medullary rays are not very distinct. Throughout the middle layer of
the bark large isolated thick-walled cells of very irregular shape are
scattered.
Chemical Composition — Larch bark has been examined by Sten-
house,^ who finds it to contain a considerable amount of a peculiar
tannin, yielding olive-green precipitates with salts of iron. The same
chemist also discovered^ in larch bark an interesting crystallizable
substance called Larixin or Larixinic Acid, which has the composition
Q10JJ10Q5 j^g^y obtained by digesting the bark in water in 80° C.
and evaporating the infusion to a syriipy consistence. From this, by
still further cautious heating in a retort, the larixin may be distilled,
during which operation some of it crystallizes on the inner surface
of the receiver, the remainder beii-g dissolved in the distilled liquor.
From the latter it may be obtained in crystals by evaporation. The
substance forms colourless crystals, sometimes as much as an inch long ;
it volatilizes even at 93° C, and melts at 153°. It requires about 88
parts of water for solution at 15° C, but more freely dissolves in boiling-
water or in alcohol. From ether, in which it is but sparingly soluble,
it separates in brilliant crystals. The solutions have a bitterish astrin-
pentine and another of common turpentine
be spread on two sheets of paper it will be
found after the lapse of some weeks that
the former cannot be touched without ad-
hering to the fingers, while the latter will
have become a dry, hard varnish.
1 Herball, enlarged by Johnson, Lond.
1636. 1366.
- Proceedings of the Royal Sociefi/, xi.
(1862) 404.
3 Phil. Trails., vol. 152 (1862) 53.— We
write the name Larixin instead of Larixine,
with the concurrence of Dr. Steuhou?e.
G12
CONIFERS.
gent taste and a slightly acid reaction, and assume a purple hue on
addition of ferric chloride. When a solution of baryta is added to a
concentrated solution of larixin, the latter being in excess, a bulky
gelatinous precipitate falls; it is readily soluble in boiling water and is
deposited again on cooling. Stenhouse failed to obtain it either from
the bark of Pimts Abies L., or from that of P. silvestris L.
Uses — Larch bark, chiefly in the form of tincture, has been pre-
scribed to check profuse expectoration in cases of chronic bronchitis ; it
has also been found useful in arresting internal haemorrhage.
TEREBINTHINA CANADENSIS.
Balsamum Canadense; Canada Balsam, Canadian Turpentine; F.
Terehenthine on Baiime de Canada; G. Canada-Balsam.
Botanical Origin — Pinus halsamea L. {Abies balsamea Marshall),
the Balsam Fir or Balm of Gilead Fir, a handsome tree, 20 to 40 feet
high, with a trunk 6 to 12 inches in diameter, sometimes attaining still
larger dimensions, growing in profusion in the Northern and Western
United States of America, Nova Scotia and Canada, but not observed
beyond 62° N. lat. It resembles the Silver Fir of Europe {Pinus
Picea L.), but has the bracts short-pointed and the cones more acute at
each end.
Canada balsam is also furnished by Pinus Fraseri Pursh, the Small-
fruited or Double Balsam Fir, a tree found on the mountains of Penn-
sylvania, Virginia, and southward on the highest of the AUeghanies.^
Pinus canadensis L. {Abies canadensis Michx.), the Hemlock
Spruce or Perusse, a large tree abundant in the same countries as
P. balsamea, and extending throughout British America to Alaska, is
said to yield a similar turpentine, which however has not yet been
sufficiently examined. The Hemlock Spruce is of considerable import-
ance on account of the resin collected from its trunk, and the essential
oil distilled from its foliage, the latter operation being performed on a
large scale in Madison County, New York. The inner bark of the tree
is a valuable material for tanning.
History — The French, in whose possession Canada remained until
the year 1763, were probably acquainted with Canada balsam long be-
fore this period. Yet no mention of it is found in Pomet's work, but
in 1759 it was at Strassburg a current article of the phai'macy.^ As to
England, Lewis, in his History of the Materia Medica published in 1761,
says that " cm elegant balsam" obtained from the Canada Fir, is some-
times brought into Europe under the name of Balsamum Canadense.
Canada balsam was first introduced into the London Pharmacopoeia in
1788. From the books of a London druggist, J. Gurney Bevan, we find
that its wholesale price in 1776 was 4s., in 1788, bs. per lb.
Description — Canada balsam is a transparent resin of honey-like
Asa Gray, Botany of the Northern ^ Fluckiger, Pharm. Jourii. vi. (1S70),
United States, New York, 1866. 422. 1021.
TEREBINTHINA CANADENSIS.
613
consistence, and of a light straw-coloui^ with a greenish tint. By keeping,
it slowly becomes thicker and of a somewhat darker hue, but always
retains its transparency. When carefully examined in direct sunlight,
it exhibits a slight greenish fluorescence in the same degree as other
turpentines or as copaiba ; this optical power appears to increase if the
balsam is exposed to a heat of about 200° C.
Canada balsam has a pleasant aromatic odour and bitterish, feebly
acrid, not disagreeable taste. On account of its flavour it is sometimes
called Balm of Gilead, but erroneously, as this latter is derived from a
tree of the genus Balsamodendron growing in Arabia. We found a
good commercial balsam to have a sp. gr. of 0'998 at 14"5° C, water at
the same temperature being I'OOO. Four parts, mixed with one of
benzol and examined in a column of 50 mm. in length, deviated a ray
of polarized light 2° to the right. The balsam is perfectly soluble in any
proportion in chloroform, benzol, ether, or warm amylic alcohol ; and
the solution in each case reddens litmus. With sulphate of carbon it
mixes readily, but the mixture is somewhat turbid. Glacial acetic acid,
acetone or absolute alcohol dissolve the balsam partially, leaving, after
ebullition and cooling, a considerable amount of amorphous residue.
Colophony and Venice turpentine are completely dissolved by the
liquids in question, as well as by spirit of wine containing 70 to 75 per
cent, of alcohol.
Chemical Composition — Like all analogous exudations of the
Coniferce, Canada turpentine is a mixture of resins with an essential oil.
If the latter is allowed to evaporate, the former are left as a transparent,
somewhat tough and elastic mass. The proportion of the components
is within certain limits, variable in different samples. The specimen
beforementioned lost after an exposure in a steam-bath during several
days, no less than 20 per cent of volatile oil, or even 24 per cent, if the
experiment was made on a very small scale, as with 20 grammes or less
in a thin layer.
By distillation with water, it is not easy to obtain more than 17 to
18 per cent, of essential oil. The resin in this case is a tough, elastic,
non-transparent mass, retaining obstinately a large proportion of \7ater,
which can only be removed by keeping it for some time at a tempera-
ture of 100°-176° C.
The oil as obtained by distillation with water is colourless, and has
the odour of common oil of turpentine rather than the agreeable smell
of the balsam ; it consists of an oil, C'll^'^, mixed with an insignificant
proportion of an oxygenated oil, the presence of which may be proved
by the slight evolution of hydrogen on addition of metallic sodium, after
the oil has been freed from water by contact with fused chloride of cal-
cium. After this treatment, a small proportion begins to distil at about
160°, but by far the larger part boils at 167° C, a small portion only
distilling at last at 170° and above. The oil obtained at 167°, examined
under the conditions already mentioned, has a sp. gr. of 0"863, and the
power of rotating a ray of polarized light 5"6° to the left. The portion
distilling at 160° does not differ in this respect; but that passing over
at 170°, deviates the ray 7'2° to the left. The oil readily dissolves a
large proportion of glacial acetic acid ; an equal weight of each mixes
perfectly at about 54° C, but some acetic acid separates on cooling.
6U
C0NIFERi?5.
The essential oil of Canada balsam, saturated with dry hydrochloric
acid, does not yield a solid crystallizable compound ; but this is easily
obtained on addition of fuming nitric acid and gently heating, when
the inside of the retort becomes covered by sublimed crystals of
C^^'M'-'+HCl.
Thus this oil in its general characters bears a close resemblance to
the essential oils of the cones of Plnus Picea L., and of the leaves of
P. Pumilio Hiinke, and to most of the French varieties of oil of turpen-
tine, rather than to the American turpentine oils, which rotate to the
right, and combine immediately with HCl to form a solid crystalline
compound.
On the other hand, the resin of Canada balsam is dextrogyre : two
parts of it, entirely deprived of essential oil and dissolved in one of
benzol, deviating the ray 8"5° to the right. The optical powers of the
two components (oil and resin) are therefore antagonistic.
The resin of Canada balsam consists however of two different bodies,
78"7 per cent, of it being soluble in boiling absolute alcohol, and 21 'S
(in our specimen) remaining as an amorphous mass, readily soluble in
ether. Neither the alcoholic nor the ethereal solution yields a crystalline
residue if allowed to evaporate. They redden litmus, b\it we did not
succeed in obtaining any crystallized resinous acid, crystals of which
are formed if common turpentine or colophony is digested with dilute
alcohol. Glacial acetic acid acts upon the resins like absolute alcohol.
Caustic alkalis do not dissolve either the balsam or the resin; the former
however is considerably thickened by incorporation with I of its weight
of recently calcined magnesia. If the mixture, moistened with dilute
alcohol, is kept at 93° C. for some days and frequently stirred, a mass
of hard consistence, finally translucent, results. Caustic ammonia heated
with the balsam in a closed bottle, forms a thick milky jelly, which does
not afterwards separate.
Hence, according to our investigations, 100 parts of Canada turpen-
tine consist of
Essential oil, C^H'", with a very small proportion of
an oxygenated oil ... ... ... ... ... 24!
Resin soluble in boiling alcohol ... ... ... GO
Resin soluble only in ether ... ... ... ... 16
The result of Wirzen's examination of Canada balsam^ are not in
complete accordance with those here stated. He found 16 per cent, of
oil and three different amorphous resins, one of which had the com-
position of abietic acid.
Production and Commerce — Canada balsam is obtained either by
puncturing the vesicles which form under the suberous envelope of the
trunk and branches, and collecting their fluid contents in a bottle, or
by making incisions. It is obtained principally in Lower Canada, and
is shipped from Montreal and Quebec, in kegs or large barrels. In the
neighbourhood of Quebec, about 2000 gallons (20,000 lb.) used to be
collected annually ; but in 1868, owing to distress among the farmers,
the quantity obtained was unusually large, and it was estimated that
nearly 7000 gallons would be exported to England and the United
^ Z)e halsuiius ft pra'-icriim de Baharno ted in the Jahrcibcrkht of Wiggers for
Canaclentie, Helsingforsiit, 1840, — al)strac- 1849. 38.
TEREBIN THIN A ARGENTORATEN SLS.
615
States.^ During a recent scarcity (1872-73) a sort of balsam from
Oregon has been substituted in the American market for true Canada
balsam.^
Uses — The medicinal properties of Canada balsam resemble those of
copaiba and other terebinthinous oleo-resins, yet it is now rarely em-
ployed as a remedy. The balsam is much valued for mounting objects
for the microscope, as it remains constantly transparent and uncrystal-
line. It is also used for making varnish.
TEREBINTHINA ARGENTORATENSIS.
Strassburg Turpentine; F. T^rebenthine d' Alsace ou de Strasbourg,
Terebenthine du sapin ; G. Strassburger Terpenthin.
Botanical Origin — Pmus Picea L. (Abies pectinata DC), the
Silver Fir,'^ a large handsome tree, growing in the mountainous parts
of Middle and Southern Europe from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus,
and extending under a slightly difierent form (var. /3. cephalonica)
into continental Greece and the islands of Euboea and Cephalonia.
History — Belon in his treatise Be Avboribus coniferis (1553)
described this turpentine, which is also briefly yet accurately noticed
by Samuel Dale,* a learned apothecary of London and the friend of
Sloane and Ray. It had a place in the London Pharmacopoeia until
1788, when it was omitted from the materia medica.
Extraction — The oleo-resin of P. Picea, like that of P. balsamea,
is contained in little swellings of the bark^ of young stems, and is
extracted by the tedious process of puncturing them and receiving in a
suitable vessel the one or two drops which exude from each. It is still
collected near Mutzig and Barr, in the Vosges (1878), though only to a
very small extent.
Description — An authentic sample collected for one of us by the
Surveyor of Forests in the Bernese Jura, Switzerland, resembles very
closely Canada balsam, but is devoid of any distinct fluorescence. It
has a light yellow colour, a very fragrant odour,*' more agreeable than
that of Canada balsam, and is devoid of the acrid bitterish taste of the
latter.
We found our specimen to have sp. gr. of distilled water. It
deviates a ray of polarized light 3° to the left, if examined either pure
or diluted with a fourth of its weight of benzol, in the manner described
at p. 610. Our drug is soluble in the same liquids as the Canadian, yet
is miscible with glacial acetic acid, absolute alcohol and acetone, without
leaving any considerable flocculent residue. It is even soluble in spirit
of wine, the solution being but very little turbid. The solutions have
an acid reaction.
^ From information obligingly coimnuni-
cated by Mr. N. Mercer of Montreal and
Mr. H. Sugden Evans of London. — See
also Proc. Am. Pharm. Assoc., 1877, page
337, abstracted in Ph. Jour. viii. (1878) 813.
^ Proceedings of the American Pharma-
ceutical Association, Philadelphia, 1873. 110
—also 1874. 433.
^ Sapin in French ; Weisstanne or Edel-
tanne in German.
^ Pharmacologia, Lond. 1693. 395.
5 See Morel, Ph. Jour. viii. (1877) 21.
" Hence it is sometimes called in French
Tcrehenthlne an citron.
61C
CONIFERiE.
I
Chemical Composition — After the complete desiccation of a small
quantity, there remained 72'4 per cent, of a brittle, transparent resin,
soluble in glacial acetic acid, but not entirely in absolute alcohol or in
acetone. By submitting half a pound of the turpentine to distillation
with water, we obtained 24 per cent, of essential oil, the remaining resin
being when cold perfectly friable. The fresh oil, purified by sodium,
deviates the ray of polarized light to the left, whereas the remaining
resin, dissolved in half its weight of benzol, shows a weak dextrogyre
rotation. The oil boils at 1C3° C. After having kept it for two years
and a half in a well-stopped bottle, we find that it has become
considerably thicker and now deviates to the right. If saturated with
dry hydrochloric acid, the oil does not yield a solid compound.
This oil has nearly the same agreeable odour as the crude oleo-resin,
yet the essential oil of the cones of the same tree is still more fragrant.
The latter is one of the most powerfully deviating oils, the rotation
being 51° to the left, and it is consequently extremely diff'erent from
the oil obtained from the turpentine of the stem, though its composition
is I'epresented by the same formula, C^'H'l
A peculiar sugar called Abietite, nearly related to mannite but
having the composition C^ff^O", has been detected by Rochleder' in
the leaves of the Silver Fir.
Uses — Strassburg turpentine possesses the properties of common
turpentine, with the advantage of a very agreeable odour. It was
formerly held in great esteem, but has now become nearly forgotten.
PIX BURGUNDICA.
Plx abietina ; Burgundy Pitch ; F. Poix de Bourgogne ou des Vosges,
Poix jaune ; G. Fichtenharz, Tannenharz.
Botanical Origin — Pinus Abies L. (Abies excelsa DC), the Norway
Spruce Fir,2 a noble tree attaining an elevation of 100-160 feet, widely
distributed throughout Northern and the mountainous parts of Central
Europe, but not indigenous to Great Britain, though extensively planted.
In Russian Lapland it reaches at 68° N. lat. almost the extreme limit
of tree-vegetation, while southward it extends to the Spanish Pyrenees.
In the Alps it ascends to 6,000 feet above the level of the sea.
History — In accordance with the definition of the London Phar-
copoeias and the custom of English druggists the name Burgundy Pitch
is restricted to the product of the above-named species. The pharmaco-
logists of France use an equivalent term with the same limitations; but
in other parts of the Continent Pix Burgundica has a wider meaning,
and is allowed to include the turpentines of other Co7iiferce. We here
employ it in the English sense.
Parkinson, an apothecary of London and herbarist to King Charles
I., speaks of " Burgony Pitch" as a thing well known in his time.^ Dale
in his Pharmacologia (1693) mentions Pix Burgundica as being im-
ported into England from Germany, and it is also noticed by Salmon
' Wiggers and Husemann, Jahresbericht, " Pesse or Epkea of the French ; Fichte
1868. 53. or Itothtanne of the Germans.
Theater of Plantx, 1640. 1542.
PIX BURGUNDICA.
617
(1693), who says " it is brought to us out of Burgundy, Germany and
other places near Strasburgh." '
Pomet, writing in Paris about the same period, discards the prefix
Burgundy as a fiction, remarking that the best Poix grasse comes from
Holland and Strassburg.-
Whether this resin ever was collected in Burgundy we are unable to
determine. It may probably have acquired the name through having
been brought into commerce from Switzerland and Alsace by way of
Franche Comtd, otherwise called Comt^ de Bourgogne or Haute
Bourgogne.'*
Burgundy pitch is enumerated among the materia medica of the
London Pharmacopoeia of 1677, and in ever}^ svibsequent edition. In
that of 1809 it was defined imder the name of Fix arida, as the p?'e-
pared resin of Pinus Abies.
Production — Burgundy pitch is produced in Finland, in the Black
Forest in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Austria and Switzerland. On
the estate of Baron Linder at Svarta near Helsingfors, it is obtained by
melting the crude resin in contact with the vapour of water, and
straining. The quantity annually produced there was stated in 1867
to be 35,000 kilogr. (689 cwt.);* that afforded by an establishment at
Ilm in the same country amounted to 80,000 kilogr. (1,.57.5 cwt.).*
In the neighbourhood of Oppenau and on the Kniebis mountain in
the Grand Duchy of Baden the steins of the firs are wounded at equal
distances by making perpendicular channels, 1| inches wide and the
same in depth. The resin which exudes from these channels is scraped
off" with an iron instrument made for the purpose, and purified by being-
melted in hot water and strained. This is performed in three or
four small establishments at Oppenau and the neighbouring village of
Locherberg. In this state the resin, which is opaque and contains much
moisture, is called Wasserltarz. By further training and evaporating
a portion of the water its quality is improved.
The manufacture in that part of Germany is on the decline, partly in
consequence of the timber being injured by the wounding of the trees,
so that the collecting of resin is not permitted in the large forests
belonging to the governments of Baden and Wurtemberg. We have
had the opportunity of observing^ that in the establishments in question
French turpentine or galipot, imported from Bordeaux, as well as
American rosin or colophony, are used in quantities certainly exceeding
that of the resin grown on the spot.
In the middle of the last century some Burgundy pitch was pro-
duced, according to Duhamel,^ in the present canton of Neuchatel, but
no such branch of industry is now pursued there, at least on a large
scale. On the other hand, in the districts of Moutier and Deldmont in
the Bernese Jura this resin is still collected, though it is not known as
Burgundy Pitch, but is termed simply Poix blanche (White Pitch).
^ Compleat English Physician, 1693. 1031.
^ Hist, des Drogues, Paris, 1694. part i.
287.
3 Cliabrseus in his Stirpium Sciagraphia
(1666) remarks that he had seen the Pesse
[P. Abies L.] in great plenty "in Burgun-
dicis montibics," yet makes no particular
allusion to its yielding resin.
Pharm. Journ. ix. (1876) 164; also in
Hanbury's Science Papers, pp. 46 to 53.
= Oesterreic/tischerAusstellungs-Berichl, x.
(Wien, 1868) 471.
8 I spent several days in the localities in
1873.— F. A. F.
7 'J'raitd des Arhrts, etc. i. (1775) 12.
G18
CONIFERJi.
The surveyor of the forests of this district, wliich is one of the richest
in Pinus Abies, has informed one of us that from 790 to 850 quintals
are collected and exported to Basle, Zurich, Aarau and Vaud. The
pitch is worth in loco (1868) 100 to 110 francs (£4 to £4 8s.) the bosse
of 6 quintals. The quantities collected in other parts of Switzerland
are even less considerable.
Description — Pure Burgundy pitch, of which we have numerous
authentic specimens, is a rather opaque, yellowish-brown substance,
hard and brittle when cold, yet gradually taking the form of the vessel
in which it is kept. It is strongly adhesive, breaks with a clear con-
choidal fracture, and has a very agreeable, aromatic odour, especially
when heated. It does not exhibit a crystalline structure, although, as
we have frequently observed, the resin on the stem of the tree is dis-
tinctly cr3^stalline.
Burgundy pitch is readily soluble in glacial acetic acid, acetone,
absolute alcohol, and even in alcohol of 75 per cent (sp. gr. 0"860), yet
its solubility in these liquids is considerably altered by the presence of
water or essential oil ; and still more by the formation of abietic acid in
the resin itself. The same influences also affect the melting point.
The crude resin of Pimis Abies,'' deprived of essential oil and dis-
solved in one part of absolute alcohol, was found to deviate a ray of
polarized light 3° to the left, in a column of 50 mm.; the essential oil
deviated 8"5° to the same direction. The oil contains a small amount of
an oxygenated oil. After treatment with sodium the oil which remains
does not form a solid compound if saturated with hydrochloric acid.
Chemical Composition — The investigations of Maly mentioned
at p. 007 afford a satisfactory elucidation of the chemical properties of
the pinic resinous exudations. They all, according to that chemist, are
mixtures of the same amorphous resin, C'^ff'O'', with essential oils of
the composition C^°H'^ These terebinthinous juices are collected and
sold either in their natural state as turpentine, or deprived more or less
completely of their volatile oil, in which condition they are represented
by Btirgimdy Pitch, and finally by rosin or coloj)liony.
The turpentines flowing down the stems of the trees gradually lose
their transparency if allowed to dry slowly in the air, becoming at the
same time harder and somewhat granular. This alteration is due to
the incorporation of water, which at last is not onl}'- mixed with the
components of the resinous juice, but to some extent combines chemi-
cally with the resin so as to ti'ansform it into a crystalline body having
the characters of an acid. The fact is easily observed if clear drops of
the turpentine of Pinus silvestris, P. Abies or P. Picea are collected in
vials and kept perfectly dry. Thus treated these turpentines remain
transparent, but the addition of water causes after a short time the
formation of microscopic crystals of abietic acid, rendering them more
or less opaque.
If turpentines are collected before they lose their essential oil by
evaporation and oxidation, and before they have become crystalline,
they can be retained perfectly transparent by distilling off" the volatile
oil without water. The distillation being most commonly carried on
^uifh water, the remaining resin is opaque.
' Collected by myself.— F. A. V.
PIX LIQUIDA
G19
Maly is of opinion that the same amori)hous resin occurs in all the
Cunifcra', and that it yields by hydration the same acid, namely Abietic,
which has been described by former chemists as Pinic, Silvio, and
Pimaric acids, all of which indeed are admitted to have the same com-
position. We must however remember that several sorts of turpentine,
as Canada Balsam, appear incapable, according to our experiments, of
yielding any ciystalline resinoid compound whatever ; and that their
amorphous resin being but partially soluble is certainly not a homo-
geneous substance.
The crystals as formed natural^ in the common turpentines do not
exhibit precisely the same forms as those obtained artificially when the
I'esins are agitated with warm diluted alcohol, as in the preparation of
abietic acid. As to Pimaric Acid, we have prepared it in quantity
from galipot, the resin of Pinus Pinaster, but have always found its
crystalline character entirely different from that of abietic acid.^
We are inclined, therefore, to think that the composition of the
resins of Gov iferce is not so uniform as Maly suggests. The remarkable
variety of their essential oils is a fact which seems in favour of our
view.
Uses — Burgundy pitch is prescribed as an ingredient of plasters,
and thus employed is useful as a mild stimulant. In Germany it has
some economic applications, one of which is the lining of beer casks,
for which purpose a composition is used called Brauerpech (brewers'
pitch), made by mixing it with colophony or galipot.
Adulteration — -No drug is the subject of more adulteration than
Burgundy pitch, so much so that the very name is understood by some
pharmacologists to be that of a manufactured compound. The substance
commonly sold in England is made by melting together colophony
with palm oil or some other fat, water being stirred in to render the
mixtm-e opaque. In appearance it is very variable, different samples
presenting different shades of bright or dull yellow or yellowish-brown.
Many when broken exhibit numerous cavities containing air or water ;
all are more or less opaque, becoming in time transparent on the surface
by the loss of water. Artificial Burgundy pitch is offered for sale in
bladders ; it has a weak terebinthinous odour, and is devoid of the
peculiar fragrance of the genuine. The presence of a fatty oil is easily
discovered by treatment with double its weight of glacial acetic acid,
which forms a turbid mixture, sepi rating by repose into two layers, the
upper being oily.
PIX LIQUIDA.
Wood Tar; F. Goudron vegetal, Poix liqivide; G. Holztheer,
Fichtentlieer.
Botanical Origin — Tar is obtained by submitting the wood of the
stems and roots of coniferous trees to dry or destructive distillation.
That found in commerce is produced in Northern Europe, chiefly from
two species, namely Pinus silvestris L. and P. Ledehourii Endl. {Larix
sihirica Ledeb.). These trees constitute the vast forests of Arctic
Europe and Asia.
^ Jahreshericht of Wiggers and Husemann for 1867. 37.
C20 CONIFERiE.
History — Theophrastus gives a circumstantial description of the
preparation of tar, which applies with considerable accuracy to the
processes still practised in those districts where no improved methods
of manufacture have yet been introduced.
Production — The great bulk of the vegetable tar used in Europe,
and known in commerce as Archcmfjel or Stockholm Tar, is prepared in
Finland, Central and Northern Russia, and Sweden.
The process is conducted in the following manner : — vast stacks of
pine wood consisting chiefly of the roots and lower portions of the
trunks (the more valuable parts of the trees being used as timber), and
containing as much as 30,000 to 70,000 cubic feet, are carefully packed
together, and then covered with a thick layer of turf, moss, and earth,
beaten down with heavy stampers. The whole stack of billets is
constructed over a conical or funnel-like cavity made in the ground, if
possible on the side of a hill, this arrangement being adopted for the
purpose of carrying on a downward distillation. Fire being applied
the combustion of the mass of wood has to be carried on very slowly
and without flame in order to obtain the due amount of tar and a
charcoal of good quality. During its progress the products, chiefly tar,
collect in the funnel-like cavity, from which they are discharged by a
tube into a cast-iron pan placed beneath the stack, or simply into
hollow tree trunks. The time required for combustion varies from
one to four weeks, according to the size of the stack.
During the last few years this rude process has been improved and
accelerated by the introduction of rationally constructed wrought-iron
stills, furnished with refrigerating condensers, as proposed in Russia by
Hessel in 1861. By this mode of manufacture the yield in tar of pine
wood is abovit 14 per cent, from stems, dried by exposure to the open
air; and 16 to 20 per cent, from roots. Large quantities of pyroligneovis
acid and oil of turpentine are at the same time secured. The wood of
the beech and of other non-coniferous trees appears not to afford more
than 10 per cent, of tar, while turf yields only from 3 to 9 per cent.
Description — The numerous empyreumatic products which result
from the destructive distillation of pine wood, and which we call tar,
constitute a dark brown or blackish semi-liquid substance, of peculiar
odour and sharp taste. When deprived of water and seen in thin
layers, tar is perfectly transparent. The magnifying glass shows some
of the varieties to contain colourless crystals of Pyrocatechin, scattered
throughout the dark viscid substance, and to these tar owes its occasion-
ally granular, honey-like consistence.^ A gentle heat causes them to
melt and mix with the other constituents.
True vegetable tar has always a decidedly acid reaction. It is
readily miscible with alcohol, glacial acetic acid, ether, fixed and volatile
oils, chloroform, benzol, amylic alcohol or acetone. It is soluble in
caustic alkaline solutions, but not in pure water or watery liquids. The
sp. gr. of tar from the roots of conifers is about 1'06 (Hessel) yet at a
somewhat elevated temperature, it becomes lighter than warm water.
Water agitated with tar acquires a light yellowish tint, and the taste
and odour of tar, as well as an acid reaction. On evaporation the
^ The crystals are a pretty object for the microscope, ■when examined by polarized
light.
PIX LIQUIDA.
621
solution becomes brown, and at last microscopic crystals are obtained
with a brown residue like tar itself, which is no longer soluble in water.
A microscopical examination of tar which has been exhausted with
water, shows that all crystals have disappeared.
Chemical Composition — Dry wood may be heated to about 150° C.
without decomposition ; but at a more elevated temperature, it com-
mences to undergo a change, yielding a large number of products,
the nature and comparative quantity of which depend upon circum-
stances. If the process is carried on in a closed vessel, a residue will
be got which has more or less resemblance to coal. By heating fir- wood
enclosed with some water to 400° C, Daubree (1857) obtained a coal-
like substance, which yielded by a subsequent increase of temperature
scarcely any volatile products.
The results are widely different if a process is followed which permits
the formation of volatile bodies ; and these substances are formed in
largest proportion, if the heat acts quickly and intensely. At lower
degrees of heat, more charcoal results and more water is evolved.
Among the volatile products of destructive distillation, those alone
which are condensed at the ordinary temperature of the air are of
pharmaceutical interest ; and of these, chiefly the portion not soluble in
water, or that which is called Tar or Liquid Pitch. The aqueous portion
of the products consist principally of empyreumatic acetic acid, to
which tar owes its acid reaction.
The tissue of wood is chiefly formed of cellulose, intimately combined
with a saccharine substance, which may be separated if the wood is
boiled with dilute acids. The remaining cellulose is however not yet
pure, but is still united to a substance which, as shown by Erdmann,^
.is capable of yielding pyrocatechin.
It is well known that sugar subjected to an elevated temperature,
yields a series of pyrogenous products ; and the same fact is observed
if purified cellulose is heated in similar manner. But for tar-making,
wood is preferred which is impregnated with resins and essential oils,
and these latter furnish another series of empyreumatic products. From
these circumstances, the components of wood-tar are of an extremely
complicated character, which is still more the case when other woods
than those of conifers form part of the material svibmitted to distilla-
tion. In the case of beech-wood, Creasote is formed, which is obtained
only in very small quantity from the Goniferce. Volatile alkaloids and
carbolic acid, which are largely produced in the destructive distillation
of coal, appear not to be present in ,vood-tar.
The components of the latter may be considered under two heads :
— first, the lighter aqueous j^ortion, which separates from the other
products of distillation, forming what is called Impure Pyroligneous
Acid. This contains chiefly acetic acid and Methyl Alcohol or Wood
Naphtha, CH*0 ; Acetone, (TWO ; besides other liquid products abun-
dantly soluble in water and acetic acid. In this portion, some pyro-
catechin also occurs.
The second class of pyrogenous products of wood consists of a
homologous series of liquid hydrocarbons, sparingly soluble in water,
and which therefore are chiefly retained in the heavy layer below the
pyroligneous acid, forming the proper wood-tar. The liquid in question
1 Liebig, Annalen der Chem'te u. Pharmacie, Suppl. v. (1867) 229.
022
CONIFER.E.
furnishes Toluol or Toluene, C'O' (boiling point 114° 0.), Xylol e CH'",
and several other analogous substances.
If tar is redistilled, an elevated temperature being used towards the
end of the process, some crystallizable solid bodies are obtained, the
most important of which is that called Parajjin, having the formula
Qnjj2n+2^ ^ Varying from 20 to 24.
The crystals already mentioned as occurring in tar are Pyrocatechin.
They are easily sublimed at some degrees above their fusing point
(104° C), or removed by acetic acid, in which as well as in water they
are readily soluble. Hence in some sorts of tar this substance does not
occur, it having probably been removed by water.
Pyrocatechin, C'^H^(OH)", can be obtained by the destructive distil-
lation of many other substances, as catechu, kino, the extracts of rhatany
and bearberry leaves, and other extracts rich in that form of tannin
which produces greenish (not blue-black) precipitates in salts of iron. It
is extracted from the granular sorts of wood-tar, by exposing them at a
proper temperature to a current of heated dry air, or by exhausting
them with water. Ether when shaken with the concentrated aqueous
solution and left to evaporate, leaves colourless crystals of pyrocatechin
which after purification are devoid of acid reaction. They have a peculiar
burning persistent taste, and are very pungent and irritating when
allowed to evaporate. A solution of pyrocatechin yields with perchloride
of iron a dark green coloration changing to black after a few moments,
and becoming red on the addition of potash. This mixtvire finally
acquires a magnificent violet hue, like a solution of alkaline perman-
ganate. No alteration is produced in a solution of pyrocatechin by
protosalts of iron.
Among the few medicinal preparations of tar, is Tar Water, called
Aqua vel Liquor Picis, made by agitating wood-tar with water. The
presence in it of pyrocatechin is easily proved by the above-mentioned
reactions, or by a few drops of red chromate of potassium, which pro-
duces a brownish black colouration. It may hence be inferred that
pyrocatechin is perhaps the active ingredient in tar-water, and that
for making this liquid the granular, crystalline sorts of tar should be
preferred.'
Commerce — Tar as well as pitch is manufactured in Finland, and
shipped from various ports in the Gulf of Bothnia, as Uleaborg, Gamla
Carleby, Jacobstad, Ny Carleby and Christinestad ; also from Archangel
and Onega on the White Sea. Some tar is also produced in Volhynia,
and finds its way by the Dnieper to the Black Sea.
The North of Sweden likewise produces tar, chiefly about Umea
and Lulea, the distillation being now performed in well-constructed
apparatus of iron.
The pine forests of North America aflford tar and pitch. Wilmington
in North Carolina exported in 1871, 25,200 barrels of tar, and 3788
barrels of pitch.^
The imports of tar into the United Kingdom in 1872, were 189,291
' We may suppose that the authors of the
French Codex were not of this opinion, in-
asmuch as in making Eau de. Gondrov, they
order tliat tlie liquid obtained by the first
maceration of the tar, shall be thrown away.
- Consul Walker, Rtjmrt on the Trade, of
North and South Carolhiri — Consvlctr Re-
;;or/A' pre.sented to Parliament, May, 1872.
PIX NIGRA.
023
barrels, valued at £218,339. Of this quantity 145,483 barrels were
shipped from the northern ports of Russia.
The barrels in which tar arrives hold about 30 gallons. Smaller
sized vessels termed half-barrels are also used, though less frequently.
Uses— In medicine of no great importance : an ointment of tar is a
common remedy in cutaneous diseases, and tar water is sometimes taken
internally. The consumption of tar in ship-building and for the
preservation of fences, sufficiently explains the large importations.
Other Varieties of Tar.
Jimijoer Tar, Pyroleum Oxycedri, Oleum J uniperi empyreuma-
ticum, Oleum Caclinum, Huile cle Cade. — This is a tar originally ob-
tained by the destructive distillation of the wood of the Cade,Juniperus
Oxtjcedrus L., a shrub or small tree, native of the countries bordering
the Mediterranean. It was for centuries used in the South of France as
an external remedy, chiefly for domestic animals, but had fallen into
complete oblivion until ten years ago, when it began to be prescribed
in skin complaints.
The Huile de Cade now in use, is transparent and devoid of crystals.
It is somewhat thinner than Swedish tar, but closely agrees with it in
other respects. It is imported from the Continent, but where made
and from what wood we know not. Haile de Cade is mentioned by
Olivier de Serres,^ a celebrated French writer on agriculture of the 10th
century ; it is named by Parkinson" in 1640 ; also by Pomet,'* in whose
time (1694) it was rarely genuine, common tar being sold in its place.
Beech Tar — Tar is also manufactured from the wood of the beech,
Fagus silvatica L., and has a place in some pharmacopoeias as the best
source of creasote.
Birch Tar — is made to a small extent in Russia, where it is called
Dagget, from the wood of Betula alba L. It contains an abundance of
pyrocatechin, and is esteemed on account of its peculiar odour well
known in the Russia leather. A purified oil of birch tar is sold by the
Leipzig distillers.
PIX NIGRA.
Fix sicca vel solida vel navalis ; Pitch, Black Pitch ; F. Poix noire ;
G. Schiffspech, Schuste->'p>ech, SchwaTzes Pech.
Botanical Origin — see Pix liquida.
Production — When the crude products of the dry distillation of
pine wood, as described in the previous article, are submitted to re-dis-
tillation, the following results are obtained. The first 10 to 15 per cent,
of volatile matter consists chiefly of methylic alcohol and acetone. A
higher temperature causes the vaporization of the acetic acid, while the
still retains the tar. This last, subjected to a further distillation, may
be separated into a liquid portion called Oil of Tar {Oleum Picis
Uqmcloi), and a residuum which, on cooling, hardens and forms the
^ TMMre (rA<iriaiUure,'P?Lr\s,\&(\0.9A:\. ^ Hist, des Dro<ine.i, Paris, 1694. ijart i.
- Theatnim IJotaniciim, 1033. cliap. xii. xiv.
624
CONIFERiE.
product under notice, namely Black Pitch. Again heated to a very
elevated temperature, it is capable of yielding paraffin, anthracene and
naphthalene.
Description — Pitch is an opaque-looking, black substance, breaking
with a shining conchoidal fracture, the fragments showing at the thin
translucent edges a brownish coloui*. No trace of distinct crystallization
is observable when very thin fragments are examined, even by polarized
light. Pitch has a peculiar disagreeable odour, rather different from
that of tai". Its alcoholic solution has a feeble taste somewhat like that
of tar, but pitch itself when masticated is almost tasteless. It softens by
the warmth of the hand, and may then be kneaded. It readily dissolves
in those liquids which are solvents of tar. Alcohol of 75 per cent, acts
freely on it, leaving behind in small proportion a dark viscid residue.
The brown solution reddens litmus paper, and yields a dingy brownish
precipitate with perchloride of ii'on, and whitish precipitates with
alcoholic solution of neutral acetate of lead, or with pure water. Pitch
dissolves in solution of caustic potash, evolving an offensive odour.
Chemical Composition — From the method in which pitch is pre-
pared, we may infer that it contains some of the less volatile and less
crystallizable compounds found in tar. Ekstrand (1875) extracted from
it Retene, G^^W^, a colourless, inodorous crystalline substance, melting
at 90° C.
The pitch of beechwood boiled with a caustic alkali, yields a foetid
volatile oil ; when this solution is acidulated, fatty volatile acids are
evolved. These principles however have not yet been isolated either
from the pitch of pine or beech. The whitish compound formed by
acetate of lead in an alcoholic solution of pitch deserves investigation,
and perhaps might be the starting point for acquiring a better know-
ledge of the chemistry of this substance.
Commerce — The same countries that produce tar produce also
pitch. The quantity of the latter imported into the United Kingdom
during 1872 was 35,482 cwt., four-fifths of which were supplied by
Russia. Pitch is also manufactured from tar in Great Britain.
Uses — Pitch is occasionally administered in the form of pills, or
externally as an ointment ; but its medicinal properties are, to say the
least, very questionable.
FRUCTUS JUNIPERI.
Baccce Oalbuli Jmviperi; Juniper Berries; F. Baies de Genievre;
G. Wacholderbeeren, Kacldigbeeren.
Botanical Origin — Jwniperis communis L., a dioecious evergreen,
occurring in Europe from the Mediterranean to the Arctic regions,
throughout Russian Asia as far as Sachalin, and in the north-western
Himalaya, where it is ascending in Kashmir at 5400 feet, in Lahoul to
12,500, on the upper Bias and in Gurhwal to 14,000 feet. It abounds
in the islands of Newfoundland, Saint Pierre, and Miquelon, and is
also found in Continental North America. Dispersed over this vast
area the Common Juniper presents several varieties. In England and
FRUCTUkS juniperi.
625
in the greater part of Europe it foriiis a bushy shrub from 2 to 6 feet
high, but in the interior of Norway and Sweden it becomes a small
forest tree of 30 to 36 feet, often attaining an age of hundreds of years.^
In high mountain regions of temperate Europe and in Arctic countries
it assumes a decumbent habit (Junijm'us nana Willd.), rising only a
fcAV inches above the soil.
History — The fruits of juniper, though by no means exclusively
those of J. communis, were commonly used in medicine by the Greek
and Roman as well as by the Arabian physicians ; they had a place
among the drugs of the Welsh " physicians of Myddvai " (see Appendix),
and are mentioned in some of the earliest printed herbals. The oil was
distilled by Schnellenberg^ as early as 1546.
Popular uses were formerly assigned in various parts of Europe to
juniper berries. They were employed as a spice to food f and a spirit,
of which wormwood was an ingredient, was obtained from them by
fermentation and distillation. The spirit called in French Genievre
became known in English as Geneva, a name subsequently contracted
into Gin^
Description — The flowers form minute axillary catkins ; those of
the female plant consist of 3 to 5 whorls of imbricated bracts. Of these
the uppermost three soon become fleshy and scale-like, and alternate
with three upright ovules having an open pore at the apex. After the
flowers have faded these three fleshy bracts grow together to form a
berry-like fruit termed a galhulus, which encloses three seeds. The
three points and sutures of the fruit-scales are conspicuous in the upper
part of the young fruit ; but after maturity the sutures alone are
visible, forming a depressed mark at its summit. A small point, sur-
rounded by two or three trios of minute bracts, indicates the base of
the fruit.
This fruit or pseudo-berry remains ovate and green during its first
year, and it is not until the second autumn that it becomes ripe. It is
then spherical, to of an inch in diameter, of a deep purplish
colour, with a blue-grey bloom. Its internal structure may be thus
described : — beneath the thin epicarp there is a loose yellowish-brown
sarcocarp, enclosing large cavities, the oil-ducts ; the three hard seeds
lying close together, triangular and sharp-edged at the top, are attached
to the sarcocarp at their outer sides, and only as far as the lower half.
The upper half, which is free, is covered by a thin membrane. In the
longitudinal furrows of the hard testa towards the loAver half of the
seed are small prominent sacs growing out into the sarcocarp. Each
seed bears on its inner side 1 or 2, and on its convex outer surface 4 to
8 of these sacs, which in old fruits contain the resinified oil in an
amorphous colourless state.
Juniper berries when crushed have an aromatic odour, and a spicy,
sweetish, terebinthinous taste.
Microscopic Structure — The outer layer of the fruit consists of
a colourless transparent cuticle, which covers a few rows of large cubic
1 Schilbeler, Culturpflanzen Norivecjens, * The gin distilled in Holland is flavoured
Christiania, 1873-1875. 140, with fig. with juniper berries, yet, as we are told, but
- ArtzneybucJi, Konigsberg, 1556. 35. very slightly, only 2 lb. being used to 100
^ Valmont de Bomare, Did. d'Hist. nat. gallons,
ii. (1775) 45.
2 R
626
CONIFERJE.
or tabular cells having thick, brown, porous walls. These cells contain
a dark granular substance and masses of resin. The sarcocarp, which
in the ripe state consists of large, elliptic, thin- walled, loosely coherent
cells, contains chlorophyll, drops of essential oil, and a crystalline sub-
stance soluble in alcohol, — no doubt a stearoptene. Before maturity it
likewise contains starch granules and large oil-cells. This tissue is
traversed by very small vascular bundles containing annulated and
dotted vessels.
Chemical Composition — The most important constituent of juni-
per berries is the volatile oil, obtainable to the extent of 0 4 to 12
per cent. The latter amount is obtained from Hungarian, 0 7 per cent,
from German fruits.^ It is a mixture of levogyre oils, the one of which
having the composition C^^ff" boils at 155° C; the prevailing portion of
the oil, boiling at about 200°, consists of hydrocarbons, which are
polymeric with terpene, C^ff". The crude oil as distilled by us
deviated 3°"5 to the left in a column of 50 mm.
By passing nitrosyl chloride gas, NOCl, into it, Tilden (1877)
obtained from the portion boiling below 160° the crystallized compound
C'"H'^' (NOCl), which is yielded by all the terpenes.
Another important constituent of juniper berries is the glucose, of
which Trommsdorft" (1822) obtained 33 per cent., while Donath (1873)
found 41 "9, and Ritthausen (1877) not more than 16 per cent, in the
berries deprived of water. Of albuminoid substances about 5 per cent,
are present, of inorganic matter's 3 to 4 per cent. The fruit, moreover,
contains also according to Donath small amounts of formic, acetic, and
malic acids, besides resin.
Collection and Commerce — Juniper berries are largely collected
in Savoy, and in the departments of the Doubs and Jura in France,
whence they find their way to the hands of the Geneva druggists.
They are also gathered in Austria, the South of France and Italy.
In Hamburg price-currents they are quoted as German and Italian.
The largest supplies are apparently furnished by Hungaria.
Uses — The berries and the essential oil obtained from them are
reputed diuretic, yet are not often prescribed in English medicine.
HERBA SABINE.
Cacuniina vet Summitates Sabince; Savin or Savine; F. Sabine;
G. Sevenhraut.
Botanical Origin — Juniperus Sabiva L., a woody evergreen
shrub, usually of small size and low-growing, spreading habit, but in
some localities erect and arborescent.
It occurs in the Southern Alps of Austria (Tirol) and Switzerland
(Visp or Viege and Stalden in the Valais, also in Grisons and Vaud), and
in the adjacent mountains of France and Piedmont, ascending to eleva-
tions of 4,000 to 5,000 feet. It is also found in the Pyrenees, Central
Spain, Italy and the Crimea; likewise in the Caucasus, where it reaches
12,000 feet above the sea level. Eastward it extends to the Elburs
range, south of the Caspian, and throughout Southern Siberia, where it
1 According to Messrs. Scliimmel & Co. (see j). 306, note 2.)
HERBA SABINJE.
627
ascends in the Balkhasch and Alatau mountains to 8,600 feet. In
North America it has been gathered on the banks of the river Saskatch-
ewan, at Lake Huron, in Newfoundland, and in Saint Pierre and
Miquelon. There are, however, a few very closely allied species which
may occasionally have been confounded with savin.
History — Savin is mentioned as a veterinary drug by Marcus
Porcius Cato,^ a Roman writer on husbandry who flourished in the
second century B.C.; and it was well known to Dioscorides (under the
name of (dpdBu) and Pliny. The plant, which is frequently named in
the early English leech-books written before the Norman Conquest,"
may probably have been introduced into Britain by the Romans.
Charlemagne, A.D. 812, ordered that it should be cultivated on the
imperial farms of Central Europe. Its virtues as a stimulating appli-
cation to wounds and ulcers are noticed in the verses of Macer Floridus,^
composed in the 10th century.
Description — The medicinal part of savin is the young and tender
gTeen shoots, stripped from the more woody twigs and branches. These
are clothed with minute scale-like rhomboid leaves, arranged alternately
in opposite j)airs. On the younger twigs they are closely adpressed,
thick, concave, rounded on the back, in the middle of which is a con-
spicuous depressed oil gland. As the shoots grow older the leaves
become more pointed and divergent from the stem. Savin evolves, when
rubbed or bruised, a strono- and not disao-reeable odour. The blackish
fruit or galbulus resembling a small berry, ^ of an inch in diameter,
grows on a short recurved stalk, and is covered with a blue bloom. It
is globular, dry, but abounding in essential oil, and contains 1 to 4
little bony nuts.
To mycologists, Jxmvperus Sabma, at least in the cultivated state,
is interesting on account of the parasitic fungus Podisoma fmcmn.
Duby, the mycelium of which produces, on the leaves of the pear-trees,
the so-called Roestelia cancellata Rebentisch.
Chemistry — The odour of savin is due to an essential oil, of which
the fresh tops afford 2 to 4 per cent., and the berries about 10 per cent.
Examined in a column 50 millimetres long it was found to deviate the
ray of polarized light 27° to the right, the oil used having been distilled
by one of us in London from the fresh plant cultivated at Mitcham.
The same result was obtained from the oil abstracted ten years pre-
viously from savin collected wild on the Alps of the Canton de Vaud,
Switzerland. We find that, by the prolonged action of the air, if the
oil is kept in a vessel not carefully closed, the rotatory power after the
lapse of years is greatly reduced. Savin oil, according to Tilden (1877),-
yields a small amount of an oil boiling at 160°, which answers to the
formula C^H^^O. The greater part of the oil was found by that chemist
to boil above 200° C. Tilden asserts that no terpene is present in the
oil of savin; we have not been able to obtain from it a crystallized
hydrochloride. Savin tops contain traces of tannic matter.
1 Cap. Ixx. {Bubus medicamenium),
~ Cockayne, Leedidoms, etc., of Early Eng-
land, ii. (1865) xii.
3 Choulant, Macer Floridm de virihus
herlarum, Lipsife, 1832. 48. . . . " Dup-
lum si desuiit ciniiama poni In medica-
mentis iubet Oribasiiis auctor. "
628
CONIFERyE.
Uses — Savin is a powerful uterine stimulant, producing in over-
doses very serious effects. It is but rarely administered internally.
An ointment of savin, which from the chlorophyll it contains is of a
fine green colour, is used as a stimulating dressing for blisters.
Substitutes — There are several species of juniper which have a con-
siderable resemblance to savin; and one of them, commonly grown in
gardens and shrubberies, is sometimes mistaken for it. This is / unijjeriis
virginiana L., the Red Cedar or Savin of North America. In its native
country it is a tree, attaining a height of 50 feet or more, but in Britain
it is seldom more than a large shrub, of loose spreading growth, very
different from the low, compact habit of savin.^ The foliage is of two
sorts, consisting either of mimite, scale-like, rhomboid leaves like those
of savin, more rarely of elongated, sharp, divergent leaves a quarter of
an inch in length, resembling those of common Juniper. Both forms
often occur on the same branch. The plant is much less rich in essential
oil than true savin,^ for which it is sometimes substituted in the United
States.
The foliage of J uniperiis pJioenicea L., a Mediterranean species, has
some resemblance to savin for which it is said to be sometimes sub-
stituted,^ but it is quite destitute of the peculiar odour of the latter.
The specific name of the former alludes to its red fruit, from (pomKiog,
purple.
^ We have examined numerous herbarium
specimens (wild) of J. virginiana and J.
Sahiiia, but except difference of stature
and habit, can observe scarcely any cha-
racters for separating them as species. The
fruit stalk in J. virginiana is often pendu-
lous as in /. Sabina. Each plant has two
forms, — arboreous and fruticose.
- This we ascertained by distilling under
precisely similar conditions 6 lbs. G oz. of
the fresh shoots of each of the two plants,
Junipcrus Sabina and J. virginiana: the
first gave 9 drachms of essential oil, the
second only 5 a drachm. The latter was
of a distinct and more feeble odour, and a
different dextrogyre power. In America
the oil of J. virginiana is known as " Cedar
Oil," and used as a taenifiige. It contains
a crystallizable oxygenated portion. This
oil however is afforded by the wood. Eed
Cedar wood from Florida is stated by
Messrs. Schimmel & Co. (see p. 306) to
afford as much as 4 to 5 per cent, of that
oil.
» Bonplandia, x. (1862) 55.
AMYLUM MAEANT^.
629
CANNACE^.
AMYLUM MARANT^.
Arroturoot.
Botanical Origin— 3Iara7ita arunclinacea,^ L. — An herbaceous
branching plant, 4 to 6 feet high, with ovate lanceolate, puberulous or
nearly glabrous leaves, and small white flowers, solitary or in lax
racemes. It is a native of the tropical parts of America from Mexico
to Brazil, and of the V/est Indian Islands ; and under the slightly dif-
ferent form known as M. indica Tussac, it occurs in Bengal, Java and
the Philippines. This Asiatic variety is now found in the West Indies
and Tropical America, but apparently as an introduced plant.^
History — The history of arrowroot is comparatively recent. Passing-
over some early references of French writers on the West Indies to an
Herhe aux jiecJies, which plant it is impossible to identify with Maranta,
we find in Sloane's catalogue of Jamaica plants (1696), Canna Indica
radice alba alexipliarmaca. This plant, discovered in Dominica, was sent
thence to Barbadoes and subsequently to Jamaica, it being, says Sloane,
" very much, esteemed for its alexijoharmach qualities." It was observed,
he adds, that the native Indians used the root of the plant with success
against the poison of their arrows, "by only mashing and applying it to
the 'poison d wounds " : and further, that it cures the poison of the man-
chineel {Hippomane Mancinella L.), of the wasps of Guadaloupe, and
even stops " a begun gangreen." ^
Patrick Browne (1756) notices the reputed alexipharmic virtues of
Maranta, which was then cultivated in many gardens in Jamaica, and
1 Fig. in Beiitley and Trimen's Med.
Plants, part 23 (1877).
^ We accept the opinion of Kornicke
(Blonogrcqjhioi Marantaccarum Prodromus,
Bull, de la Soc. imp. des Natiiralistes de
Moscoit, XXXV. 1862, i.) that Maranta arun-
dinacca L. and 31. indica Tuss. are one
and the same species. Grisebach maintains
them as distinct (Flora of the British West
Indian Islands, 1864, 605), allowing both
to be natives of Tropical America ; but he
fails to point out any important character
by which they may be distinguished from
each other. According to Miquel (Linnaia,
xviii. 1844. 71) the plant in the herbarium
of Linnaaus labelled M. aritndinacea, is 31.
indica. We have ourselves made arrowroot
from the fi-esh rhizomes of 31. aritndinacea,
in order to compare it with an authentic
specimen obtained in Java from 31. indica:
no diiterence could be found between them.
^ Sloane, Catal. j)l(wt. quceinins. Jamaica
sponte proveniimt, vel vulgd coluntur, Lond.
1696. 122 ; also Hist, of Jamaica, i. (1707)
253.
630
CANNACE^.
says that the root "tvasJied, 'pounded jine and bleached, makes a finejioiir
and starch," — sometimes used as food when provisions are scarce.^
Hughes, when writing of Barbadoes in 1750, describes arrowroot as a
very useful plant, the juice mixed with water and drunk being regarded
as "a preservative against any poison of an Itot nature" ; while from
the root the finest starch is made, far excelling that of wheat. ^ The pro-
perties of Maranta arundinacea as a counter-poison are insisted upon
at some length by Lunan,^ who concludes his notice of the plant by
detailing the process for extracting starch from the rhizome.
Arrowroot came into use in England about the commencement of
the present century, the supplies being obtained, as it would appear,
from Jamaica.^
The statements of Sloane, which are confirmed by Browne and
Lunan, plainly indicate the origin and meaning of the word arrowroot,
and disprove the notion of the learned C. F. Ph. von Martins (1867)
tliat the name is derived from that of the Arnac or Aroaquis Indians
of South America, who call the finest sort of fecula they obtain from
the Mandioc Aru-aru. It is true that 3Iaranta arundinacea is hnown
at the present day in Brazil as Araruta, but the name is certainly a
corruption of the English word arroivroot, the plant according to general
report having been introduced.^
Manufacture — For the production of arrowroot, the rhizomes are
dug up after the plant has attained its complete maturity, which in
Georgia is at the beginning of winter. The scales which cover them
are removed and the rhizomes washed ; the latter are then ground in a
mill, and the pulp is washed on sieves, or in washing machines con-
structed for the purpose, in order to remove from it the starch. This is
allowed to settle down in pure water, is then dra.ined and finally dried
with a gentle heat. Instead of being crushed in a mill, the rhizomes
are sometimes grated to a pulp by a rasping machine.
In all stages of the process for making arrowroot, nice precautions
have to be taken to avoid contamination with dust, iron mould, insects,
or anything which can impart colour or taste to the product. The
rhizome contains about 68 per cent, of water, and yields about a fifth of
its weight of starch."
Description — Arrowroot is a brilliant white,, insipid, inodorous,
powder, more or less aggregated into lumps Avhich seldom exceed a pea
in size ; when pressed it emits a slight crackling sound. It exhibits the
general properties of starch, consisting entirely of gramdes which are
subspherical, or broadly and irregularly egg-shaped ; when seen in water
they show a distinct stratification in the form of fine concentric rings
around a small star-like hilum. They have a diameter of 5 to 7 mkm.
when observed in the air or under benzol. If the water in which they
1 Ci'oil and Natural liistorij of Jamaica,
1756. 112. 113.
2 NaUiral History of Barbados, 17i50. 221.
^ Hortus Jamaicensis, i. (1814) 30.
■* Thus in 1799 there were exported from
Jamaica 24 casks and boxes of "Jndian
Arrow-root." — lleimy , Hist, cf Jamaica, 2'.i5.
^ Since the above was written, the follow-
ing lines bearing on this question have been
received from Mr. Spruce; — ". . I know not
Martius' derivation of ' arroivroot.^ On the
Amazon it is called 'araruta^ — plainly a
corruption of the English name, and ex-
l^lained by the fact that it was first culti-
vated, as I was told, from tubers obtained in
the East Indies."
This was in the German colony of Bhi-
nienauin Southern Brazil — Eberhard, Arch,
dn- Pharm. 134 (1868) 257.
AMYLUM MARANT^.
631
lie be cautiously heated on the object-stage of the microscope, the
tumefaction of the granules will be found to begin exactly at 70"" C.
Heated to 100° 0. Avith 20 parts of distilled water, arrowroot yields a
semitransj)ar'ent jelly of somewhat earthy taste and smell. By hydro-
chloric acid of sp. gr. 1"06, arrowroot is but imperfectly dissolved at
40° C.
The specific gravity of all varieties of starch is affected by the water
which they retain at the ordinary temperature of the air. Arrowroot
after prolonged exposui-e to an atmosphere of average moisture, and
then kept at 100'' C. till its weight was constant, was found to have lost
13"3 per cent, of water. On subsequent exposure to the air, it regained
its former proportion of water.
Weighed in any liquid which is entirely devoid of action on starch,
as 2)etroleum or benzol, the sp. gr. of arrowroot was found by one of us
to be 1"504 ; but 1'565 when the powder had been previously dried at
100" C.
Microscopic Structure of Arrowroot and of Starch in general.
— The granules are built up of layers, — a structure which may be
rendered evident by the gradual action of chloride of calcium, chromic
acid, or an ammoniacal solution of cupric oxide. When one of these
liquids in a proper state of dilution is made to act upon starch, or
when for that pui'pose a liquid is chosen which does not act upon it
energetically, such as diastase, bile, pepsin, or saliva, it is easy to obtain
a residue, which according to Nageli, is no longer capable of swelling
up in boiling water, nor is immediately turned blue by iodine, except on
the addition of sulphuric acid ; but which is dissolved by ammoniacal
cupric oxide. These are the essential properties of cellulose ; and this
residue has been regarded as such by Nageli, while the dissolved portion
has been distinguished as Granulose (Maschke, 18.52).
C. Nageli in his important monograph on starch ^ has described the
action of saliva when digested with starch for a day, at a temperature
of 40° to 47° C; he says that the residue is a skeleton, corresponding
in form to the original grain but somewhat smaller, light, and very
mobile in water. He concludes that its interstitial spaces must have
been previously filled with granulose.
This experiment, which has been repeated by one of us (F.), does not
in our opinion warrant all the inferences that Nageli has drawn from
it : it is true that many separate parts of the grain are dissolved by the
saliva, while others have disappeared down to a mere film, and others
again have been attacked in a ve^y irregular manner. But we cannot
agree with the statement that anything comparable to a skeleton of the
grain has been left. After longer action at a higher temperature, which
however must not exceed 6.5° C, a more copious dissolution of the
starch, either by saliva or by bile, takes place ; but in no case is it
complete.^
Chemistry of Starch — Its composition answers to the formula
(.Q8jJ^0Q.y2_^3 QJJ2^ ^^^^ ^QQO Q6JJI0Q5_ MuSCuluS hoW-
ever showed, in 1861, that by the action of dilute acids or of Diastase,
1 Die St.arhekorner, Zurich, 1858. 4°, also
W. Nageli, Stdrkegruppe, etc., Leipzig,
1874.
2 Further particulars on this question
may be found in my paper Ueher Sidrke
nml (JeUulo-ie — Arddo der Fliarmacie, li)G
(1871) 7.— F. A. F.
632
CANNACE^.
starch is resolved into Dextrin, C^'H^'O", and Dextrose, Cff'O", with
which decomposition, tlie formula, C^'*H^°0''', would be more in accord.
Sachsse (1877) on the other hand advocates the formula G^^K^'^O^^ +
12 0H2
Cold water is not without action on starch ; if the latter be con-
tinuously triturated with it, the filtrate, in which no particles can be
detected by the microscope, will assume a blue colour on addition of
iodine, without the formation of a precipitate. The proportion of starch
thus brought into solution is infinitely small, and always at the expense
of the integrity of the grains. It is even probable that the solution in
this case is due to the minute amount of heat, which must of necessity
be developed by the trituration.
Certain reagents capable of attacking starch act upon it in very
different ways. The action in the cold of concentrated aqueous solutions
of easily soluble neutral salts or of chloral hydrate is remarkable.
Potassium bromide or iodide, or calcium chloride for instance, cause the
grains to swell, and render them soluble in cold water. At a certain
degree of dilution a perfectly clear liquid is formed, which at first con-
tains neither dextrin nor sugar ; it is coloured blue, but is not precipi-
tated by iodine water; and starch can be thrown down from it by alcohol.
This precipitate, though entirely devoid of the structural peculiarity of
starch, still exhibits some of the leading properties of that siibstance ;
it is coloured in the same manner by iodine, does not dissolve even
when fresh in ammoniacal cupric oxide, and after drying is insoluble
in water, whether cold or boiling. The progress of the solvent is most
easily traced when calcium chloride is used, as this salt acts more slowly
than the others we have mentioned. It leaves scarcely any perceptible
residue. This fact in our opinion militates against the notion that
starch is composed of a pecvdiar amylaceous substance, deposited within
a skeleton of cellulose.
The remarkable action of iodine upon starch was discovered in 1814
by Colin and Gavdtier de Claubry. It is extremely different in degree,
according to the peculiar kind of starch, the proportion of iodine, and
the nature of the substance the grains are impregnated with, before or
after their treatment with iodine. The action is even entirely arrested
(no blue colour being produced) by the presence in certain proportion
of quinine, tannin, Aqua Plcis, and of other bodies.
The combination of iodine with starch does not take place in equi-
valent proportions, and is moreover easily overcome by heat. The iodine
combined with starch amounts at the utmost to 7"5 per cent. The
compound is most readily formed in the presence of water, and then
produces a deep indigo blue. Almost all other substances capable of
penetrating starch grains, weaken the colour of the iodine compound to
violet, reddish yellow, yellow, or greenish blue. These different shades,
the production of which has been described by Nageli with great difiVise-
ness, are merely the colours which belong to iodine itself in the solid,
liquid, or gaseous form. They must be referred to the fact that the
particles of iodine diffuse themselves in a peculiar but hitherto unex-
plained manner within the grain or in the sv/ollen and dissolved starch.
Commerce of Arrowroot — The chief kinds of arrowroot found in
commerce are known as Bermuda, St. Vincent, and Natal; but that of
AMYLUM MARANIVE.
Jamaica and other West India Islands, of Brazil, Sierra Leone, and the
East Indies, are quoted in priee-ciirrents, at least occasionally. Oi these
the Bermuda enjoys the highest reputation and commands by far the
highest price ; but its good quality is shared by the arrowroot of other
localities, from which, when equally pure, it can in nowise be dis-
tinguished. Greenish,' however, points out that in Natal arrowroot the
layers (or laminfB) are more obvious than in other varieties, although it
appears that the former is also produced by Maranta.
The importations of arrowroot into the United Kingdom during the
year 1870 amounted to 21,770 cwt., value £33,063. Of this quantity
"the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies furnished nearly 17,000
cwt., and the colony of Natal about 3000 cwt. The exports from St.
Vincent in 1874 were 2,608,100 ft., those of the Bermudas in 1876 only
45,520 The shipments from the colony of Natal during the years
]866 to 1876 varied from 1,076 cwt. in 1873 to 4,305 cwt. in 1867.'
Uses — Arrowroot boiled with water or milk is a much-valued food
in the sick-room. It is also an agreeable article of diet in the form of
pudding or blancmange.
Adulteration — Other starches than that of Maranta are occasionally
sold under the name of Arrowroot. Their recognition is only possible
by the aid of the microscope.
Substitutes for Arrowroot.
Potato Starch — This substance, known in trade as Farina or
Potato Flour, is made from the tubers of tlie potato (Solanum tube-
rosum L.) by a process analogous to that followed in the preparation
of arrowroot. It has the following characters : — examined under the
microscope, the granules are seen to be chiefly of two sorts, the first
small and spherical, the second of much larger size, often 100 mkm. in
length, having an irregularly circular, oval or egg-shaped outline, finely
marked" with concentric rings round a minute inconspicuous hilum.
When heated in water, the grains swell considerably even at 60" C.
Hydrochloric acid, sp. gr. 106, dissolves them at 40" quickly and
almost completely, the granules being no longer deposited, as in the
case of arrowroot similarly treated. The mixture of arrowroot and
hydrochloric acid is inodorous, but that of potato starch has a peculiar
though not powerful odour.
Canna Starch, Totis-lcs-Mois* Toulema, Tolomune — A species of
Cannoj is cultivated in the West India Islands, especially St. Kitts, for
the sake of a peculiar starch which, since about the year 1836, has
been extracted from its rhizomes by a process similar to that adopted
in making arrowroot. The specific name of the plant is still undeter-
1 Yearbook of Pharm. (1875) 529.
-Papers relating to H.M. Colonial Pos-
sessions. Reports for 1875-76. Presented
to both Houses of Parliament, July 1877.
54. 4.
^ Statist. Abstr. for tlie several Colonial
and other Possessions of the United King-
dom, 14th number, 1878. p. 60.
■* It is commonly stated that the name
Tous-les-tnois was given in consequence of
the plant flowering all the year round. But
this explanation appears improbable : no
such name is mentioned by Ivochefort,
Arrblet, or Descourtilz, who all describe
the Balkier or Canna. It seems more
likely that the term is the result of an
attempt to confer a meaning on an ancient
name — perhaps Touloula, which is one of
the Carib designations for Canna and
Calathea.
G34
CANNACE^.
mined ; it is said to agree with Ganna edalis Ker {G. inclica Ruiz et
Pavon)/
The starch, which bears the same name as the plant, is a dull white
powder, having a peculiar satiny or lustrous aspect, by reason of the
extraordinary magnitude of the starch granules of which it is composed.
These granules examined under the microscope are seen to be flattened
and of irregular form, as circular, oval, oblong, or oval-truncate. The
centre of the numerous concentric rings with which each granule is
marked, is usually at one end i-ather than in the centre of a granule.
The hilum is inconspicuous. The granules though far larger than those
of the potato, are of the same density as the smaller forms of that
starch, and, like them, float perfectly on chloroform. When heated,
they begin to burst at 72° C. Dilute hydrochloric acid acts upon them
as it does on ari-owroot.
Canna starch boiled with 20 times its weight of water affords a
jelly less clear and more tenacious than that of arrowroot, yet applicable
to exactly the same purposes. The starch is but little known and not
much esteemed in Europe ; it was exported in 1S7G from St. Kitts to
the amount of 51,873 lb, besides 5.300 lb arrowroot starch. ^
Ciircnma Starch, Tihor, Til-har. — The pendulous, colourless tubers
of some species of Curcuma, but especially of G. (mgustifolia Roxb.
and G. leucorrhiza Roxb., have long been utilized in Southern India
i'oY the preparation of a sort of arrowroot, known by the Hindustani
name of Tikor, or Tikhur, and sometimes called by Europeans Uast
Indian Arrowroot^^ The granules of this substance much resemble
those of Afaranta, but they are neither spherical nor egg-shaped. On
tlie contrarjf, they are rather to be described as flat discs, 5 to 7 mkm.
thick, of elliptic or ovoid outline, sometimes truncate ; many attain a
length of 60 to 70 mkm. They are always beautifully stratified both
on the face and on the edge. The hilum is generally situated at the
narrower end. We have observed that when heated in water, the
tumefaction of the grains commences at 72° C.
Curcuma starch, which in its general properties agrees with common
arrowroot, is rather extensively manufactured in Travancore, Cochin
and Canara on the south-western coast of India, but in a very rude
manner. Drury* states that it is a favourite article of diet among the
natives, and that it is exported from Travancore and Madras ; we can
add that it is not known as a special kind in the English market, and
that the article we have seen ofl'ered in the London drug sales as Ead
Indian Arroivroot was the starch of Maranta.
' Fig. in Beiitley aud Trimen's Medic.
PJantH, part 8 (1876).
- Page 102 of the Repoi'ts quoted at p.
033, note 2.
Living roots of the plant used for mak-
ing this arrowroot at Cochin, have been
kindly forwarded to ixs by A. F. Sealy,
Es(i. of that place.
^ Useful Plants of India, ed. 2. 1873. 168.
RHIZOMA ZINGIBERIS.
635
ZINGIBERACE^.
RHIZOMA ZINGIBERIS.
Radix Zingiberis ; Ginger ; F. Gingembre ; G. Ingiver.
Botanical Origin — Zingiber officinale ^oscoe {Amomum Zingiber
L.), a reed-like plant, with annual leafy stems, 3 to 4 feet high, and
flowers in cone-shaped spikes borne on other stems thrown up from
the rhizome. It is a native of Asia, in the warmer countries of which
it is universally cultivated,! i^^^ j^nown in a wild state. It has
been introduced into most tropical countries, and is now found in the
West Indies, South America, Tropical Western Africa, and Queensland
in Australia.
History — Ginger is known in India under the old name of
Sringavera, derived possibly from the Greek Ziyyl^epi As a spice
it was used among the Greeks and Romans, who appear to have
received it by way o£ the Red Sea, inasmuch as they considered it to
be a production of Southern Arabia.
In the list of imports from the Red Sea into Alexandria, which in
the second century of our era were there liable to the Roman fiscal
duty (vectigal), Zingiber occurs among other Indian spices.^ During the
middle ages it is frequently mentioned in similar lists, and evidently
constituted an important item in the commercial relations between
Europe and the East. Ginger thus appears in the tariff' of duties levied
at Acre in Palestine about a.d. 1173;^ in that of Barcelona* in
1221; Marseilles^ in 1228; and Paris^ in 1296. The Tarif des Peages,
or customs tariff, of the Counts of Provence in the middle of the 13th
century, provides for the levying of duty at the towns of Aix, Digne,
Valensole, Tarascon, Avignon, Orgon, Aries, &;c., on various commodities
imported from the East. These included spices, as pepper, ginger,
cloves, zedoary, gaiangal, cubebs, saffron, canella, cumin, anise; dye
stuffs, such as lac, indigo, Brazil wood, and especially alum from
Castilia and Volcano ; and groceries, as racalicia (liquorice), siigar
and dates.'''
In England ginger must have been tolerably well known even
prior to the Norman Conquest, for it is frequently named in the Anglo-
Saxon leech-books of the 11th century, as well as in the Welsh
"Physicians of Myddvai" (see Appendix). During the 13th and 14th
centuries it was, next to pepper, the commonest of spices, costing on an
average nearly Is. 7d.. per lb., or about the price of a sheep.'*
^ The mode of cultivation is described by
Buchanan, Joiirneu from Madras tlirouijh
Ml/sore, etc. ii. (1807) 469.— Fig. of the
plant in Bentley and Trimen's Medic.
Plants, part 32 (1878).
2 Vincent, Commerce and Navigation of
the Ancients, ii. (1807) 695.
^ Eecueil des Bisioriens des Croisades ;
Lois, ii. (1843) 176.
Capmany, Memorias sohre la Marina,
etc. de Barcelona, Madrid, ii. (1779) 3.
^ Mery et Guindon, Hist, des Actes . . .
de la Municipality de Marseille, i. (1841)
372.
^ Eevue arcMolor/ique, ix. (1852) 213.
' Collection de Cartidaires de France,
Paris, viii. (1857) pp. Ixxiii-xci., Abbaye
de St. Victor, Marseilles.
^ Rogers, Hist, of Ai/riadture and Prices
in England, i. (18G6) 629.
G36
ZINGIBERACE^.
The merchants of Italy, about the middle of the 14th century, knew
three kinds of ginger, called respectively Belledi, Colombino, and
Micckino. These terms may be explained thus: — Belledi or Baladi is
an Arabic word, which, as applied to ginger, would signify country or
wild, i.e. common ginger. Colombino refers to Columbum, Kolam or
Quilon, a port in Travancore frequently mentioned in the middle ages.
Ginger termed Miccldno denotes that the spice had been brought from
or by way of Mecca.^
Ginger preserved in syrup, and sometimes called Green Ginger, was
also imj)orted during the middle ages, and regarded as a delicacy of
the choicest kind.
The plant aftbrding ginger must have been known to Marco Polo
(.circa 1280-90), who speaks of observing it both in China and India.
John of Montecorvino, who visited India about 1292 (see p. 521),
describes ginger as a plant like a flag, the root of which can be dug
up and transported. Nicolo Conti also gave some description of the
plant and of the collection of the root, as witnessed by him in India.^
The Venetians received ginger by way of Egypt; yet some of the
superior kinds were conveyed from India overland by the Black Sea,
as stated by Marino Sanudo^ about 130G.
Ginger was introduced into America by Francisco de Mendo9a,
who took it from the East Indies to New Spain.* It was shipped for
commercial purposes from the Island of St. Domingo as early at least as
1585; and from Barbados in 1054." According to Benny ,^ 22,053 cwt.
were exported from the West Indies to Spain in 1547.
Description — Ginger is known in two forms, namely the rhizome
dried with its epidermis, in which case it is called coated; or deprived
of epidermis, and then termed scraped or uncoated. The pieces, which
are called by the spice-dealers races or hands, rarely exceed 4 inches in
length, and have a somewhat palmate form, being made up of a series
of short, laterally compressed, lobe-like shoots or knobs, the summit of
each of which is marked by a depression indicating the former attach-
ment of the leafy stem.
To produce the uncoated ginger, which is that preferred for medicinal
use, the fresh rhizome is scraped, washed, and then dried in the sun.
Thus prepared, it has a pale buff hue, and a striated, somewhat
fibrous surface. It breaks easily, exhibiting a short and farinaceous
fracture with numerous bristle-like fibres. When cut with a knife the
younger or terminal portion of the rhizome appears pale yellow, soft
and amylaceous, while the older part is flinty, hard and resinous.
Coated ginger, or that which has been dried without the removal of
the epidermis, is covered with a wrinkled, striated brown integument,
which imparts to it a someAvhat coarse and crude appearance, which is
usually remarkably less developed on the flat parts of the rhizome.
Internally, it is usually of a less bright and delicate hue than ginger
1 Yule, Booh of Ser Marco Polo, ii. (1871)
316. — Soe, however, Heyd, Levanteliandel,
II. (1879) 601.
- See Appendix.
' Marinus Sanutiis, Liher sccretorum fide-
lium criicis, Hanovias (1611) 22.
* Monardes, Historia de las cosas que se
iraen de n uestras Indias occidenlales, Sevilla,
(1574) 99.
^ Calendar of State Papers, Colonial
Scries, 1574-1660, Lond. 1860, p. 4; see also
pp. 414, 434.
6 Eemiy, Hist, of Jamaica, Lond. 1807.
154.
EHIZOMA ZINGIBERIS.
637
from which the cortical part has been removed. Much of it indeed is
dark, horny and resinous.
Ginger has an agreeable aromatic odour with a strong pungent
taste.
Varieties — Those at present found in the London market are distin-
gi^ished as Jamaica, Cochin, Bengal, and African. The first three are
scraped gingers; the last-named is a coated ginger, that is to say, it still
retains its epidermis. Jamaica Ginger is the sort most esteemed; and
next to it the Cochin. But of each kind there are several qualities,
presenting considerable variation inter se.
Scraped or decorticated ginger is often bleached, either by being-
subjected to the fumes of burning sulphur, or by immersion for a short
time in solution of chlorinated lime. Much of that seen in the grocers'
shops looks as if it had been whitewashed, and in fact is slightly
coated with calcareous matter, — either sulphate or carbonate of
calcium.^
Microscopic Structure — A transverse section of coated ginger
exhibits a brown, horny external layer, about one millimetre broad,
separated by a fine line from the v>rhitish mealy interior portion,
through the tissue of which numerous vascular bundles and resin-cells
are irregularly scattered. The external tissue consists of a loose outer
layer, and an inner composed of tabular cells: these are followed by
peculiar short prosenchymatous cells, the walls of which are sinuous on
transverse section and partially thickened, imparting a horny appear-
ance. This delicate felted tissue forms the striated surface of scraped
ginger, and is the principal seat of the resin and volatile oil, which here
fill large spaces. The large -celled parenchyme Avhich succeeds is
loaded with starch, and likewise contains numerous masses of resin and
drops of oil. The starch gr'anules are irregularly spherical, attaining at
the utmost 40 mkm. Certain varieties of ginger, owing to the starch
having been rendered gelatinous by scalding, are throughout horny and
translucent. The circle of vascular bundles which separates the outer
layers and the central portion is narrov/, and has the structure of the
corresponding circle or nucleus sheath in turmeric.
Chemical Composition — Ginger contains a volatile oil which is
the only constituent of the drug that has hitherto been investigated.
By distilling 112 lb. of Jamaica ginger with water in the usual way,
we obtained 4| ounces of this oil, or about I per cent. It is a pale
yellow liquid of sp. gr. 0"878, having the peculiar odour of ginger, but
not its pungent taste. It dissolves but sparingly in alcohol (0'83) ; and
deviates the ray of polarized light 21°.G to the left, when examined in
a column 50 mm. long^. We learn from kind information given us
(1878) by Messrs. Schimmel & Co. at Leipzig, that they obtain as much
as 2"2 per cent, of oil from good ginger.
The burning taste of ginger is due to a resin which v/e have not
examined, but which well deserves careful analysis. Protocatechuic
acid, which is so commonly afforded by resins (see page 243), is also
produced by melting the resin of ginger with caustic potash, as shown
in 1877 by Stenhouse and Groves.
^ Ml-. Garside (Pharm. Journ. April 18, 1874) found both. We have not observed
the carbonate to be used.
G38
ZTNGIBERACE^.
Commerce — Great Britain imported of ginger as follows : —
1868 1869 1870 1871 1872
52,194 cwt. 34,535 cwt. 33,854 cwt. 32,723 cwt. 32,174 cwt.
In 1876 the imports were 62,lC-i cwt., valued at £169,252.
The drug was received in 1872 thus : —
From Egypt 4,923 cwt.
,, Sierra Leone 6,167 ,,
,, British India - - 13,310 ,,
,, British West Inclies 7,543 ,,
,, other countries ...... 231 ,,
Total 32,174
The shipments from Jamaica during the years 1866 to 1876 varied
from 599,786 lb. in 1872 to 1,728,075 in 1867. In 1876 there were
exported 1,603,764 ft., valued at £28,882.^
Uses — Ginger is an agreeable aromatic and stomachic, and as such
is often a valuable addition to other medicines. It is much more
largely employed as a condiment than as a drug.
RHIZOMA CURCUMiE.
Radix Cur cumce ;^ Turmeric; Y. Curcuma ; Ci. GelMvurzel, Kurkuma.
Botanical Origin — Curcuma longa^ L. — Turmeric is indigenous to
Southern Asia, and is there largely cultivated both on the continent and
in the islands.
History — Dioscorides mentions an Indian plant as a kind of C-ifperus
(KJxet/oo?) resembling ginger, but having when chewed a yellow colour
and bitter taste : probably turmeric was intended. Garcia de Orta
(1563), as well as Fragoso (1572), describe turmeric as Crocus inclicus.
A list of drugs sold in the city of Frankfort about the year 1450, names
Curcuma along with zedoary and ginger.*
In its native countries, it has from remote times been highly esteemed
both as a condiment and a dye-stuff; in Europe, it has always been
less appreciated than the allied spices of the ginger tribe. In an
inventory of the effects of a Yorkshire tradesman, dated 20th Sept.,
1578, we find enumerated — "x. oiuncis of turmeracke, x d."^
Description — The base of the scrape thickens in the first year into
an ovate root-stock ; this afterwards thi'ows out shoots, forming lateral
or secondary rhizomes, each emitting roots, which branch into fibres or
are sometimes enlarged as colourless spindle-shaped tubers, rich in
starch. The lateral rhizomes are doubtless in a condition to develope
themselves as independent plants when separated from the parent.
The central rhizomes formerly known as Curcuma rotunda, and the
1 Statist. Abstract (as quoted p. 633, note
3), p. 71.
- CurcMvia from the Persian hurhum, a
name ajjplied also to saffron. The origin
of the word Turmeric is not linown to us ;
Terra merita seems to be a corruption of
it.
^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's 3Ieil.
Plants, part 9. (1S76).
■*Fluckiger, Die Frankfurter Liste, Halle,
1873. 11.
^Raine, Wills and Inventories of the
Arcluleaconrii of Richmond (Surtees
Society), 1853. 277.
RHIZOMA CURCUM.E.
639
elongated lateral ones as Curcuma longa, were regarded by Linn?eus
as the production of distinct species.
The radical tubers of some species of Curcuma, as C. angustl folia
Roxb., are used for making a sort of arrowroot (p. 637). Sometimes
they are dried, and constitute the peculiar kind of turmeric which the
Chinese call Yuh-hin}
The turmei'ic of commerce consists of the two sorts of rhizome just
mentioned, namely, the central or round and the Icderal or long. The
former are ovate, pyriform or subspherical, sometimes pointed at the
upper end and crowned with the remains of leaves, while the sides
are beset with those of roots and marked with concentric i-idges. The
diameter is very variable, but is seldom less than | of an inch, and is
frequently much more. They ai'e often cut and usually scalded in order
to destroy their vitality and facilitate drying.
The lateral rhizomes are subcylindrical, attenuated towards either
end, generally curved, covered with a rugose skin, and marked more or
less plainly with transverse rings. Sometimes one, two or more short
knobs or shoots grow out on one side. The rhizomes, whether round
or long, are veiy hard and firm, exhibiting when broken a dull, waxy,
resinous surface, of an orange or orange-brown hue, more or less
brilliant. They have a peculiar aromatic odour and taste.
Several varieties of turmeric distinguished by the names of the
countries or districts in which they are produced, are found in the
English market : but although they present differences which are
sufficiently appreciable to the eye of the experienced dealer, the
characters of each sort are scarcely so marked or so constant as to
be recognizable by mere verbal description. The principal sorts now
in commerce are known as China, Madras, Bengcd, Java, and Cochin.
Of these the first named is the most esteemed, but it is seldom to be
met with in the European market.^
Mcalras Turmeric is a fine sort in large, bold pieces. Sometimes
packages of it contain exclusively round rhizomes, while others are
made up entirely of the long or lateral.
Bengal Turmeric differs from the other varieties chiefly in its
deeper tint, and hence is the sort preferred for dyeing purposes.
Java Turmeric presents no very distinctive features; it is dusted
with its own powder, and does not show when broken a very brilliant
colour. Judging by the low price at which it is quoted it is not in
great esteem. It is the produce of Curcuma longa var. /3. minor^
Hassk.
Microscopic Structure — The suberous coat is made up of 8 to 10
rows of tabvilar cells ; the parenchyme of the middle cortical layer of
large roundish polyhedral cells. Towards the centre the transverse
section exhibits a coherent ring of fibro-vascular bundles representing
a kind of medullary sheath. The parenchyme enclosed by this ring-
is traversed by scattered bundles of vessels, and in most of its cells
contains starch in amorphous, angular, or roundish masses, which are
^ Haubury, Pharm. Journ. iii. (1862) 206;
also Science Papers, 254, fig. 11. — It is not
wholly devoid of yellow colouring matter.
^ A good deal is exported from Takow in
Formosa, but mostly to Chinese ports. —
Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports of
China for 1872. p. 106.
^ From information communicated by
Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical Garden,
Buitenzorg, Java.
640
ZINGIBERACE^.
so far disorganized that they no longer exhibit the usual appearance in
polarized light, but are nevertheless turned blue by iodine. The starch
has been reduced to this condition by scalding.
Resin likewise occurs in separate cells, forming dark yellowish-red
particles. The entire tissue is penetrated with yellow colouring matter,
and shows numerous drops of essential oil, which in the fresh rhizome
is no doubt contained in peculiar cells.
Chemical Composition — The drug jdelded us (187C) one per
cent, of a yellow essential oil, which contains a portion boiling at
250° C, answering to the formula C^"H'^0 ; this liquid difters from
carvol (p. 306) by being unable to combine with SHI The other
constituents of curcuma oil boil at temperatures much above 250° ; we
found the crude oil and its ditferent portions slightly dextrogyrate.
The aqueous extract of the drug tastes bitter, and is precipitated by
tannic acid.
The colouring matter. Cur cumin, C'^H'^O^ may be obtained to the
amount of -|- per cent, by depriving first the drug of fat and essential
oil. The powder, after that treatment v/ith bisulphide of carbon,
is gradually exhausted, according to Daube (1871), with warm petro-
leum (boiling point 80° - 90° C). On cooling chiefly the last portions
of petroleum deposit the crystalline curcumin. Its alcoholic solution is
purified by mixing it cautiously with basic acetate of lead, not allowing
the liquid to assume a decidedly acid reaction. The red precipitate
thus formed is collected, washed with alcohol, immersed in water, and
decomposed with sulphuretted hydrogen. From the dried mixture of
sulphide of lead and curcumin the latter is lastly removed by boiling
alcohol.
By Ivanow-Gajewsky (1873) the best produce of curcumin is stated
to be obtained by washing an ethereal extract of turmeric with weak
ammonia, dissolving' the residue in boilino- concentrated ammonia, and
passing into the solution carbonic acid, by which the curcumin is
precipitated in flakes.
After due recrystallization from alcohol curcumin forms yellow
crystals, having an odour of vanilla, and exhibiting a fine blue in
reflected light. They melt at 105° C. Curcumin is scarcely soluble,
even in boiling water, but dissolves readily on addition of an
alkali either caustic or carbonate. On acidulating these solutions, a
yellow powder of c\ircumin is precipitated. Cvircumin is not abundantly
dissolved by ether, very sparingly by benzol or bisulphide of carbon.
It is not volatile; heated with zinc dust it yields an oil boiling at
290° ; fused with caustic potash, curcumin affords protocatechuic acid
(page 243).
Paper tinged with an alcoholic solution of curcumin displays on
addition of an alkali a brownish-red coloration, becoming violet on
drying. Boracic acid produces an orange tint, turning blue by addition
of an alkaline solution.^ This behaviour of (impure) curcumin was
' The following is a striking experiment,
showing some of these changes of colour :
— Place a little crushed turmeric or the
powder on blotting paper, and moisten it
repeatedly with chloroform, allowing the
latter to evaporate. There will thus be
formed on the paper a yellow stain, which
on addition of a slightly acidulated solution
of borax and drying assumes a purple hue.
If the paper is noAV sprinkled with dilute
ammonia it will acquire a transient blue.
This reaction enables one to recognize the
presence of turmeric in powdered rhubarb
or mustard.
RHIZOMA GALANGiE.
641
pointed out by Vogel as early as 1815, and has since that time been
utilized as a chemical test.
Borax added to an alcoholic solution of curcumin gives rise to a
crystallizable substance, which Ivanow-Gajewsky (1870) isolated by
heating an alcoholic extract of turmeric with boracic and sulphuric
acids. It forms a purple crystalline powder with a metallic green
lustre, insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol. Its solution is coloured
dark blue by an alkali.
According to the same chemist there also exists in curcuma an
alkaloid in very small quantity. Kachler (1870) found in the aqueous
decoction an abundance of hioxalate of potassium.
Commerce — In the year 1869 there were imported into the United
Kingdom 64,280 cwt. of turmeric ; in 1870, 44,900 cwt., — a very large
I proportion being furnished by Bengal and Pegu. The export from
Calcutta 1 in the year 1870-71 was .59,352 cwt.
Bombay exported in the year 1871-72, 29,780 cwt., of which the
greater portion was shipped to Sind and the Persian Gulf, and only
910 cwt. to Europe.^
Uses — Turmeric is employed as a condiment in the shape of curry
powder, and as such is often sold by druggists ; but as a medicine it is
obsolete. It is largely consumed in dyeing.
Substitute^ — Cochin Turmeric is the produce of some other species
of Curcuma than C. longa. It consists exclusively of a bulb-shaped
rhizome of large dimensions, cut transversely or longitudinally into
slices or segments. The cortical partis dull brown; the inner substance
is horny and of a deep orange-brown, or when in thin shavings of a
brilliant yellow. Mr. A. Forbes Sealy of Cochin has been good enough
to send us (1873) living rhizomes of this Curcuma, which he states is
mostly grown at Alwaye, north-east of Cochin, and is never used in
the country as turmeric, though its starchy tubers are employed for
making arrowroot. The rhizomes sent are thick, short, conical, and of
enormous size, some attaining as much as 2| inches in diameter.
Internally they are of a bright orange-yellow.
The beautiful figures of Roscoe^ show several species of Curcuma
and Zingiber provided with yellow tubers or rhizomes, all probably
containing curcumin.
RHIZOMA GALANGiE.
Radix Gcdangce^ minoris; Gcdangal; F. Racine de Galanga;
G. Galgant.
Botanical Origin — Alpinia officinarum Hance,^ a flag-like plant,
formed ns, Kau-liang ginger. Kau-liang is
the ancient name of a district in the pro-
vince of Kwangtung.
^ Journ. of Linnean Society, '^ota.ny, xiii.
(1871) 1; also Trimen's Jown?. of Hot., ii.
(1873) 175 ; Bentley and Trimen's Med.
Plants, part 31 (1878).— Dr. Thwaites of
Ceylon, who has the plant in cultivation,
has been good enough to send us a fine
coloured drawing of it in flower.
1 Returns quoted at p. 571, note 2.
2 Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of Bombay for 1871-72, pt. ii. 95.
' 3Ionandrous Plants of the order Scita-
minem, Liverpool, 1828, especially Zingiber
CoMsnmunar.
^ Galanga ajjpears to be derived from the
Arabic name Khulanjan, which in turn
comes from the Chinese Kau-liang Kiang,
signifying, as Dr. F. Porter Smith has in-
2 s
642
ZINGIBERACE^.
with steins about 4 feet high, clothed with narrow lanceolate leaves,
and terminating in short and simple racemes of elegant white flowers,
shaded and veined with dull red. It grows cultivated in the island
of Hainan in the south of China, and, as is supposed, in some of the
southern provinces of the Chinese Empire.
History — The earliest reference to galangal we have met with
occurs in the writings of the Arabian geographer Ibn Khurdadbah' about
A.D. 8G9-885, who in enumerating the productions of a country called
Sila, names galangal together with musk, aloes, camphor, silk, and
cassia. Edrisi,^ three hundred years later, is more explicit, for he men-
tions it with many other productions of the far East, as brought from
India and China to Aden, then a great emporium of the trade of Asia
with Egypt and Europe. The physician Alkindi,^ who lived at Bassora
and Bagdad in the second half of the 9th century, and somewhat later
Rhazes and Avicenna, notice galangal, the use of which was introduced
into Europe^ through the medical system promulgated by them and other
writers of the same school. As to Great Britain, galingal, as it was
frequently spelt, also occurs in the Welsh " Meddygon Myddfai " (see
Appendix).
Many notices exist showing that galangal was imported with pepper,
ginger, cloves, nutmegs, cardamoms and zedoary ; and that during the
middle ages it was used in common with these substances as a culinary
spice, which it is still held to be in certain parts of Europe." The
plant affording the drug was unknown vmtil the year 1870, when a
description of it was communicated to the Linnean Society of London
by Dr. H. F. Hance, from specimens collected by Mr. E. C. Taintor, near
Hoihow in the north of Hainan.
Description — The drug consists of a cylindrical rhizome, having
a maximum diameter of about | of an inch, but for the most part
considerably smaller. This rhizome has been cut while fresh into short
pieces, 1| to 3 inches in length, which are often branched, and are
marked transversely at shoi't intervals by narrow raised sinuous rings,
indicating the former attachment of leaves or scales. The pieces are
hard, tough and shrivelled, externally of a dark reddish-brown, display-
ing when cut transversely an internal substance of rather paler hue
(but never white), with a darker central column. The drug exhales
when comminuted an agreeable aroma, and has a strongly pungent,
spicy taste.
Microscopic Structure — The central portion of the rhizome is
separated from the outer tissue by the nucleus sheath, which appears as
a well-defined darker line. Yet the central tissue does not differ much
from that surrounding it, both being composed of uniform parenchyme
cells, traversed by scattered vascular bundles. There also occur through-
out the whole tissue isolated cells loaded with essential oil or resin.
But the larger number of cells abound in large starch granules of an
unusual club-shaped form. Some cells contain a brown substance, dif-
^ Woi'kquoted in the Appendix — tome v.
•294.
- O4ographie, i. (1836) 51.
^ De. Renim gradlbux, Argentorati, 15.31.
162.
^ Macer Floridus (see p. 627), cap. 70,
was already acquainted with it.
" Hanbm-y, Htstorkal Azotes on the Radix
Galangce of j^hai'macy — Journ. of Linnean
Society, Bot. xiii. (1871) 20 ; Pharin. Journ.
Sept. 2.3, 1871. 248; Science Papers, 370.
FRUCTUS CARDAMOMI.
643
fering from resin in being insolnble in alcohol. The corky layer is
remarkable from its cells having nndulated walls.
Chemical Composition — The odour of galangal is due to an
essential oil, which the rhizoma yields to the extent of only 07 per
cent., and which we found to be very slightly deviating the plane of
polarization to the left.
Brandes ^ extracted from Galangal, by means of ether, an inodorous,
tasteless, crystalline body called Kcimj^ferid, which is worthy of further
examination.
The pungent principle of the drug, which is probably analogous to
that of ginger, has not been studied.
Commerce — Galangal is shipped from Canton to other ports of
China, to India and Europe, but there are no general statistics to give
an idea of the total production. From official returns quoted by Hance,
the export of the year 1869, which seems to have been exceptionally
large, amounted to 370,800 fb. From Kiung-chow, island of Hainan,
2,113 peculs (281,733 lb.) were exported in 1877.
Uses — The drug is an aromatic stimulant of the nature of ginger,
now nearly obsolete in Biitish medicine. It is still a popular remedy
and spice in Livonia, Esthonia and central Russia, and by the Tartars
is taken with tea. It is also in some requisition in Russia among
brewers, and the manufacturers of vinegar and cordials, and finally as
a cattle medicine.
Substitute — The rhizoma of Alpina Galcmga Willd., a plant of
Java, constitutes the drug known as Badix Galangce majoris or Greater
Gcdangcd, packages of which occasionally appear in the London drug-
sales. It may be at once distinguished from the Chinese drug by its
much larger size and the pale buff hue of its internal substance, the
latter in strono- contrast with the orange-brown outer skin.
FRUCTUS CARDAMOMI.
Semina Cardamomi minoris ; Cardamoms, Malabar Cardamoms;
F. Gardamomes ; G. Gardamomev.
Botanical Origin — Elettaria"' Cardamomum Maton {Aljioinia Car-
damomum Roxb.), a flag-like perennial plant, 6 to 12 feet high, with
large lanceolate leaves on long sheathing stalks, and flowers in lax
flexuose horizontal scapes, 6 to 18 inches in length, which are thrown
oixt to the number of 3 or 4, close to the ground. The fruit is ovoid,
three-sided, plump and smooth, with a fleshy green pericarp.
The Cardamom plant grows abundantly, both wild and under culti-
vation, in the moist shady mountain forests of North Canara, Coorg and
Wjmaad on the Malabar Coast; at an elevation of 2.500 to 5000 feet above
the sea. It is truly wild in Canara and in the Anamalai, Cochin and
Travancore forests.^ The cardamom region has a mean temperature of
22 C. (72° F.), and a mean rainfall of 121 inches.
1 ArcMv der Fhnrm. xix. (1839) 52.
- From Ehttari, the Mallyalim name of
the plant. — Fig. in Bentley aiul Trimen's
Med. Plants, part 24 (1877).
^ The small " Cardamom" island in the
Laccadive group, west of Malabar, is in-
habited by Mojjlahs, known (as we are
informed by Dr. King, Calcutta) in the
south of India as dealers in cardamoms.
644
ZINGIBERACE^.
A well-marked variety, differing chiefly in the elongated form and
large size of its fruits, is found wild in the forests of the central and
southern provinces of Ceylon. It was formerly regarded as a distinct
species under the name of Elettaria major, but careful observation of
growing specimens has shown that it possesses no characters to warrant
it being considered more than a variety of the typical plant, and it is
therefore now called E. Cardamomum var. ^. It is only known to occur
in Ceylon, where the ordinary cardamom of Malabar is not found except
as a cultivated plant.^
History — Cardamoms, Eld, are mentioned in the writings of
Susruta, and hence may have been used in India from a remote period.
It is not unlikely that in common with ginger and pepper they reached
Europe in classical times, although it is not possible from the descriptions
that have come down to determine exactly what was the KapSctjuco/uov
of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, or the "A/uLcofxov of the last-named
writer. The Amomum, Amomis and Cardamomum of Pliny are also
doubtful, the description he gives of the last being unintelligible as
applied to anything now known by that name.
In the list of Indian spices liable to duty at Alexandria, circa A.D.
17G-180 (see Appendix, A), Amomum as well as Cardamomum is
mentioned. St. Jerome names Amomum together with musk, as per-
fumes in use among the voluptuous ecclesiastics of the 4th century.''^
Cardamoms are named by Edrisi'* about A.D. 1154 as a production of
Ceylon, and also as an article of trade from China to Aden; and in the
same century they are mentioned together with cinnamon and cloves
(p. 282) as an import in Palestine by way of Acre, then a trading city
of the Levant.*
The first writer who definitely and correctly states the country of
the cardamom appears to be the Portuguese navigator Barbosa^ (1514),
who frequently names it as a production of the Malabar coast. Garcia
de Orta*" mentions the shipment of the drug to Europe; he also ascer-
tained that the larger sort was produced in Ceylon. The Malabar
cardamon plant was figured by Rheede under its indigenous name of
Elettari?
The essential oil of cardamoms was distilled before 1544 by Valerius
Cordus (see p. 52C, note 1).
Cultivation and Production — Although the cardamom plant grows
wild in the forests of Southern India, where it is commonly called
Ildchi, its fruits are largely obtained from cultivated plants. The
methods of cultivation, which vary in the different districts, may be
thus described: —
1. Previous to the commencement of the rains the cultivators ascend
the mountain sides, and seek in the shady evergreen forests a spot where
some cardamom plants are growing. Here they make small clearings, in
1 Tliwaites, Enumeratio Plantarum Zey-
lania, 1864. 318.
^ S. Hieronyml OjJera Omnia, ed. Migne,
ii. (1845) 297, in Patroloijice curisus com-
pktvs, vol. xxii.
In the woik quoted in the Appendix, i.
(1836) 73, 51. — It is questionable whether
Elettaria is intended at p. 51.
Along and curious article on cardamoms,
by a pharmacist of Cairo, 13th century,
named Abul Mena, is quoted by Leclerc,
Histoire de la Midecine arahe, ii. (Paris,
1876) 215.
^ Description of the Coasts of East Africa
and Malabar, Hakluyt Society, 1866. 59.
64, 147. 154. etc.
^.In the work quoted at p. 547, note 8.
' Hortus Malaharicus, xi. (1692) tab. 4-5.
FRUCTUS CARDAMOMI.
645
which the admission of light occasions the plant to developein abundance.
The cardamom plants attain 2 to 3 feet in height during the following
monsoon, after which the ground is again cleared of weeds, protected
with a fence, and left to itself for a year. About two years after the
first clearing the plants begin to flower, and five months later ripen
some fruits, but a full crop is not got till at least a year after. The
plants continue productive six or seven years. A garden, 484 square
yards in area, four of which may be made in an acre of forest,
will give on an average an annual crop of 12| lbs. of garbled
cardamoms.^ Ludlow, an Assistant Conservator of Forests, reckons
that not more than 28 lbs. can be got from an acre of forest. From
what he says, it further appears that the plants which come up on
clearings of the Coorg forests are mainly seedlings, which make their
appearance in the same gwasi-spontaneous manner as certain plants in
the clearings of a wood in Europe. He says they commence to bear in
about 3^- years after their first appearance.^ The plan of cultivation
above described is that pursued in the forests of Travancore, Coorg and
Wynaad.
2. On the lower range of the Pulney Hills, near Dindigul, at an
elevation of about 5,000 feet above the sea, the cardamom plant is
cultivated in the shade. The natives burn down the underwood, and
clear away the small trees of the dense moist forests called sholas,
which are damp all the year round. The cardamoms are then sown,
and when a few inches high are planted out, either singly or in twos,
vuider the shade of the large trees. They take five years before they
bear fruit; " in October," remarks our informant,^ " I saw the plants in
full flower and also in fruit, — the latter not however ripe."
3. In North Canara and Western Mysore the cardamom is cultivated
in the betel-nut plantations. The plants, which are raised from seed,
are planted between the palms, from which and from plantains they
derive a certain amount of shade. They are said to produce fruit in
their third year.
Cardamoms begin to riper in October, and the gathering continues
during dry weather for two or three months. All the fruits on a scape
do not become ripe at the same time, yet too generally the whole scape
is gathered at once and dried, — to the manifest detriment of the drug.
This is done partly to save the fruit from being eaten by snakes, frogs
and squirrels, and partly to avoid the capsules splitting, which they do
when quite mature. In some plantations however the cardamoms are
gathered in a more reasonable fashion. As they are collected the fruits
are carried to the houses, laid out for a few days on mats, then stripped
from their scapes, and the drying completed by a gentle fire-heat. In
Coorg the fruit is stripped from the scape before drying, and the drying-
is sometimes eflected wholly by sun-heat.
In the native states of Cochin and Travancore cardamoms are a
monopoly of the respective governments. The rajah of the latter state
requires that all the produce shall be sold to his ofiicials, who forward
^ Report on the Administration of Coorg
for the year 1872-73, Bangalore, 1873. 44.
^ Elliot, Experiences of a Planter in the
Jungles of Mysore, Lond. ii. (1871) 201, 209.
^ Col. Beddome, Conservator of Forests,
Madras. We have likewise to acknowledge
information on this head from Dr. Brandis,
Inspector-General of Forests in India, and
Dr. King, Director of the Botanic Garden,
Calcutta.
G40
ZINGIBERACE^.
it to the main depot at Alapalli or Aleppi, a port in Travancore, where
his commercial agent resides. The rajah is tenacious of his rights, and
inserts a clause in the leases he grants to European coffee-planters, of
whom a great many have settled in his territory, requiring that carda-
moms shall not be grown.
The cardamoms at Aleppi are sold by auction, and bought chiefly
by Moplah merchants for transport to different parts of India, and also,
through third parties, to England. All the lower qualities are consumed
in India, and the finer alone shipped to Europe.
In the forests belonging to the British Government cardamoms are
mostly reckoned among the miscellaneous items of produce ; but in
Coorg, the cardamom forests are now let at a rental of £3,000 per
annum under a lease which will expire in 1878.^
Dr. Cleghorn, late Conservator of Forests in the Madras Presidency,
observes in a letter to one of us, that the rapid extension of coffee
culture along the slopes of the Malabar mountains has tended to lessen
the production of cardamoms, and has encroached considerably upon
the area of their indigenous growth. A recent writer - has shown from
his own experience that the cultivation of the cardomom is a branch of
industry worth the attention of Europeans, and has given many valuable
details for insuring successful results.
Description — The fruit of the Malabar cardamom as found in
commerce is an ovoid or oblong, three-sided, three-valved capsule,
containing numerous seeds arranged in three cells. It is rounded at
the base, and often retains a small stalk ; towards the apex it is more
or less contracted, and terminates in a short beak. The longitudinally-
striated, inodorous, tasteless pericarp is of a pale greyish-yellow, or buff,
or brown when fully ripe, of a thin papery consistence, splitting length-
wise into three valves. From the middle of the inner side of each valve
a thin partition projects towards the axis, thereby producing three cells,
each of which encloses 5 to 7 dark brown, aromatic seeds, arranged in
two rows and attached in the central angle.
The seeds, which are about two lines long, are irregularly angular,
transversely rugose, and have a depressed hilum and a deeply channelled
raphe. Each seed is enclosed in a thin colourless aril.
Cardamoms vary in size, shape, colour and flavour : those which are
shortly ovoid or nearly giobvilar, and to -{ij of hich in length, are
termed in trade language shorts; while those of a more elongated form,
pointed at each end, and to y^- of an inch long, are called short-
longs. They are further distinguished by the names of localities, as
Malabar (or Mangalore), Aleppi, and Madras. The Malabar Car-
daniorits, which are the most esteemed, are of full colour, and occur
of both forms, namely sho7'ts and short-longs ; they are brought to
Europe via Bombay. Those terms Aleppi are generally shorts, phunp,
beaked and of a peculiar greenish tint ; they are imported from Calicut,
and sometimes from Aleppi. The Madras are chiefly of elongated form
(short-longs) and of a more pallid hue; they are shipped at Madras and
Pondicherry.
Cardamoms are esteemed in proportion to their plumpness and
heaviness, and the sound and mature condition of the seeds they
1 Report quoted at p. 645. note 1. -Elliot, op. clt., chap. 12.
FRUCTUS CARDAMOMI.
647
contain. Good samples afford about three-fourths of their weight of
seeds/
The fruits of the second form (var. ^8) of Elettaria Garclamomum,
known in trade as Ceylon Cardamoms, are from 1 to 2 inches in length,
and -j^- to of an inch in breadth, distinctly three-sided, often arched,
and always of a dark greyish-brown. The seeds are larger and more
numerous than those of the Malabar plant, and somewhat different in
odour and taste.
Microscopic Structure — The testa of the seed consists of three
distinct layers, namely an exterior of thick-walled, spirally-striated cells,
somewhat longitudinally extended, and exhibiting on transverse section,
square, not very large, cavities ; then a row of large cells with thin
transverse walls ; and finally, an internal layer of deep brown, radially-
arranged cells, the walls of which have so thick a deposit that at the
most only small cavities remain.
The granular, colourless, sac-shaped albumen encloses a horny endo-
sperm, in which the embryo is inserted the projecting radicle being-
directed towards the hilum. The cells of the albumen have the form
of elongated polyhedra, almost entirely filled with very small starch
granules. Besides them, there occur in most of the cells, somewhat
larger masses of albuminoid matter having a rhombohedric form, dis-
tinctly observable when thin slices of the seed are examined under
almond oil in polarized light. These remarkable crystalloid bodies
resemble those occurring in the seeds of cumin (p. 332).
Chemical Composition — The parenchyme of the albixmen and
embryo is loaded with fatty oil and essential oil, the former existing
in the seed to the extent of about 10 per cent.
The percentage of essential oil is stated by Messrs. Schiinmel & Co.,
Leipzig, to be equal to 5 in the Madras Cardamoms, and to 3"5 in
the Ceylon. We found the latter to be dextrogyrate ; the same gen-
tlemen presented us (1876) with a crystallized deposit from the latter
oil, which appears to be identical tuitk common camphor. Its alcoholic
solution deviates the plane of polarization to the right, apparently to
the same amount as that of common camphor (see also oil of spike,
p. 479).
Dumas and Peligot (1834) state to have obtained from the essential
oil of cardamoms (inodorous ?) crystals of terpin, C^'H'" + 3 OHl The
ash of cardamoms, in common with that of several other plants of the
same order, is remarkably rich in 'iianganese.^
Commerce — There are no statistics to show the production of
cardamoms in the south of India or even the quantity exported. The
shipments in the year 1872-73 from Bombay, to which port the drug is
largely sent from the Madras Presidency, amounted to 1,650 cwt., of
which 1,055 cwt. were exported to the United Kingdom.^
Cardamoms, the produce of Ceylon and therefore of the large variety,
were exported from that island in 1872 to the extent of 9,273 lb. — the
whole quantity being shipped to the United Kingdom.'*
^ Thus 202 lb. shelled at various times ^ Pharm. Journ. iii. (1872) 208.
during 10 years, aflforded 154^ lb. of seeds. ^ Statement of the Trade, etc. of Bombay
(Information from the laboratory accounts for 1872-73. ii. 58. 90.
of Messrs. Allen and Hanburvs, Plough Ceylon Blue Book for 1872, Colombo,
Court, Lombard Str. ) ' 1873.543.
648 ZINGIBEEACE^.
Uses — Cardamoms are an agreeable aromatic, often administered in
conjunction with other medicines. As an ingredient in curry powder,
they have also some use as a condiment. But the consumption in
England is small in comparison with what it is in Russia, Sweden,
Norway and parts of Germany, where they are constantly employed as
a spice for the flavouring of cakes. In these countries Ceylon carda-
moms are also used, but exclusively for the manufacture of liqueurs.
In India, cardamoms, besides being used in medicine, are employed as
a condiment and for chewing with betel.
Other sorts of Cardamom.
The fruits of several other plants of the order Zingiheracecti have
at various times been employed in pharmacy under the common name
of Cardamom. We shall here notice only those which have some im-
portance in European or Indian commerce.^
Round or Cluster Cardamom — Amomum Cardamomum L., the
mother-plant of this drug, is a native of Cambodia, Siam, Sumatra
and Java.
During the intercourse with Siam, which was frequent in the early
part of the I7th century, this drug, which is there in common use,
occasionally found its way into Europe. Clusius received a specimen
of it in 1G05 as the true Amovium of the ancients, and figured it as a
great rarity." As Amomum verum it had a place in the pharmacopoeias
of this period. Parkinson (1640), who figures it as Amomum genuinum,
says that " of late days it hath been sent to Venice from the East
Indies." Dale (1693) and Pomet (1694) both regarded it as a rare drug;
the latter says it is brought from Holland, and that it is the only thing
that ought to be used when Amomum is ordered. In 1751 it was so
scarce that in making the Theriaca Andromachi some other drug had
always to be substituted for it.''
Thus it had completely disappeared, when about the year 1853
commercial relations were re-opened with Siam; and among the com-
modities poured into the market were Round Cardamoms. They were
not appreciated, and the importations becoming unprofitable, soon
ceased.'* They are nevertheless an article of considerable trafiic in
Eastern Asia.
Round Cardamoms are produced in small compact bunches.^ Each
fruit is globular, j;^^ to of an inch in diameter, marked with longi-
tudinal furrows, and sometimes distinctly three-lobed. The pericarp
is thin, fragile, somewhat hairy, of a buff' colour, enclosing a three-lobed
mass of seeds, which are mostly shrivelled as if the fruit had been
gathered unripe. The seeds, which have a general resemblance to those
of the Malabar cardamom, have a strong camphoraceous, aromatic taste.
There is a large export from Siam of cardamoms of this and the
following sort. The shipments from Bangkok in 1871 amounted to
1 For additional information on the occurs in the Dispensatormm of Valerius
various soi'ts of Cardamom, consult Gui- Cordus.
bourt, Hist, des Drog. ii. (1869) 215-227; ^ jjill, Hist, of the Mat. Med., Lond.
Pereira, Elements of Mat. Med. ii., part (1751) 472.
i. (1855) 243-263 ; Hanbury in Pharm. * Thus 43 bags, imported direct from
Journ. xiv. (1855) 352. 416 ; Science Papers, Bangkok, were offered for sale in London, 26
93-15. March, 1857, and bought in at l.s. 6rf. per lb.
- Exoticorum Libri, 377. Yet it already ^ Fig. in Guibourt, I. c. 215.
FRUCTUS CARDAMOM!
649
4,678 pecuLs (023,733 lbs.), and were all to Singapore and China/
In 1875 we noticed the export from Bangkok of 267 peculs of "true"
cardamoms, valued at 45,140 dollars, and 3,207 peculs of " bastard"
cardamoms, value 92,865 dollars ; the latter no doubt refer to the
following kind : ^ —
Xantliioid Cardamom; Wild or Bastard Cardamom of Siam —
This is afforded hj Amomum xanthioides Wallich, a native of Tenasse-
rim and Siam. During the past thirty years the seeds of this plant,
deprived of their capsules, have often been imported into the London
market, and they are now also common in the bazaars of India.^ They
closely resemble the seeds of the Malabar cardamom, differing chiefly
in flavour and in being rather more finely rugose. Occasionally they
are imported still cohering in ovoid, three-lobed masses, as packed in
the pericarp. Sometimes they are distinguished as Bastard or Wild,
but are more generally termed simply Cardamom Seeds. They are a
considerable article of trade in Siam.
The fruits of this species grow in round clusters and are remarkable
for having the pericarp thickly beset with weak fleshy spines,* which
gives them some resemblance to the fruits of a Xanthium, and has sug-
gested the specific name.
Bengal Cardamom — This drug, which with the next two has been
hitherto confounded under one name,'* is afforded by Amomum suhula-
twm Roxb.," a native of the Morung mountains, to the S.S.W. of Darjiling,
in about 20""30' N. lat. The fruit is known by the name of Winged
Bengal Cardamom, Morang Elachi or Buro Elacld. They average
about an inch in length, and are of ovoid or slightly obconic form, and
obscurely 3-sided; the lower end is rounded and usually devoid of
stalk. The upper part of the frviit is provided with 9 narrow jagged
wings or ridges, which become apparent after maceration; and the
summit terminates in a truncate bristly nipple, — never protracted into
a long tube. The pericarp is coarsely striated, and of a deep brown.
It easily splits into 3 valves,, inclosing a 3-lobed mass of seeds, 60 to 80
in number, agglutinated by a viscid saccharine pulp, due to the aril
with which each seed is surrounded. The seeds are of roundish form,
rendered angular by mutual pressure, and about \ of an inch long;
they have a highly aromatic, camphoraceous taste.
Neixd Cardamom— The description of the Bengal cardamom
applies in many points to this drug, to which it has a singularly close
resemblance. The fruit is of the same size and form, and is also
crowned in its upper part with thin jagged ridges, and marked in a
similar manner with longitudinal striae; and lastly, the seeds have the
same shape and flavour. But it differs, firstly, in bearing on its summit
a tubular calyx, which is as long or longer than the fruit itself; and,
secondly, in the fruit being often attached to a short stalk. The fruits
are borne on an ovoid scape, 3 to 4 inches long, densely crowded with
1 Commercial Report of H.M. Consul-
General in Siam for 1871.
' Sdence Papers, 102-103.
3 Moodeen Sheriff, Supplement to Phar-
macopoeia of India, Madras, 1869. 44.
270.
* See figures in Pharm,. Journ. xiv.
(1855) 418 ; also Science Papers, 1876, p.
101-103.
As by Pereira, Elem. of Mat. Med. ii.
(1850) 1135.
^ According to Dr. King, in Sir Joseph
Hooker's Report on the Royal Gardens at
Kew, 1877. 27.
650 ZINGlBERACEyE.
overlapping bracts, which are remarkably broad and truncate with a
sharp central claw, — very distinct from the much narrower ovate bracts
of A, aromaticicm, as shown in Roxburgh's unpublished drawing of
that plant.
The plant, which is unquestionably a species of Amoramn, has not
yet been identified with any published description. We have to thank
Colonel Richard C. Lawrence, British Resident at Katmandu, for send-
ing us a fruit-scape in alcohol, some dried leaves, and also the drug
itself, — the last agreeing perfectly with specimens obtained through
other channels.
The Nepal cardamom, the first account of which is due to Hamilton,^
is cultivated on the frontiers of Nepal, near Darjiling. The plant is
stated by Col. Lawrence to attain 3 to 6 feet in height, and to be grown
on well-watered slopes of the hills, under the shelter of trees. The fruit
is exported to other parts of India.
Java Cardamom — A well-marked fruit, produced by A'liwmuDi
maximum Roxb., a plant of Java. The fruits are arranged to the
number of 30 to 40 on a short thick scape, and form a globose group,
4 inches in diameter. They are stalked, and of a conical or ovoid form,
in the fresh state as much as Ih inches long by 1 inch broad. Eacli
fruit is provided with 9 to 10 prominent wings, ^ of an inch high,
running from base to apex, and coarsely toothed except in their
lowest part. The summit is crowned by a short, withered, calycinal
tube.
Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical garden of Buitenzorg, in Java, who
has kindly supplied us with fine specimens of A. maximum, as well as
Avith an admirable coloured drawing, states that the plant is cultivated,
and that its fruits are sold for the sake of their agreeable edible pulp.
We do not know whether the dried fruits or the seeds are ever exported.
Pereira confounded them with Bengal and Nepal cardamoms.
Korarima Cardamom — The Arab Physicians were acquainted with
a sort of cardamom called Heil, which was later known in Europe, and
is mentioned in the most ancient printed pharmacopoeias as Cardamo-
mum majus,^ a name occurring also in Valerius Cordus and Mattiolus.
Like some other Eastern drugs, it gradually disappeared from European
commerce, and its name came to be transferred to Grains of Paradise,
which to the present day are known in the shops as Semina Carda-
momi majoris.
The true Gardamomum majus is a conical fruit,^ in size and shape
not unlike a small fig reversed, containing roundish angular seeds, of
an agreeable aromatic flavour, much resembling that of the Malabar
cardamom, and quite devoid of the burning taste of grains of paradise.
Each fruit is perforated, having been strung on a cord to dry ; such
strings of cardamoms are sometimes used by the Arabs as rosaries.
The fruit in question is called in the Galla language Korarima, but it
is also known as Gurdgi spice, and by its Arabic names of Heil and
^ Account of the Kingdom of Nepal, Edin.
1819. 74-75.
- As the Tcsaurus Aromatariorutn, print-
ed at Milan in 1496, in which it is called
Heil or Octnlamomum. majus.
^ Fig^ired in Pereira, Materia Medica ii.
part i. (1855) 250, and already in Mattioli's
Commentar. in Dioscorid. lib. i. (1558) 27.
GRANA PARADISI.
651
Hablud-liabafikl} According to Beke,- it is conveyed to the market of
Baso (10° N. lat.), in Southern Abyssinia, from Tumh^ a region lying-
in about 9° N. lat. and 35° E. long.; thence it is carried to Massowah,
on the Red Sea, and shipped for India and Arabia. Von Heuglin'
speaks of it as brought from the Galla country. It is not improbable
that it is the same fruit which Speke* saw growing in 1862 at Uganda,
in lat. 0°, and which he says is strung like a necklace by the Wagonda
people. Under the name of Heel Habashee, Korarima cardamoms were
contributed in 1873 from Shoa to the Vienna exhibition; we have also
been presented, in 1877, with an excellent specimen of them, recently
imported, by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig.
Pereira proposed for the plant the name of Ariwrimm Korarima, but
it has never been botanically described. It would appear from the above
statements that it niust be indigenous to the whole mountainous region
of Eastern Africa, from the Victoria Nyanza lake (Uganda) to the
countries of Tumhe, Gvirague, and Shoa, south and south-eastward of
Abyssinia.
GRANA PARADISI.
Semina Cardamond majoris, Piper Melegaeta; Grains of Paradise,
Guinea Grains, Afelegueta Pepper ; F. Grains de Paradis, Mani-
gaette; G. Paradieskorner.
Botanical Origin — Amomiim Melegueta Roscoe — an herbaceous,
reed-like plant, 3 to 5 feet high, producing on a scape rising scarcely an
inch above the ground, a delicate, wax-like, pale purple llower, which
is succeeded by a smooth, scarlet, ovoid fruit, 3 to 4 inches in length,
rising out of sheathing bracts.''
It varies considerably in the dimensions of all its parts, according to
more or less favourable circumstances of soil and climate. In Demerara,
where the plant grows luxuriously in cultivation, the fruit is as large
as a fine pear, measuring with its tubular part as much as 5 inches in
length by 2 inches in diameter ; on the other hand, in some parts of
West Africa it scarcely exceeds in size a large filbert. It has a thick
fieshy pericarp, enclosing a colourless acid pulp of pleasant taste, in
which are imbedded the numerous seeds.
A. Melegueta is widely distributed in tropical West Africa, occurring
along the coast region from Sierra Leone to Congo. The littoral region,
termed, in allusion to its producing grains of paradise, the Grain Coast,
Pepper Coast, or Melegueta Coast, lies between Liberia and Cape
Palmas ; or, more exactly, between Capes Mesurado (Montserrado) and
St. Andrews. The Gold Coast, whence the seeds are now principally
exported, is in the Gulf of Guinea, further eastward.
Of the distribution of the plant in the interior we have no exact
information. Yet the name Melegueta refers to the ancient empire of
^ So named by Forskal in 1775 {Matma
Medlca Kahirina, 151. n. 41) who says
"freqtiens in re culinarid et mcdicd, loco
piperis. "
^ Letters on the commerce of Ahijssinia,
etc., addressed to the Foreign Office, 1852;
4. 16. 20,
^ Reise nach Abenninieii, Jena, 1868. 223.
Journal of the discover}/ of the source of
the Nile, 1863. 648.
* Fig. in Bentley and Trimen's Medical
Plants, part 30 (1878).
652
ZINGIBERACEiE.
Melle (Meli or Melly), formerly extending over the upper Niger region,
about in 4° E. long., and then inhabited by the Mandingos, now by the
Fulbe or Fullan. Messena is their most considerable place. In that
region A7noinum Melegueta may be indigenous, or the spice, being
formerly exported from the coast by way of Melle, took its commercial
name in allusion to the latter.
History — There is no evidence that the ancients were acquainted
with the seeds called Grains of Paradise; nor can we find any reference
to them earlier than an incidental mention under their African name,
in the account^ of a curious festival held at Treviso in A.D. 1214: it
was a sort of tournament, during which a sham fortress, held by twelve
noble ladies and their attendants, was besieged and stormed by assail-
ants armed with flowers, fruits, sweetmeats, perfumes, and spices,
amongst which last figure — MeUijetoi !
After this period there are many notices, showing the seeds to have
been in general use. Nicolas Myrepsus," physician at the court of the
Emperor John III. at Nicoea, in the 13th century, prescribed Meveyerai ;
and his contemporary, Simon of Genoa,^ at Rome, names the same drug-
as Melegete or Melegette. Grana Paradisi are enumerated among spices
sold at Lyons'* in 1245, and were used about the same time by the
Welsh Physicians of Myddvai under the name Grawn Pavis.^ They
also occur as Greyn Paradijs in a tarift' of duties levied at Dordrecht
in Holland in 1358. And again among the spices used by John, king
of France, when in England, A.D. 1359-60, Grainne de Paradis is re-
peatedly mentioned.''
In the earliest times the drug was conveyed by the long land
journey from the Mandingo country through the desert to the
Mediterranean port, Monte di Barca (Mundibarca), on the coast of
Tripoli. There the spice was shipped by the Italians, and being the
produce of an unknown regiori and held in great esteem, it acquired
the name of Grains of Paradise,^ or also, as already stated at page
650, that of Semina Cardamomi Majoris. That they came from
Melli is expressly stated also by Leonhard Fuchs.^ Small quantities of
the drug still reach Tripoli in the same way.
Towards the middle of the 14th century, there began to be direct
commercial intercourse with tropical Western Africa. Margry^" relates
that ships were sent thither from Dieppe in 1364, and took cargoes of
ivory and malaguette from near the mouth of the river Cestos, now
Sestros. A century later the coast was visited by the Portuguese,
who termed it Terra de vialaguet. The celebrated Columbus also,
who traded to the coast of Guinea, called it Costa di Maniguetta.
Soon after this period the spice became a monopoly of the kings of
Portugal.
^ Eolandini Patavini Chronica— Vetiz,
Monumenta Germaniae historica ; scrlptovci,
xix. (1866) 45-46. — Yet qafala, occurring
in Edrisi, probably means grains of para-
dise.
- De Composilione Medicameniortim ; de
antidolis, cap. xxii.
^ Clavis Sanationis, Venet. 1510. 19. 42.
^ Bihliothek d. lit. Vereins, Stuttgart, xvi.
p. xxiii.
5 Meddygon Myddfai (see Appendix) 283.
286.
Sartorius und Lappenberg, Geschichte
der Deulsclien Hansa, ii. 448.
'■Doiiet d'Arcq, 219, 266— see p. 533,
note 2.
8 G. di Barros, Asia, Venet. 1561. 33 (65).
^ De componendorum miscendorumque me-
dicamentorum ratione, libr. iv. Lugduni,
1556. 50.
i» Quoted at p. 589, note 4.
GRANA PARADISI.
653
English voyagers visited the Gold Coast in the 16th century, bring-
ing thence in exchanging for European goods, gold, ivory, pepper, and
Grains of Paradise.^ The pepper was doubtless that of Fi^jer Clusii
(p. 589).
Grains of paradise, often called simply grains, were anciently used
as a condiment like pepper. They were also employed with cinnamon
and ginger in making the spiced wine called hipj)0cvas, in vogue during
the 14th and loth centuries.
In the Portuguese and Spanish idioms, the name Melegueta, spelt
in various ways, as Melegette, Melligetta, Mallaguetta, Manigete, Mani-
guette, was subsequently also applied to other substitutes of pepper,
and even to that spice itself.
In the hands of modern botanists, the plant affording grains of
paradise has been the subject of a complication of errors which it is
needless to discuss. Sviffice it to say, that Amomum Granum Paradisi
as described by Linnfeus cannot be identified; — that in 1817, Afzelius,
a Swedish botanist, who resided some years at Sierra Leone, published
a description of "Amomum Granum Paradisi'i Linn.,"^ but that the
specimen of it alleged to have been received from him, and now pre-
served in the herbarium of Sir J. E. Smith, belongs to another species.
Under these circumstances, the name given to the grains of paradise
plant by Roscoe, A. Melegueta, has been accepted as quite free from
doubt.^
Description — The seeds are about yVo^' i^^ch in diameter, rather
variable in form, being roundish, bluntly angular or somewhat pyramidal.
They are hard, with a shining, reddish-brown, shagreen-like surface.
The hilum is beak-shaped and of paler colour. The seeds when crushed
are feebly aromatic, but have a most pungent and burning taste.
Microscopic Structure — In structure, grains of paradise agree in
most respects with cardamom seeds. Yet in the former, the cells of the
albumen have very thin, delicate walls which are much more elongated.
Of the testa, only the innermost layer agrees with the corresponding
part of cardamom ; whilst the middle layer has the cell walls so much
thickened that only a few cavities, widely distant from one another,
remain open. The outer layer of the testa consists of thick-walled
cells, the cavities of which appear, on transverse section, radially ex-
tended. The albumen is loaded with starch granules of 2 to 5 mkm.
diameter, the whole amount in each cell being agglutinated, so as to
form a coherent mass.
Chemical Composition — Grains of paradise contain a small pro-
portion of essential oil ; 53 lb. yielded us only 2| oz., equivalent to
nearly O'SO per cent.* The oil is faintly yellowish, neutral, of an
agreeable odour reminding one of the seeds, and of an aromatic, not
acrid taste. It has a sp. gr. at 15'5° C, of 0"825. It is but sparingly
soluble in absolute alcohol or in spirit of wine ; but mixes clearly with
^ Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, ii. pt.
2. — First Voiage of the Primerose and Lion
to Guinea and Benin, a.d. 1553.
- Remedia Guineensia, Upsaliae, p. 71.
^ I have repeatedly raised ^moniMm Mele-
gueta from cornmercial Grains of Paradise,
and have cultivated the plant for some
years, obtaining not only flowers, but large
well-ripened fruits containing fertile seeds.
— D. H.
■* This oil was obtained and tried in
medicine in the beginning of the 17th cen-
tury.— Porta, De Distillatione, Romje, 1608,
lib. iv. c. 4.
654
ORCHIDACEiE.
bisulphide of carbon; it dissolves iodine without explosion. When
saturated with dry hydrochloric gas, no solid compound is formed.
The oil begins to boil at about 236° C, and the chief bulk of it
distills at 257°-258° : the residual part is a thick brownish licjuid.
Examined in a column of 50 mm. long, the crude oil deviates 1'9° to
the left. The portion passing over at 257°-258° deviates 1"2°, the residue
2° to the left. The optical behaviour is consequently in favour of the
supposition that the oil is homogeneous. This is corroborated by the
results of three elementary analyses which lead to the formula
C20H32O.
In order to ascertain whether the seed contains a fatty oil, 10
grammes, powdered with quartz, were exhausted Avith boiling ether.
This gave upon evaporation 0'583 grm. of a brown viscid residue,
almost devoid of odour, but of intense pungency. As it was entirely
soluble in glacial acetic acid or in spirit of wine, we may consider it a
resin, and not to contain any fatty matter.
The seeds, dried at 100° C, afforded us 2"15 per cent, of ash, which,
owing to the presence of manganese, had a green hue.
Commerce — Grains of paradise are chiefly shipped from the settle-
ments on the Gold Coast, of which Cape Coast Castle and Accra are
the more important. Official returns^ show that the exports in 1871
from this district M'ere as follows : — to Great Britain 85,502 lb., the
United States 35,630 lb., Germany 28,501 lb., France 27,125 lb., Holland
14,250 lb.— total, 191,011 lb. (1705 cwt.) In 1872 the total shipments
amounted to the enormous quantity of 620,191 lb., valued at £10,303 ;
in 1875 only 151,783 lb., valued at £912, were exported.
Uses — The seeds are used in cattle medicines, occasionally as a
condiment, but chiefly, we believe, to give a fiery pungency to cordials.
ORCHIDACE^.
SALEP.
Radix Salep, Radix Satyrii ; Salep ; F. Salep ; G. SalepknoUen.
Botanical Origin — Most, if not all, species of Orchis foimd in
Europe and Northern Asia are provided with tubers which, when
duly prepared, are capable of furnishing salep. Of those actually so
used, the following are the more important, namely — Orchis mascula
L., 0. Morio L., 0. militaris L., 0. usf-idata L., 0. pyramidalis L., 0.
coriopihora L., and 0. lomgicrivris Link. These species which have the
tubers entire are natives of the greater part of Central and Southern
Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus and Asia Minor.^
The following species with 2)(dmxde or lobed tubers have a geographi-
cal area no less extensive, namely 0. maculata L., 0. saccifera Brongn.,
0. conopsea L., and 0. Icdifolia L. The last-named reaches North-
Western India and Tibet ; and 0. conopsea occurs in Amurland in the
extreme east of Asia.
Blue Bool- for the Colo)i>/ of Ihe Gold Orchis as occuiriug in A.sia Minor.— yl.s/V
Coaxf ill 1871. " ' ' Miveure, Bot. ii. 18C0.
-' Tcliibatcheff enumerates .S6 species of
SALEP.
655
The salep of the Indian bazaars, known as Sdlib misri, for fine
(qualities of which the most extravagant prices are paid hy wealthy
orientals, is derived from certain species of Euloplda, as E. campestris
Lindl., E. herbacea Lindl., and probably others/
History — ^Under the superstitious influence of the so-called doctrine
of sigmitures,'^ salep^ has had for ages a reputation in Eastern countries
as a stimulant of the generative powers ; and many Europeans who
have lived in India, although not prepared to admit the extravagant
virtues ascribed to it by Hindus and Mahommedans, yet regard it as a
valuable nutrient in the sick room.
The dru<r was known to Dioscorides and the Arabians, as well as
to the herbalists and physicians of the middle ages, by whom it was
mostly prescribed in the fresh state. Gerarde (1636) has given excellent
figures of the various orchids whose tubers, says he, " our age loseth."
Geoff'roy'* having recognized the salep imported from the Levant to
be the tubers of an orchis, pointed out in IT^O how it might be prepared
from the species indigenous to France.
Collection — The tubers are dug up after the plant has flowered, and
the shrivelled ones having been thrown aside, those which are plump
are washed, strung on threads and scalded. By this process their
vitality is destroyed, and the drying is easily effected by exposure to
the sun or to a gentle artificial heat. Though white and juicy when
fresh, they become by drying hard and horny, and lose their bitterish
taste and peculiar odour.
Salep is largely collected near Melassa (Milas) and Mughla (or Moola),
south-east of Smyrna, and also brought there from Mersina, opposite
the north-eastern cape (Andrea) of Cyprus. The drug found in English
trade is mostly imported from Smyrna. That sold in Germany is partly
obtained from plants growing wild in the Taunus mountains, Wester-
wald, Rhon, the Odenwald, and in Franconia. Salep is also collected in
Greece, and used in that country and Turkey in the form of decoction,
which is sweetened with honey and taken as an early morning drink.^
The salep of India is produced on the hills of Afghanistan, Beluehistan,
Kabul and Bokhara;" the Neilgherry Hills in the south, and even
Ceylon are said likewise to afford it.
Description — Levant salep, such as is found in the English market,
consists of tubers half an inch to an inch in length, of ovoid or oblong-
form, often pointed at the lower end, and rounded at the upper where
is a depressed scar left by the stem ; palmate tubers are unfrequent.
They are generally shrunken and contorted, covered with a roughly
granular skin, pale brown, translucent, very hard and horny, with but
little odour and a slight not unpleasant taste. After maceration in
water for several hours, they regain tlieir original form and volume.
^The Indian species of Euloplda have
been reviewed by Lindley in Jovrn. of
Linn. Sac. Bot. iii. (1859) 23.
See Appendix, Porta.
3 Salep is the Arabic for fox, and the drug
is called in that language Khus yatu's salab,
i.e. fox's testicle ; or Khus yatu'l kalb, i.e.
dofs testicle. 1'he word Orchis, and the
old English names Dogstones, Foxsfones,
Harestones and Goatstones have all been
given in allusion to the form of the
tubers.
*Mim. cle I' Acad, des Sciences tor 1740. 99.
Heldreich, Nutz-pflanzen Griechenlands,
Athen, 1862. 9.
''Powell, Economic Products of the Fun jab,
Roorkee, i. (1868) 261 ; Stewart, Punjab
Plants, Lahore, 1869. 236.
656
ORCHIDACE.E.
German salep is more translucent and gummy-looking, and has the
aspect of being more trimmed and prepared.
Microscopic Structure — The fresh tuber exhibits on transverse
section a few outer rows of thin-walled cells rich in starch. These are
followed by parenchyme of elongated colourless cells likewise containing
starch, and isolated bundles of acicular crystals of oxalate of calcium.
In this parenchyme, there are numerous larger cells filled with homo-
genous mucilage. Small vascular bundles are irregularly scattered
throughout the tuber. In Orchis mascula and 0. latifolia the starch
grains are nearly globulax", and about 25 mkm. in diameter. In dried
salep the cell-walls are distorted and the starch grains agglomerated.
Chemical Composition — The most important constituent of salep
is a sort of mucilage, the proportions of which according to Dragendorff
(1865) amounts to 48 per cent. ; but it is doubtless subject to great
variation. Salep yields this mucilage to cold water, forming a solution
which is turned blue by iodine, and mixes clearly with neutral acetate
of lead like gum arable. On addition of ammonia, an abundant precip-
itate is formed. Mucilage of salep precipitated by alcohol and then
dried, is coloured violet or blue, if moistened with a solution of iodine
in iodide of potassium. The dry mucilage is readily soluble in ammon-
iacal solution of oxide of copper ; when boiled with nitric acid, oxalic,
but not mucic acid is produced. In these two respects, the mucilage of
salep agrees with cellulose, rather than with gum arable. In the large
cells in which it is contained, it does not exhibit any stratification, so
that its formation does not appear due to a metamorphosis of the cell-
wall itself. Mucilage of salep contains some nitrogen and inorganic
matter, of which it is with difficulty deprived by repeated precipitation
by alcohol.
It is to the mucilage just described that salep cliiefly owes its power
of forming with even 40 parts of water a thick jelly, which becomes
still thicker on addition of magnesia or borax. The starch however
assists in the formation of this jelly; yet its amount is very small, or
even nil in the tuber beaiing the flowering stem, whereas the young
lateral tuber abounds in it. The starch so deposited is evidently con-
sumed in the subsequent period of vegetation, thus explaining the fact
that tubers are found, the decoction of which is not rendered blue by
iodine. Salep contains also sugar and albumin, and when fresh, a trace
of volatile oil. Dried at 110'' C., it yields 2 per cent, of ash, consisting
chiefly of phosphates and chlorides of potassium and calcium (Dragen-
dorff").
Commerce — The shipments of salep from Smyrna are about 5000
okkas (one okka equal to 283'2 lb. avdp. = 128'5 kilogrammes) annually.
Uses — Salep possesses no medicinal powers; but from its property
of forming a jelly with a large proportion of water, it has come to be
regarded as highly nutritious, — a popular notion in which we do not
concur. A decoction flavoured with sugar and spice, or wine, is an
agreeable drink for invalids, but is not much used in England.^
^As powdered salep is difficult to mix
with water, many persons fail in preparing
this decoction ; but it may be easily man-
aged by first stirring the salep with a little
sijirit of wine, then adding the water s«(?-
dc7}Iy and boiling the mixture. The pro-
portions are powdered salep 1 drachm,
spirit 1^ fluid drachms, water J a pint.
VANILLA.
657
VANILLA.
Vanilla;^ F. and G. Vanille.
Botanical Origin — Vanilla planifolia Andrews — Indigenous to
the hot regions (tierra caliente) of Eastern Mexico, diffused by cultiva-
tion through other tropical countries. The plant, which is rather fleshy
and has large greenish inodorous flowers,^ grows in moist, shady forests,
climbing the trees by means of its aerial roots.
History — The Spaniards found vanilla in use in Mexico as a condi-
ment to chocolate, and by them it was brought to Europe ; but it must
have long remained very scarce, for Clusius, who received a specimen
in 1602 from Morgan, apothecary to Queen Elizabeth, described it as
Lohus ohlongits aromaticus, without being in the least aware of its
native country or uses.^ In the Thesaurus of Hernandez there is a
figure and account of the plant under the name of Araco aromatico.^
In the time of Pomet (1C94) vanilla was imported by way of Spain,
and was much used in France for flavouring chocolate and scenting
tobacco. It had a place in the materia medica of the London Pharma-
copceia of 1721, and was well known to the druggists of the first half
of the 18th century, after which it seems to have gradually disappeared
from the shops. Of late times it has been imported in great abundance,
and is now plentifully used, not only by the chocolate manufacturer,
but also by the cook and confectioner.
Cultivation — The culture of vanilla is very simple. Shoots about
three feet long having been fastened to trees, and scarcely touching the
ground, soon strike roots on to the bark, and form plants which com-
mence to produce fruit in three years, and remain productive for thirty
The fertilization of the flower is naturally brought about by insect
agency. This was practised as early as 1830 by Neumann in the
Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and in 1837 by Morren,'' the director of the
Botanical Garden of Liege, since which the production of the pods has
been successfully carried on in all tropical countries" without the aid
of insects. Even in European forcing houses the plant produces
fruits of full size, which for aroma bear comparison with those of
Mexico.
In vanilla plantations the pod", are not allowed to arrive at com-
plete maturity, but are gathered when their green colour begins to
change. According to the statements of De Vriese,'' they are dried by
a rather circuitous process, namely by exposing them to heat alternately
uncovered, and wrapped in woollen cloths, whereby they are artificially
1 Diminutive of the Spanish vaina, a pod the King of Spain during the previous
to forty.
or capsule.
century.
- Beautifully figured in Berg and Schmidt's
OffizinelJe Qeivdchse, xxxiii. tab. a and h
(1862).
^ In Reunion it was introduced in 1839
by Perrottet, the well-known botanist.
See Delteil, Etude sur la Vanille, Paris,
1874. 54 pages, 2 plates.
^Ann. ofJVat. Hist. iii. (1839) 1.
'^Exotica (1605) lib. iii. c. 18. 72.
^Rerum Medicarum Nova^ Hispanice The-
saurus, RomsB, 1651. p. 38. — The original
drawing was one of a series of 1200, exe-
cuted at great cost in Mexico by order of
~ De Vanietje, Leyden, 1856. 22, with
figures.
2 T
658
ORCHIDACEiE.
ripened, and acquire their ultimate aroma and dark hue. They are
then tied together into small bundles.
In Reunion the drying of the pods is performed since 1857 by
dipping them previously in boiling water.
Description— The fruit when fresh is of the thickness of the little
finger, obscurely triquetrous, opening longitudinally by two unequal
valves. It is fleshy, firm, smooth, and plump ; when cut transversely
it exudes an inodorous slimy juice, abounding in spiculse of oxalate of
calcium.' It is one-celled, with a three-sided cavity, from each wall of
which projects a two-branched placenta, each branch subdividing into
two backward -curling lobes. There are thus in all 12 ridges, which
traverse the fruit lengthwise, and bear the seeds. Fine hair-like
papillae line as a thick fringe the three angles of the cavity, and secrete
the odorous matter, which after drying is diffused through the whole
pod. The papilljB likewise contain drops of oil, which is freely absorbed
by the paper in which a pod is wrapped. That the odorous matter is
not resident in the fleshy exterior mass we have ascertained by slicing
oflT this portion of a fresh fruit and drying it separately ; the interior
alone proved to be fragrant.
The vanilla of commerce occurs in the form of fleshy, flexible,
stick-like pods, 3 to 8 inches long, and of an inch wide, of a
compressed cylindrical form, attenuated and hooked at the stalk end.
The surface is finely furrowed lengthwise, shining, unctuous, and often
beset with an cfliorescence of minute colourless crystals. The pod splits
lengthwise into two unequal valves, revealing a multitude of minute,
shining, hard, black seeds of lenticular form, imbedded in a viscid
aromatic juice.
The finest vanilla is the Mexican.* Boiirhon Vanilla, which is the
more plentiful, is generally shorter and less intense in colour, and com-
mands a lower price.
Microscopic Structure — The inner half of the pericarp contains
about 20 vascular bundles, arranged in a diffuse ring. The epidermis
is formed of a row of tabular thick-walled cells, containing a granular
brown substance. The middle layer of the pericarp is composed of
large thin-walled cells, the outer of which are axially extended, while
those towards the centre have a cubic or spherical form. All contain
drops of yellowish fat and brown granular masses, which do not decidedly
exhibit the reaction of tannin. The tissue fui-ther encloses needles of
oxalate of calcium and prisms of vanillin.
On the walls of the outer cells of the pericarp^ are deposited spiral
fibres, which occiir still more conspicuously in the aerial roots and in
the parenchyme of the leaves of other orchids. The placentae are coated
with delicate, thin-walled cells.
Chemical Composition — Vanilla owes the fragrance for which it
is remarkable to Vanillin, which is found in a crystalline state in the
interior or on the surface of the fruit, or dissolved in the viscid oily
' Tliis juice like that of tlie squill has an
irritating effect on the skin, a fact of which
the cultivators in Mauritius are well aware.
^ Vanilla grown in Europe is devoid of
such cells. We can fully corroborate this
statement (first made by Berg) from the
examination of very aromatic pods produced
in 1871 at Hillfield House, Reigate. We
have even failed in findmg those cells in
any vanilla of recent importation (1878).
VANILLA.
659
liquid surrounding the seeds. It was formerly regarded as cinnamic or
benzoic acid, and then as cumarin, until Gobley (1858) demonstrated its
peculiar nature.
The admirable researches of Tiemann and Haarmann performed in
Hofmann's laboratory at Berlin (18741-1876) have shown that vanillin
is constituted according to the formula C'H^k OH . It is the alde-
(CHO
hyde of methyl-protoca,techuic acid, and like other aldehydes yields a
crystallized compound with the bisulphites of alkalis. This is obtained
by shaking an ethereal extract (e) of vanilla, with a saturated solution of
bisulphite of sodium. The vanillin compound remaining in aqueous
solution is mixed with sulphuric acid and ether; the latter on evapora-
tion affords crystals of vanillin. They melt at 81°, and may be sub-
limed by cautiously heating them. Vanillin is but sparingly soluble in
cold water, and requires about 11 parts of it at 100° C. for solution; it
strikes a fine dark violet with perchloride of iron.
The said chemists have further demonstrated that vanillin may be
formed artificially. In the sapwood of pines there occurs a substance
called Gomferiv, C^'^K^-O^ + 2 H^O, first observed in 1861 by Hartig.
By means of emulsin coniferin taking up H'-O, can be resolved into
sugar and another crystallizable substance:— Ci^H^^O* i- WOz^C^W^O^
+ C^"H'''0''. The second substance thus derived may be collected by
means of ether, which dissolves neither coniferin nor sugar. By oxidiz-
ing it, .or coniferin itself, by bichromate of potassium and sulphuric
acid, VaniUiih is obtained. The latter has been for sometime manu-
factured in that way by Tiemann, but now eugenol (see p. 285) is used
for that purpose. Another source for vanillin is benzoin (p. 409).
The amount of vanillin was stated by Haarmann and Tiemann to
be 1"69 per cent, in Mexican vanillin, from 1"9 to 2'48 in the Bourbon
variety, and 2"75 in that from Java. The so-called Vanillon affords
only 0 4 to 0"7 per cent, of vanillin.
From the above-mentioned ethereal solution (e), after it has been
deprived of vanillin, vanillate of sodium may be removed by a dilute >
solution of carbonate of sodium. On acidulating the aqueous solution
r OCH'
crystals of vanillic acid, C^ffK OH are precipitated. If the ether of
(COOH
the solution {c), after it has been treated with carbonate of sodium, is
allowed to evaporate, a mixture of fatty substances and a resin are
obtained. The latter has a peculiar odour, somewhat suggestive of
castoreum; vanillic acid is almost inodorous.
Leutner (1872) also found in vanilla fatty and waxy matter 11'8,
resin 4 0, gum and sugar 16'5 per cent.; and obtained by incineration of
the drug 4'6 per cent, of ash.
Production and Commerce — The chief seats of vanilla-production
in Mexico are the slopes of the Cordilleras, north-west of Vera Cruz,
the centre of the culture being Jicaltepec, in the vicinity of Nautla.^
The finest specimens were contributed in 1878 to the Paris Exhibition
^ Culture du vcmillkr ait Mrxiqve, in the W. von Muller, Reisen in . , . Mexico, ii.
Revue Coloniale, ii. (1849) 383-390; also J. (Leipzig, 1864) 284-290.
660
IRIDACE^.
from Agapito, Fonticilla, Misantla, Papantla, also from Teziutlan,
province of Puebla, Thei'e are likewise " Baynillales" plantations of
vanilla, on the western declivity of the Cordilleras in the State of Oaxaca,
and in lesser quantity in those of Tabasco, Chiapas, and Yucatan. The
eastern parts of Mexico exported in 1864, by way of Vera Cruz and
Tampico, about 20,000 kilo, of vanilla, chiefly to Bordeaux. Since
then the production seems to have much declined, the importation
into France having been only G,89G kilo, in 1871, and ],938 in 1872.^
The cultivation of vanilla in the small French colony of Reunion or
Bourbon (40 miles long by 27 miles broad), introduced by Marchant in
1817 from Mauritius, has of late been very successful, notwithstanding-
many difficulties occasioned by the severe cyclones which sweep peri-
odically over the island, and by microscopic fungi which greatly injured
the plant. In 1849 the export of vanilla from Reunion was 3 kilo-
grammes, in 1877 it reached 30,973 kilogrammes. The neighbouring-
island of Mauritius also produces vanilla, of which it shipped in 1872
7,139 lbs., in 1877 the quantity was 20,481 lbs. There is likewise a
very extensive cultivation of vanilla in Java.
Vanilla comes into the market chiefly by way of France, which
country, according to the official statistics, imported in 1871, 29,914
kilo. (65,981 lbs.); in 1872, 26,587 (58,643 lbs.); in 1874 that quantity
amounted to 34,906 kilo.
Uses — Vanilla has long ceased to be used in medicine, at least in
this country, but is often sold b}' druggists for flavouring chocolate,
ices, creams, and confectionery.
IKIDACE^.
RHIZOMA IRIDIS.
Radix Iridis Florentines; Orris Root; F. Racine d'Iris;
G. Veilchenwurzel.
Botanical Origin — This drug is derived from three species of Iris,
namely: —
1. Iris germanica L., a perennial plant with beautiful lai'ge deep
l;>lue flowers, common about Florence and Lucca, ascending to the
region of the chestnut. It is also found dispersed throughout Central
and Southern Europe, and in Northern India and Morocco; and is one
of the commonest plants of the gardens round London, where it is
known as the Blue Flag.
1. /. 'pallida Lam., a plant differing from the preceding by flowers
of a delicate pale blue, growing wild in stony places in Istria. It is
abundant about Florence and Lucca in the region of the olive, but is a
doubtful native.
3. /. fiorevtina L., closely allied to /. pallida, yet bearing large
white flowers, is indigenous to the coast region of Macedonia and the
south-western shores of the Black Sea, Hersek, in the Gulf of Ismid,
and about Adalia in Asia Minor. It also occurs in the neighbourhood
' Documents StatisUques rdunis par V Adnvnislration des Douancn snr le Commerce de
In France, ann(''e 1872, p. 64.
RHIZOMA IRIDIS.
661
of Florence and Lucca, but in our opinion only as a naturalized
plant.^
These three species, but especially /. germanica and /. 2)allida, are
cultivated for the production of orris root in the neighbourhood of
Florence. They are planted on the edges of terraces and on waste,
stony places contiguous to cultivated ground. I, Jlorentina is seldom
found beyond the precincts of villas, and is far less common than the
other two.
History — In ancient Greece and Rome, orris root was largely used
in perfumery; and Macedonia, Elis, and Corinth were famous for their
unguents of iris.^ Theophrastus and Dioscorides were well acquainted
with orris root ; the latter, as well as Pliny, remarks that the best comes
from lUyricum, the next from Macedonia, and a sort still inferior from
Lib^^a; and that the root is used as a perfume and medicine. Visiani^
considers that Iris germanica is the lUyrian iris of the ancients, which
is highly probable, seeing that throughout Dalmatia (the ancient Illyri-
cum) that species is plentiful, and I . Jiorentina and /. ixdlida do not
occur. At what period the two latter were introduced into Northern
Italy we have no direct evidence, but it was probably in the early
middle ages. The ancient arms of Florence, a white lily or iris on a red
shield,* seem to indicate that that city was famed for the growth of
these plants. Petrus de Crescentiis' of Bologna, who flourished in the
13th century, mentions the cultivation of the ivJdte as well as of the
purple iris, and states at what season the root should be collected for
medicinal use.
But the true Illyrian drug was held to be the best ; and Valerius
Cordus" laments that it was being displaced by the Florentine, though
it might easily be obtained through the Venetians.
Orris root mixed with anise was used in England as a perfume for
linen as early as 1480 (p. 311), under which date it is mentioned in the
Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV.
All the species of iris we have named were in cultivation in England
in the time of Gerarde, — that is, the latter end of the 16th century.
The starch of the rhizome was formeily reckoned medicinal, and direc-
tions for its preparation are to be found in the Traicte de la Chymie
of Le Febvre, i. (1660) 310.
Production — The above-mentioned species of iris are known to the
Tuscan peasantry by the one name of Qiaggiolo. The rhizomes are
collected indiscriminately, the chie*^ quantity being doubtless furnished
by the two more plentiful species, /. germdnica and /. pallida. They
are dug up in August, are then peeled, trimmed, and laid out in the
1 From observations made at Florence in
the spring of 1872, I am led to regard the
three spices here named as quite distinct.
The following comparative characters are
perhaps worth recording : —
I. rjennanka — flower-stem scarcely li
times as tall as leaves ; flowers more crowded
than in I.imllida, varying in depth of colour
but never pale blue.
/. jMlltda — bracts brown and scariose ;
flower-stem twice as high as leaves.
/. Jiorentina — bracts green and fleshy ;
flower-stem short as in /. germanica; is a
more tender plant than the other two, and
blossoms a little later. — D.H.
^ For further information, consult Blitm-
ner, Dhi. gewerbliche Thdtigheit der Vdlker
des IkmiscJien Alterthums, 1869. 57. 76. 83.
Flora Dalmatica, i. (1842) 116.
* Dante, Divina commedia, cant. xvi.
De omnibus agriculturce parlihus, Basil.
1548. 219.
Dispensatorium., Norimb. 1529. 288.
662
miDACE^.
sunshine to dry, the larger bits cut off being reserved for replanting.
At the establishment of Count Strozzi, founded in 1806 at Poutasieve
near Florence, which lies in the midst of the orris district, the rhizomes,
collected from the peasants by itinerant dealers, are separated into
different qualities, as selected (scelti) and sorfe (in sorte), and are ulti-
mately offered in trade either entire, or in small bits (frantumi),
parings (mspatwre), powder (-polvere di giaggiolo o cZ' ireos), or
manufactured into orris peas.
The growing of orris is only a small branch of industry, the crops
being a sort of side-product, but it is nevertheless shared between the
tenant and landowner as is usual on the Tuscan system of husbandry.'
In the mountainous neighbourhood of Verona, the rhizomes of
Giglio celeste or Giglio selvatico, i.e., Iris germanica, are collected and
chiefly brought to the small places of Tregnano and lUasi, north-east of
Verona. The peasants distinguish the selected long roots (radice dritta),
the knotty roots {radice gropjw) which are used for the is.sue-peas, and
the fragments (scarto) employed in perfumery.
Some orris root is also exported from Botzen in southern Tyrol.
Description. — The rootstock is fleshy, jointed and branching, creep-
ing horizontally near the surface of the ground. It is formed in old
plants of the annual joints of five or six successive years, the oldest of
which are evidently in a state of decay. These joints are mostly
dichotomous, subcylindrical, a little compressed vertically, gradually
becoming obconical, and obtaining a maximum size when about three
years old. They are 3 to 4 inches long and sometimes more than
2 inches thick. Those only of the current year emit leaves from their
extremities. The rhizome is externally yellowish-brown, internally
white and juicy, with an earthy smell and acrid taste. By drying, it
gradually acquires its pleasant violet odour, but it is said not to attain
its maximum of fragrance until it has been kept for two years.
We have carefully compared with each other the fresh rhizomes of
the three species under notice, but are not able to point out any definite
character for distinguishing them apart.
Dried orris root as found in the shops occurs in pieces of 2 to 4
inches long, and often as much as 1;^ inches wide. A full-sized piece
is seen to consist of an elongated, irregularly subconical portion emitting
at its broader end one or two (rarely three) branches which, having
been cut short in the process of trimming, have the form of short, broad
cones, attached by their apices to the parent rootstock. The rootstock
is flattened, somewhat arched, often contorted, shrunken and furrowed.
The lower side is marked Avith small circular scars, indicating the point
of insertion of rootlets. The brown outer bark has been usually entirely
removed by peeling and pai'ing; and the dried rhizome is of a dull,
opaque white, ponderous, fii-m and compact. It has an agreeable and
delicate odour of violets, and a bitterish, rather ai'omatic taste, with
subsequent acridity.
A sort of orris root which has been dried without the removal of
the outer peel, is found under the name of Trisa in the Indian bazaars,
and now and then in the London market. It is, we suppose, the
'Groves, Pharvi. Journ. iii. (1872) 229. — We have also to thank him for information
communicated personally.
CROCUS.
663
produce of Iris germcmica L. (/. nepalensis Wall.), which, according to
Hooker, is cultivated in Kashmir. Orris root of rather low quality is
now often imported from Morocco ; it is obtained, we believe, exclusively
from /. gennanica.
Microscopic Structure — On transverse section, the white bark
about 2 mm. broad, is seen to be separated by a fine brown line from
the faintly yellowish woody tissue. The latter is traversed by
numerous vascular bundles, in diff"use and irregular rings, and exhibits
here and there small shining crystals of oxalate of calcium. It is
made up uniformly of large thick-walled spherical porous cells, loaded
with starch granules, which are oval, rather large and very numerous ;
prisms of calcium oxalate are also visible. The latter were noticed
already by one of the earliest microscopic observers, Anton van Leeu-
wenhoek, about the year 1716. The spiral vessels are small and run
in very various directions. The foregoing description is applicable to
any one of the three species we have named.
Chemical Composition — When orris root iu distilled with water,
a crystalline substance, called Orris Cariipkor, is found floating on the
aqueous distillate. This substance, which we first obtained from the
laboratory of Messrs. Herrings & Co. of London, is yielded, as we learn
from Mr. Umney, to the extent of 0"12 per cent. — that is to say, 3 cwt.
3 qrs. 23 lb. of rhizome aflbrded of it 8| ounces.^ Messrs. Schimmel &
Co. of Leipzig also presented us with the same substance, of which they
obtain usually 0'60 to 0'80 per cent. Orris camphor has the exquisite
and persistent fragrance of the drug ; we have proved that this pre-
sumed stearoptene or camphor of orris root consists of myristic acid,
C"H'"''0" (see page 508), impregnated with the minute quantity of essential
oil occurring in the drug. The oil itself would appear not to preexist
in the living root, but to be formed on drying it.
By exhausting orris root with spirit of wine, a soft brownish resin is
obtained, together with a little tannic matter. The resin has a slightly
acrid taste ; the tannin strikes a green colour with persalts of iron.
Commerce — Orris root is shipped from Leghorn, Trieste and
Mogador, — from the last-named port to the extent in 1876 of
834 cwt.^ There are no data to show the total imports into Great
Britain. France imported in the year 1870 about 50 tons of orris
root.
Uses — Frequently employed a;' an ingredient in tooth-powders, and
in France for making issue-peas ; but the chief application is as a
perfume.
CROCUS.
Ci^oci stigmata; Saffron'^; F. and G. Saffran.
Botanical Origin — Crocus sativus L., a small plant with a fleshy
bulb-like corm and grassy leaves, much resembling the common Spring
^ The produce of some previous opera- ^ Consular Reports. 1876. 1416.
tions, in which 23 cwt. of orris was distilled, •* The word Saffron is derived from the
afforded but little over one-tenth per cent. Arabic Asfar, yellow.
3 Pharm. Journ. vii. (1876) 130.
664 miDACE^.
I
Crocus of the gardens, but blossoming in the autumn. It has an elegant
purple flower, with a large orange-red stigma, the three pendulous
divisions of which are protruded beyond the perianth.
The Saffron Crocus is supposed to be indigenous to Greece, Asia
Minor, and perhaps Persia, but it has been so long under cultivation in
the East that its primitive home is somewhat doubtful.^
History — Saffron, either as a medicine, condiment, perfume, or dye
has been highly prized by mankind from a remote period, and has
played an important part in the history of commerce.
Under the Hebrew name Carcom, which is supposed to be the root
of the word Crocus, the plant is alluded to by Solomon ; ^ and as KpoVo?,
by Homer, Hippocrates, Theophrastus, and Theocritus. Virgil and
Columella mention the saffron of Mount Tmolus ; the latter also names
that of Corycus in Cilicia, and of Sicily, both which localities arc
alluded to as celebrated for the drug by Dioscorides and Pliny.
Saffron was an article of traffic on the Red Sea in the first century ;
and the author of the Periplus remarks that Kyoo'/co? is exported from
Egypt to Southern Arabia, and from Barygaza in the gulf of Cam-
bay.^ It was well known under the name kunkuvia to the earlier
Hindu writers.
It was cultivated at Derbend and Ispahan in Persia, and in Trans-
oxania in the 10th century,* whence it is not improbable the plant was
carried to China, for according to the Chinese it came thither from the
country of the Mahomedans. Chinese writers have recorded that
vmder the Yuen dynasty (a.d. 1280-1368), it became the custom to mix
Sa-fa-lang (Saffron) with food.^
There is evidence to show that saflfron was a cultivated production
of Spain " as early as A.D. 961 ; yet it is not so mentioned, but only as an
eastern drug, by St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville in the 7th century.
As to France, Italy, and Germany, it is commonly said that the saffron
crocus was introdued into these countries by the Crusaders. Porchaires,
a French nobleman, is stated to have brought some bulbs to Avignon
towards the end of the 14th century, and to have commenced the
cultivation in the Comtat Venaissin, where it existed down to recent
times. About the same time, the growing of saffron is said to have
been introduced by the same person into the district of Gatinais, south
of Paris.^ At that period, saffron was one of the productions of Cyprus,^
with which island France was then, through the princes of Lusignan,
particularly related.
During the middle ages, the saffron cultivated at San Gemignano in
Tuscany was an important article of exportation to Genoa." That of
1 Chappellier has pointed out that
Crocus sativus L. is unknown in a wild
state, and that it hardly ever produces seed
even though artificially fertilized ; and has
argued from these facts that it is probably a
hybrid. — Bulletin de la Soc. hot. de. France,
XX. (1853) 191.
- Canticles, ch. iv. 14.
5 Lassen, Indische Alterthumshunde, iii.
(1857) 52.
Istachri, Buch der Lander, tlbersetzt
von Mordtmann, 87. 93. 124. 126 ; Edrisi,
Geoijraphie, trad, par Jaubert, 1(58. 192.
5 Bretschneider, Chinene Botanical Works,
Foochow, 1870. 15.
Le Calendrier de Cordoue de I'annce
901, Leyde, 1873. 33. 109.
Conrad et Waldmann, Traits du Safran
clu GcUinais, Paris, 1846. (23 pages; — no
authority quoted).
^ De Mas Latrie, Hist, de Vile de Chijpre,
iii. 498.
8 Bourquelot, Foires de la Champafjne,
Mem. de I'Acad. des inscript. et belles-
lettres de rinstitut, v. (1865) 286.
CROCUS.
665
Aquila in the Abruzzi was also famous, and used to be distinguished in
price-hsts till the beginning of the present century ; the culture of
saffron is still going on there to a small extent/ The growing of
saffron in Sicily, which was noticed even by Columella, is carried
on to the present day, but the quantity produced is insufficient
even for home consumption.'- In Germany and Switzerland, where
a more rigorous climate must have increased the difficulties of culti-
vation, the production of saffron was an object of industry in many
localities.^
The saffron crocus is said to have been introduced into England
dm-ing the reign of Edward III. (a.d. 1327-1377).* Two centuries later
English saffron was even exported to the Continent, for in a priced list of
the spices sold by the apothecaries of the north of France, A.D. 1565-70,
mention is made of three sorts of saffron, of which "Safren d'Engleteri'e"
is the most valuable." It was evidently produced in considerable quan-
tities, for in 1682 we find in the tariff' of the "Apotheke" of Celle,
Hanover, crocus austriacus optimus, and Crocus comnvmiis anglicus."
In the beginning of the last century (1723-28), the cultivation of
saffron was carried on in what is described by a contemporary writer
as — " all that large tract of ground that lies between Saffron Walden
and Cambrido-e, in a circle of about 10 miles diameter." The same
writer remarks that saffron was formerly grown in several other counties
of England. The cultivation of the crocus about Saffron Walden, which
was in full activity when Norden*' wrote in 1594, had ceased in 1768,
and about Cambridge at nearly the same time." Yet the culture must
have lingered in a few localities, for in the early part of the present
century a little English saffron was still brought every year from
Cambridgeshire to London, and sold as a choice drug to those who were
willing to pay a high price for it.
Saffron was employed in ancient times to a far greater extent than
at the present day. It entered into all sorts of medicines, both internal
and external ; and it was in common use as a colouring and flavouring-
ingredient of various dishes for the table. The drug, from its inevitable
costliness, has been liable to sophistication from the earliest times.
Both Dioscorides and Pliny refer to the frauds practised on it, the
latter remarking — " adidteratur nihil ceque."
Diiring the middle ages the severest enactments were not only made,
but were actually carried into effect, against those who were guilty of
sophisticating saffron, or even of possessing the article in an adulterated
state. Thus at Pisa, in A.D. 1305, the fundacarii, or keepers of the
public warehouses, were required by oath and heavy penalties to de-
nounce the owners of any falsified safiron consigned to their custody.'"
1 Groves, Pharm. Journ. vi. (1875) 215.
' Inzenga,, va. Annali iV AgrlcoUura Sici-
Uana, i. (1851) 51.
Tragus, De Stirpium, etc. 1552, p. 763 ;
Ochs, Geschkhte der Stadt und Landschaft
Basel, iii. (1819) 189.
^ Morant, Hist, and Antiq. of Essex, ii.
(1768) 545.
^ The other sorts are "Safren Cabdome "
and "Safren Moort." — A r chives gdner ales du
Pas de Calais, quoted by Dorvault, Revue
pharmaceutique de 1858. p. 58.
6 Pharm. Journ. vi. (1876) 1023.
^ Douglass, Phil. Trans. Nov. 1728.566.
^ Description of Essex, Camden Society,
1840. 8.
^ Morant, op. cit. ; Lysons, Magna Bri-
tannia, vol. ii. pt. i. (1808) 3G. Lysons
records that at Fulbourn, a village near
Cambridge, there had been no tithe of saff-
ron since 1774.
Bonaini, Statuti rnedili delta cittd di
Pisa dal xii. alxiv. secolo, iii. (1857) 101.
66G
IRIDACE^.
The Pepperers of London about the same period were also held respon-
sible to check dishonest tampering with safi'ron.^
In France, an edict of Henry II., of 18th March, 1550, recites the
advantages derived from the cultivation of saffron in many parts of the
kingdom, and enacts the confiscation and burning of the drug when
falsified, and corporal punishment of offenders.^
The authorities in Germany were far more severe. A Safranschau
(Saflfron inspection) was established at Nuremberg in 1441, in which
year 13 lb. of safi'ron was publicly burnt at the Schonen Brimnen in
that city. In 1444, Jobst Findeker was burnt together with his adul-
terated saffron! And in 1456, Hans Kolbele, Lienhart Frey, and a
woman, implicated in falsifying saffron, were buried alive. The
Safranschau was still in vigour as late as 1591 : but new regulations
for the inspection of saffron were passed in 1613.^ There was also in
the same city a Getvurzschaii, or Spice-inspection, from 1441 to 1797.
Similar inspections were established in most German towns during the
middle ages.
Description — The flower of the saffron crocus has a style 3 to 4
inches long, which in its lower portion is colourless, and included within
the tube of the perianth. In its upper part it becomes yellow, and
divides into three tubular, filiform, orange-red stigmas, each about an
inch in length. The stigmas expand towards their ends, and the tube
of which they consist is toothed at the edge and slit on its inner side.
The stigma is the only part officinal, and alone is rich in colouring-
matter.
Commercial saffron {Hay Saffron of the druggists) is a loose mass of
thread-like stigmas, which when unbroken are united in threes at the
upper extremity of the yellow style. It is unctuous to the touch, tough
and flexible ; of a deep orange-red, peculiar aromatic smell, and bitter
and rather pungent taste. It is hygroscopic and not easily pulverized ;
it loses by drying at 100° C. about 12 per cent, of moisture, which it
quickly reabsorbs.'*
The colouring ])ower of saffron is very remarkable : we have found
that a single grain rubbed to fine powder with a little sugar will impart
a distinct tint of yellow to 700,000 grains (10 gallons) of water.
Microscopic Structure — The tissue of the stigma consists of very
thin, sinuous, closely-felted, thread-shaped cells, and small spiral vessels.
The yellow colouring matter penetrates the whole, and is partly de-
posited in granules. The microscope likewise exhibits oil-drops, and
small lumps, probably of a solid fat. Large isolated pollen grains are
also present.
Chemical Composition — The splendid colouring matter of saffron
has long been known as Polychroit ; but in 1851 Quadrat, who instituted
some fresh researches on the drug, gave it the name of Crocin, which was
1 Riley, Memorials of London and London
Life in t/ie \3th, 14i/t, and 15th centuries,
1868. 120.
- De la Mare, Traits de la Police, Paris,
iii. (1719) 428.
^ J. F. Roth, GeschicJiie des Niirnhergi-
schen Handels, 1800-1802, iv. 221.
■* Eight lots of saffron weighing in tola
61 lb., dried at various times during the
course of nine years, lost 7 lb. 2| oz., i.e.
11 "7 per cent. — (Laboratory records of
Messrs. Allen & Hanburys, Plough Court,
Lombard Street. )
CROCUS.
G67
also adopted in 1858 by Rochleder. Weiss in 1867^ has shown that it
is a giucoside, for which he retains the name of Folychroit, while the
new colouring matter which results from its decomposition he terms
Grocin. It agrees with the Grocetin of Rochleder.
Poljchroit was prepared by Weiss in the following manner : saffron
was treated with ether, by which fat, wax, and essential oil were
removed ; and it was then exhausted with water. From the aqueous
solution, gummy matters and some inorganic salts were precipitated by
strong alcohol. After the separation of these substances, polychroit was
precipitated by addition of ether. Thus obtained, it is an orange-red,
viscid, deliquescent substance, which, dried over sulphuric acid, becomes
brittle and of a fine ruby colour. It has a sweetish taste, but is devoid
of odour, readily soluble in spirit of wine or water, and sparingly in
absolute alcohol. By dilute acids, it is decomposed into Grocin, sugar,
and an aromatic volatile oil having the smell of saftron. Weiss gives
the following formula for this decomposition : —
Q48g«oQi8^ JJ2Q ^ 2(C"'ff'0'') . C'°H"0 . C'WO\
polychroit crocin essential oil sugar
Grocin is a red powder, insoluble in ether, easily soluble in alcohol,
and precipitable from this solution on addition of ether. It is only
slightly soluble in watei-, but freely in an alkaline solution, from which
an acid precipitates it in purple-red flocks. Strong sulphuric and nitric
acids occasion the same colours as with polychroit; the former producing
deep blue, changing to violet and brown, and the latter green, yellow,
and finally brown. It is remarkable that hydrocarbons of the benzol
class do not dissolve the colouring matter of saffron.
The oil obtained by decomposing crocin is heavier than water ; it
boils at about 209° C, and is easily altered, — even by water. It is
probably identical with the volatile oil obtainable to the extent of one
per cent, from the drug itself, and to which its odour is due.
Salfron contains sugar (glucose ?), besides that obtained by the
decomposition of polychroit. The drug leaves after incineration 5 to 6
per cent, of ash.
Production and Commerce — In France the cultivation is carried
on b}' small peasant proprietors; the flowers are collected at the end of
September or in the beginning of October. The stigmas are quickly
taken out, and immediately dried on sieves over a gentle fire, to which
they are exposed for only half an hour. According to DumesniP 7,000
to 8,000 flowers are required for yielding 500 grammes (17|- oz.) of
fresh saffron, which by drying is reduced to 100 grammes.
Notwithstanding the high price of saffron, its cultivation is by no
means always profitable, from the many difiiculties by which it is
attended. Besides occasional injury from weather, the bulbs are often
damaged by parasitic fungi as stated by Duhamel in 1728^ and again
by Montagne in 1848.*
The most considerable quantity of saftron is now produced in Spain,
namely in Lower Arragon, in Novelda near Alicante, in the province
1 Wiggers and Husemann, Jaliresbericht Mem. de I'Acad. des Sciences, 1728. p.
for 1868. 35. 100.
" Bulletin de la SociiU impiriale d'accli- * Etude micro'jraphique de la maladie du
matation, Avril, 1869. Safran, connue sous le nom de tacon.
IRIDACEtE.
Albacete (Northern Murcia), in La Mancha, near Huelva, and also near
Palma in the island of Mallorca. It is brought into commerce as
Alicante and Valencia Saffron. The quantity of saffron exported from
Spain in 1864 was valued at £190,002 ; in 1865, £135,316 ; in 1866,
£4)7,083. The drug was chiefly exported to France.^
French saffron, which enjoys a better reputation for purity than the
Spanish, is cultivated in the arrondissement of Pithiviers-en-Gatinais,
in the department of the Loiret, which district annually furnishes a
quantity valued at 1,500,000 (£60,000) to 1,800,000 francs.2 The
exports of France in 1875 were 97,021 kilogrammes, 84,337 of which
being imported from Spain.
In Austria, Maissau, north-east of Krems on the Danube, still
produces excellent saffron, though only to a very small extent ; the
district was formerly celebrated for the drug. Saffron is produced in
considerable quantity in Ghayn, an elevated mountain region separating
Western Afghanistan from Persia.^ A very little of inferior quality
is collected at Pampur in Kashmir, under heavy imposts of the
Maharaja.^ Saffron is also cultivated in some districts of China.
Finally, the cultivation has been introduced into the United States,
and a little saffron is collected by the German inhabitants of Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania.' But in almost all countries the cultivation of
saffron is on the decline, and in very many districts has altogether
ceased.
The imports of saffron into the United Kingdom amounted in 1870
to 43,950 lb., valued at £95,690. The article is largely exported to
India, but there are no general statistics to show the amount. Bombay
imported in the year 1872-73, 21,994 lb., value £35,115.^ It is a curious
fact that now Spanish saffron finds regularly its way to India.
Uses — Saffron is of no value for any medicinal effects, and retains
a place in the pharmacopoeia solely on the ground of its utilitj' as a
colouring agent. A peculiar preference for it as a condiment exists in
various countries, but especially in Austria, Germany and some districts
of Switzerland. This predilection prevails even in England — at least
in Cornwall, where the use of saffron for colouring cakes is still
common. Saffron is largely used by the natives of India in religious
rites, in medicine and for the colouring and flavouring of food.
As a dye-stuff saffron is no longer employed, at least in this country,
its use having been superseded by less costly substances.
Adulteration — Saffron is often adulterated, but the frauds prac-
tised on it are not difficult of detection. Sometimes the falsification
consists in the addition of florets of Calendula dyed, with logwood, oi-
of safflower, or the stamens of the saffron ci-ocus, any of which may be
detected if a small pinch of the drug be dropped on the surface of warm
water, when the peculiar form of the saffron stigma will at once become
evident.
^Statistical Tables relatlnfj to Forehjii
Countries (Blue Book) 1870. 286. 289.
2 Dumesiiil, I. c.
3 Be] lew, From the Indus to the Tirjris,
Lond. 1874. 304.
liuge[,Kasch7nir, ii. (1840) 274.— Powell,
Ptuijab Products, i. (1868) 449.— P/mrm.
J own. vi. (1875) 279.
^ Proc. of the American Pharm. Assoc.
1866. 254.
A miual Statement of the Trade and
Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay
for 1872-73. pt. ii. 30.
SEMEN AREC.E.
669
Another adulteration of late much practised, and not always easy to
detect by the eye, consists in coating genuine saffron with carbonate of
lime, previously tinged orange-red. If a few shreds of such saffron be
placed on the surface of water in a wineglass and gently stirred, the
water will immediately become turbid, and the carbonate of lime will
detach itself as a white powder and subside. Saffron thus adulterated
will freely effervesce when dilute hydrochloric acid is dropped upon it.
We have examined Alicante Saflron, the weight of which had been
increased more than 20 per cent, by this fraudulent admixture. The
eartliy matter employed in sophisticating saffron is said to be some-
times emery powder, rendered adherent by honey. We have found
that adulterated with carbonate of lime to leave from 1 2 to 28 per cent,
of ash.^
PALM^.
SEMEN ARECiE.
Nuces Arecce vel Betel ; Areca Nuts, Betel Nuts ; F. Semence on Noix
d'Aree ; G. Arekanilsse, Betelniisse.
Botanical Origin— Arecct Catechu L., a most elegant palm,^ with a
straight smooth trunk, 40 to 50 feet high and about 20 inches in circum-
ference. The inflorescence is arranged on a branching spadix, with the
male flowei's on its upper portion and the female near its base. The
tree is cultivated in the Malayan Archipelago, the warmer parts of the
Indian Peninsula, Ceylon, Indo-China and the Phillippines. It is pro-
bably indigenous to the first -named region.
History — The Areca palm is mentioned in the Sanskrit writings as
Guvdca. It is called in Chinese Pin-lang, a name apparently derived
from Pinang, a designation for the tree in the Malay Islands, whence
the Chinese anciently derived their supply of the seeds. The oldest
Chinese work to mention the 'pin-lang is the San-fu-huang-tu, a
description of Chang-an, the capital of the Emperor Wu-ti, B.C. 140-86.
It is there stated that after the conquest of Yunnan, B.C. Ill, some re-
markable trees and plants of the south were taken to the capital, and
among them more than 100 p in-lang, which were planted in the imperial
gardens. Bretschneider,* to whose researches we are indebted for this
information, cites several other Chinese works, from the first century
downwards, showing that areca nuts wei-e brought from the then un-
subdued provinces of Southern China, the Malayan Archipelago and
India. The custom of presenting areca nut to a guest is alluded to in
a work of the 4th century.
The Arabian writers, as for instance Ibn Batuta, were well acquainted
with the areca nut, which they called Fdfal, and with the Indian custom
of masticating it with lime.
Areca nut, though held in great estimation among Asiatics as a masti-
catory, and supposed to strengthen the gums, sweeten the breath and
^ Science Papers, 368. ^ On the study of Chinese botanical works,
- Bentley and Trimen, 3Iedic. Plants, Foochow, 1870. 27.
part 21 (1877).
670
PALM^.
improve digestion, has not until recently been regarded as possessing
any particular medicinal powers beyond those of a mild astringent.'
It has often been administered as a vermifuge to dogs, and in India and
China is given with the same intent to the human subject. Some suc-
cessful trials recently made of it for the expulsion of tapeworm have
led to it being included in the Additions to the British Pharmacopoeia
of 1867, published in 1874.
Description — The areca palm produces a smooth ovoid fruit, of the
size of a small hen's egg, slightly pointed at its upper end, and crowned
with the remains of the stigmas. Its exterior consists of a thick pericarp,
at first fleshy, but, when quite mature, composed of fine stringy fibres
running lengthwise, with much coarser ones below them. This fibrous
coat is consolidated into a thin crustaceous shell or endocarp, which
surrounds the solitary seed. The latter has the shape of a very short
rounded cone, scarcely an inch in height ; it is depressed at the centre
of the base, and has frequently a tuft of fibres on one side of the depres-
sion, indicating its connexion with the pericarp. The testa, which seems
to be partially adherent to the endocarp, is obscurely defined, and insepa-
rable from the nucleus. Its surface is conspicuously marked with a net-
work of veins, running chiefly from the hilum. When a seed is split
open, it is seen that these veins extend downwards into the white
albumen, reaching almost to its centre, thus giving the seed a strong
resemblance both in structure and appearance to a nutmeg. The embryo,
which is small and conical, is seated at the base of the seed. Areca nuts
are dense and ponderous, and very difficult to break or cut. They have
when freshly broken a weak cheesy odour, and taste slightly astringent.
Microscopic Structure — The white horny albumen is made up of
large thick-walled cells, loaded with an albuminoid matter, which on
addition of iodine assumes a brown hue. The cell-walls display large
pores, the sti'ucture of which, after boiling in caustic ley, becomes clearly
evident in polarized light. The brown tissue which runs into the albu-
men is of loose texture, and resembles the corresponding structure in a
nutmeg. The thin walls of its cells are marked with fine spiral stria-
tions, and in this tissue, as well as on the brown surface of the seed,
delicate spiral vessels are scattered. All the brown cells assume a rich
red if moistened with caustic ley, and a dingy green with ferric
chloride.
Chemical Composition — We have exhausted the powder of the
seeds, previously dried at 100° C, with ether ; and thereby obtained a
colourless solution, which after evaporation left an oily liquid, concreting
on cooling. This fatty matter, representing 14 per cent, of the seed,
was thoroughly crystalline and melted at 39° C. By saponification we
obtained from it a crystalline fatty acid fusing at 41° C, which may
consequently be a mixture of lauric and myristic acids. Some of the
fatty matter was boiled with water: the water on evaporation affbrded
an extremely small trace of tannin but no crystals, which had catechin
been present should have been left.
' J. J. Berlu, The Treasury of Drugs
Unlocked, London, 1724, no doubt had
before him the areca nuts in speaking of
" Nuces indicce (see also p. 503, note 2), like
a nutmeg in shape, in chewing turns red ;
it is said they will make one drunk ....
but I could never find it."
SEMEN AREC^.
671
The powdered seeds which had been treated with ether were then
exhausted by cold spirit of wine ("832), which afforded 14-77 per cent,
(reclconed on the original seeds) of a red amorphous tannic matter,
which after drying, proved to be but little soluble in water, whether cold
or boiling. Submitting to destructive distillation, it afforded Pyrocatechin.
Its aqueous solution is not altered by ferrous sulphate, unless an alkali
is added, when it assumes a violet hue, with separation of a copious
dark purplish precipitate. On addition of a ferric salt in minute quan-
tity to the aqueous solution of the tannic matter, a fine green tint is
produced, quickly turning brown by a further addition of the test, and
violet by an alkali. An abundant dark precipitate is also formed.
The seeds having been exhausted by both ether and spirit of wine,
were treated with water, which removed from them chiefly mucilage
precipitable by alcohol. The alcohol thus used afforded on filtration
traces of an acid, the examination of which was not pursued. After
exhaustion with ether, spirit of wine and water, a dark brown solution
is got by digesting the residue in ammonia : from this solution, an acid
throws down an abundant brown precipitate, not soluble even in boiling-
alcohol. We have not been able to obtain crystals from an aqueous
decoction of the seeds, nor by exhausting them directly with boiling
spirit of wine. We have come therefore to the conclusion that Gatech in
(p. 243) is not a constituent of areca nuts, and that any extract, if ever
made from them, must be essentially different to the Cateclni Acacia
or of Naiiclea, and x-ather to be considered a kind of tannic matter of
the nature of Ratanliia-ved or Cinchona-red.
By incinerating the powdered seeds, 2 26 per cent, were obtained of
a brown ash, which, besides peroxide of iron, contained phosphate of
magnesium.
Commerce — Areca nuts are sold in India both in the husk (peri-
carp) and without it, and the two sorts are enumerated in the Customs
Returns under distinct heads. Their widespread consumption in the
East gives rise to an enormous trade, of which some notion may be
formed by a consideration of the few statistics bearing upon it which
ai'e accessible.
Thus, Ceylon exported of areca nuts in the year 1871, 66,543 cwt.,
value £62,593; in 1872, 71,715 cwt., — the latter quantity entirely to
India; in 1875 of the total export of 94,567 cwt. 86,446 were shipped
to India.^
The Madras Presidency largely trades in the same commoditj''. In
the year 1872-1873 there were shipped thence to Bombay 43,958 cwt.,
besides about two millions of the entire fruit.^ An extensive traffic in
areca nuts is carried on at Singapore and especially in Sumatra.
Uses — Powdered areca nut may be given for the expulsion of tape-
worm in the dose of 4 to 6 drachms, taken in milk. The remedy
should be administered to the patient after a fast of about twelve hours;
some recommend the previous exhibition of a purgative. It is said to
be efficacious against lumbricus as well as tcenia.
The charcoal afforded by burning areca nuts in a close vessel is sold
as a tooth powder; but except greater density, it possesses no advantage
over the charcoal from ordinary wood.
1 Ceylon Blue Books. - From the returns quoted at p. 571, note 5.
672
PALM^.
As a masticatory areca nut is chewed with a little lime and a leaf of
the Betel Pepper, Piper Bctle L. The nut for this purpose is used in a
young and tender state, or is prepared by boiling in water; it is some-
times combined with aromatics, as camphor or cardamom.
SANGUIS DRACONIS.
Resina Draconis; Dragons Blood; F. Savg-dragon; G. Drachenhlut.
Botanical Origin — Calamus Draco^ Willd. (Doemonorhops Draco
Mart.) — This is one of the Rotang or Rattan Palms, remai-kable for their
very long flexible stems, which climb among the branches of trees by
means of spines on the leafstalk. The species under notice, called in
Malay Rotang Jernang, grows in swampy forests of the Residency of
Palembang and in the territory of Jambi, in Eastern Sumatra, and in
Southern Borneo, which regions furnish the dragon's blood of com-
merce. It is said to occur also in Penang and in various islands of the
Sun da chain.
History — The substance which is mentioned by Dioscorides under
the name of Kiwd^api, as a costly^ pigment and medicine brought from
Africa, and which is also described by Pliny who distinguished it from
minium, was certainly the resin called Dragon's Blood. It was not
however that of the Rotang Palm, Calamus Draco, or even of any tree
of the Indian Archipelago, but was on the contrary a production of the
island of Socotra (see p. G75).
Dragon's blood is, we believe, not named by any of the earlier
voyagers to the India islands. Ibn Batuta, who visited both Java and
Sumatra between A.D. 1325 and 134-9, and notices their producing
benzoin (see p. 404), cloves, camphor, and aloes-wood, is silent about
dragon's blood. Barbosa, whose intelligent narrative (a.d. 1514) of the
East Indies" is full of reference to the trade and productions of the
different localities he visited, states that aloes and dragons blood are
produced in Socotra, but makes no mention of the latter commodity as
found at Malacca, Java, Sumatra, or Borneo.
The fact we wish to prove is corroborated by the accounts of early
commercial intercourse between the Chinese and Arabs recently pub-
lished by Bretschneider.^ From the 10th to the 15th century there was
carried on between these nations a trade, the objects of which were not
only the productions of the Arabian Gulf and countries further north,
but also those of the Indian Archipelago. One of the islands with
which the Arabs and Persians carried on a great commerce was Sumatra,
whence they obtained the precious camphor so much valued by the
Chinese, but not, so far as it appears, the resin dragon's blood. As to
the productions brought from Arabia they are enumerated as Ostriches,
Olibanum, Liquid Storax, Myrrh, and Dragons Blood, besides a few
other articles not yet determined. It is worthy of remark that the
Chinese are still the principal consumers of dragon's blood, though like
* Beautifully figured by Blume, Enmphia,
ii. (1836) tab. 131-132.
2 Description of the Coasts of East Africa
and Malabar (Hakluyt Society), 1866. 30.
191-197.
^ Knowledcje possessed by the Chinese of
the Arabs, etc., 1871.
SANGUIS DRACONIS.
673
the rest of maukind they have to content themselves with the plentiful
drug of Sumatra and Borneo, instead of the more ancient sort produced
in Socotra.
The first clear account of the production of the resin in India is that
given by Rumphius, who in his Herbarium Amboivevse^ describes the
process by which it is collected at Palembang.
Production — The fruit of Culmmis Draco, which is produced in
panicles in great profusion, is globose and of the size of a large cherry,
clothed with smoothed downward-overlapping scales. These scales are
sub-quadrangular, thick and shell-like, marked with a longitudinal
furrow; the largest, which are found towards the middle of the fruit,
are ''2 lines long by 3 broad. At maturity the fruit is covered with an
exudation of red resin, Avhich encrusts it so abundantly that the form of
the scales can hardly be seen.
The resin, which is naturally friable, is collected by gathering the
fruits, and shaking or beating them in a sack, by which process it is
soon separated. It is then sifted to remove from it scales and other
portions of the fruit. By exposure to the heat of the sun or in a
covered vessel to that of boiling water, the resin is so far softened that
it can be moulded into sticks or balls, which are forthwith wrapped in
a piece of palm leaf It is thus that the best dragon's blood, or jernang,
is obtained. An inferior quality is got by boiling the pounded fruits in
water, and" making the resin into a mass, frequently with the addition
of other substances by way of adulteration. The foregoing is the
account of the maniifacture of the drug given by Blume.^
Description — Dragon's Blood is found in commerce chiefly in two
forms, known respectively as Reed and Lump.
1. Reed Drar/oiis Blood (Dragon's Blood in sticks. Sanguis
draconis in baculis). Some of fine quality purchased in London in
1842 is in sticks 13 to 14 inches in length, and f to 1 inch in
diameter, neatly wrapped in palm-leaf, secured by 8 or 9 transverse
bands of some flexible grass. The average weight of each stick,
including the enveloping leaf, is five ounces. The I'esin has evidently
been wrapt up while soft, as the sticks are furrowed longitudinally by
pressure of the surrounding leaf. The smooth surface is of an intense
blackish-brown ; when seen in thin splinters the resin appears trans-
parent, and of a pure and brilliant crimson. The fractured surface
looks resinous and rough, is a little porous, and contains numerous
particles of the scales of the fruit. Rubbed on paper it leaves a red
mark of not very splendid tint. Heated with alcohol it left 20 per cent,
of pulverulent residue consisting chiefly of vegetable matter. Sticks
of smaller size are more common.
2. Luni]) Dragon s Blood {Sanguis draconis in massis) is imported
in large rectangular blocks or irregular masses. From the fine Reed
Dragon's Blood, just described, it difters in containing a larger propor-
tion of remains of the fruit, including numerous entire scales. Hence
it has a coarser fracture, and the fractured surface is less intense in
tint. Its taste is slightly acrid. Exhausted with alcohol it
leaves a residue amounting in the specimen we tested to 27 per cent.
1 Pars. V. (1747) 114-115. tab. 58. - Rmnplda, iii. (1847) 9. tab. 131. 132.
2 U
674
PALM^.
Dragon's blood is abundantly sokible in the usual solvents of resins,
namely, the alcohols (even in dilute spirit of wine), benzol, chloroform,
bisulphide of carbon, and the oxygenated essential oils, as that of
cloves. The residue left after the evaporation of these liquids is amor-
phous and of the original fine red colour. The drug is likewise dis-
solved by glacial acetic acid as well as by caustic soda ; the latter
solution on addition of an excess of acid yields a dingy brown, jelly-
like precipitate, which on drying turns dark red like the original drug.
In ether dragon's blood is sparingly soluble, and still less so in oil of
turpentine ; but in the most volatile portions of petroleum, the so-called
petroleiim, ether we find it to be entirely insoluble. It has a slightly
sweetish and somewhat acrid taste; melts at about 120° C, evolving
the aromatic but irritating fumes of benzoic acid; boiled with water the
resin becomes soft and partially liquid.
Chemical Composition — Dragon's blood is a peculiar resin, which
according to Johnston ^ answers to the formula G^^iVO*. By heating
it and condensing the vapour an aqueous acid liquid is obtained,
together with a heavy oily portion of a pungent burning taste and
crystals of benzoic acid. The composition of these products has not
yet been thoroughly ascertained, but the presence of acetone. Toluol,
OT'(Cff), Drac7jl of Glenard and Boudault (1844), and Styrol, C^H^
{Draconyl), has been pointed out,^ the latter perhaps due to the
existence in the drug of metastyrol (p. 274), as suggested by Kovalew-
sky.^ Both these hydrocarbons are lighter than water ; yet we find
that the above oily portion yielded by dry distillation sinks in water,
a circumstance possibly occasioned by the T)resence of benzoic alcohol,
As benzoic acid is freely soluble in petroleum ether it ought to be
removed from the drug by that solvent: on making the experiment we
got traces of an amorphous red matter, a little of an oily liquid, but
nothing crystalline. Cinnamic acid, on the other hand, is always
present, according to Hirschsohn (1877). As to the watery liquid, it
assumes a blue colour on addition of perchloride of iron, whence it
would appear to contain phenol or pyrogallol rather than pyrocatechin
By boiling dragon's blood with nitric acid, benzoic, nitro-benzoic,
and oxalic acids are chiefly obtained, and only very little picric acid.
Hlashvetz and Bavth melted the drug with caustic potash, and found
among the products thus formed phloroglucin (p. 243), para-oxybenzoic,
protocatechuic, and oxalic acids, as well as several acids of the fatty
series. Benzoin yields similar products.
Commerce — Dragon's blood is shipped from Singapore and Batavia.
Large quantities are annually exported from Banjarmasin in Borneo to
these places and to China.'*
Uses. — In medicine, only as the colouring agent of jilasters and
tooth powders ; in the arts, for varnish.
Adulteration — Dragon's blood varies exceedingly in quality,^ of
Phil. Trans. 1839. 134; 1840. 384. * Low, Saraxcalc, Us iyihahitants and pro-
- Gmelin, Chemistrij, xvii. (1866) 387. ductlons, 1848. 43.
'Gmelin, Chemistrij, xvii. 388; aXso Anna- ' Tlie present price, £3 to £11 per cwt.,
len der Chcniie, cxx. (18G1) 68. sufficiently indicates this.
SANGUIS DRACONIS.
G7o
which the principal criterion regarded by the dealers is colour. Some
of the inferior sorts make only a dull brick-red mark when rubbed on
paper, and have an earthy-looking fracture. The sticks moreover do
not take the impression of the enveloping leaf as when they are more
purely resinous. A sample of inferior Reed Dragon's Blood aftbrded
us 40 per cent, of matter, insoluble in spirit of wine.
Other sorts of Dragon's Blood.
Dragon's Blood of Socotra — Wo have already stated (p. G72) that
the Glnnahar mentioned by Dioscorides was brought from Africa. That
the term really designated dragon's blood seems evident from the fact
that the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea/ written circa A.D.
54-68, names it {lvivvd(3api) as a production of the island of Dioscorida,
the ancient name of Socotra.
The Arabians, as Abu Hanifa and Ibn Baytar,^ describe dragon's
blood as brought from Socotra, giving to the drug the very name by
which it is known to the Arabs at the present day, namely, Dcwi-ul-
akh-ivain. Barbosa (1514) as well as Giovanni di Barros^ mention it
as a production of the island ; and in our own times it has been noticed
by Wellstead,* Vaughan,^ and A. von Kremer.*' It is now but little
collected. Vaughan states, as well as Von Wrede, that the tree is
foimd in Hadramaut and on the east coast of Africa. The latter state-
ment is also made in letters (1877, 1878), with which we were favoured
by Captain Hunter of Aden and Hildebrandt of Berlin (see pages 140
and 141), by the latter of whom we were presented with a photographic
sketch of the tree growing in the Somali country, at elevations of
from 2500 to 5500 feet, and called there Moli. It is Draccena schizantha
Baker,^ a tree attaining 8 metres in height. The resin has an acidulous
taste, and is, according to Hildebrandt, not exported, but occasionally
eaten by the Somalis. The tree from which dragon's blood is collected
in Socotra is, according to Capt. Hunter, Draccena Ombet Kotschy.
The Drop Dragon's Blood, of which small parcels imported from
Bombay or Zanzibar occasionally appear in the London market, is
however this drug. It is in small tears and fragments, seldom exceed-
ing an inch in length, has a clean glassy fracture, and in thin pieces is
transparent and of a splendid ruby colour. From Sumatran dragon's
blood it may be distinguished by not containing the little shell-like
scales constantly present in that drug, and by not evolving when heated
on the point of a knife the irritating fumes of benzoic acid.
Dragon's Blood of the Canary Islands — This substance is afforded
by Dracoina Draco L., a liliaceous tree^ resembling a Yucca, of which
the famous specimen at Orotava in TenerifFe has often been described
on account of its gigantic dimensions and venerable age.^
1 Voyage of Nearchus and Periplus of the,
Erythrean Sea, translated by Vincent, Ox-
ford, 1809. 90.
- Sontheimer's ed. i. 104. 426. ii. 117.
^ L'Asia, sec. deca. Venet. 1561. p. 10. a.
■4 Travels in Arabia, Lond. 1838. ii. 449.
^Pharm. Journ. xii. (1853) 385.
''' Aegypten, Leipzig, 1863.
' On Hildebrandt's East African Plants,
Journ. ofBot. xv. (1877) 71.
^Histological observations on the struc-
ture of the stem, accompanied by excellent
figures, will be found in a memoir by Rau-
wc\\h.oS(Bijdrage tot de kennis van Draccena
Draco, pp. 55. tabb. 5) in the Verhand d.
Kon. Acad. v. Weiensch., afd. J^atuurk.
X. 18G3.
" It was destroyed in 1867 by a hurri-
cane.
076
AROIDE^.
On the exploration of Madeira and Porto Santo in the 15th century,
dragon's blood was one of the valued productions collected by the
voyagers, and is named as such by Alvise da ca da Mosto in 1454.' It
is also mentioned by the German physician Hieronymus Mi'mzer, who
visited Lisbon about 1494."
The tree yields the resin after incisions are made in its stem ; but so
far as we know the exudation has never formed a regular and ordinary
ai-ticle of commerce with Europe. It has been found in the sepulchral
caves of the aboriginal inhabitants.
The name Dragons Blood has also been applied to an exudation
obtained from the West Indian Fterocavpus Draco L., and to that of
Cvoton Draco Schlecht. ; but the latter appears to be of the
nature of kino, and neither substance is met with in European
coinmerce.
AROIDE^.
RHIZOMA CALAMI AROMATICI.
Radix Calami aromatici, Radix Acori; Siveet Flag Root; F. Acore
odorant ou vrai, Roseau aromatiqiie; G. ICalmus.
Botanical Origin — Acorus Calamus L., an aromatic, flag-like plant,
growing on the margins of streams, swamps, and lakes, from the coasts
of the Black Sea, through Southern Siberia, Central Asia, and India, as
far as Amurland, Northern China, and Japan; indigenous also to North
America. It is nov/ established as a wild plant in the greater part of
Europe, reaching from Sicily as far north as Scotland, Scandinavia, and
Northern Russia ; and is cultivated to a small extent in Burma and
Ceylon.
Regarding the introduction of Acorus Calamus into Western Europe,
it is believed in Poland to have been introduced there in the 13th
century by the Tartars, yet it seems not to have attracted then any
attention. The well-informed botanist. Bock (Tragus), mentioning the
use of the preserved rhizome by wealthy persons, states ^ that he had
never seen the plant growing in Germany. Clusius^ relates that he
first received a living plant in 1574, sent from the lake Apollonia near
BrusSa in Asia Minor. Camerarius,"* writing in 1588, speaks of it as
introduced some years previously, and then plentiful in Germany,
which seems to show a rapid propagation. Gerarde at the close of the
century looked upon Acorus as an Eastern plant, which he says is
grown in many English gardens, and might hence be fitly called the
" Sweet Garden Flag." Berlu,*' in 1724, observes of the root that —
" it is brought in quantities from Germany:" hence we may infer that
it was not then collected in England, as we know it was at a later
period."
1 Ramusio, Raccolta delle Navigationi ct
Vldfl'ji, Vcnet. i. 97.
- Kunstraanii, Abhandluixjcn der Baieri-
scheii Akademie. der Wixaenschaften, vii.
(1855) 342. et seq.
^ TculxcJie Speiskammer, Strassburg,
1550. ciiii.
* Rariorum Stirpium Historia, Antv.
1576. 520.
^Hortus medicus et philosopldcus, Francof.
1588. 5.
" TreaHury of Drugs, ed. ii. 1724. 115.
'' See also Trimen in Joum. of Botany, ix.
(1871) 163.
RHIZUMA CALAMI ARUMATICI.
G77
History — Sweet Flag root has been from the earliest times a
favourite medicine of the natives of India, in which country it is sold
in every bazaar. Ainslie^ asserts that it is reckoned so valuable in the
bowel complaints of children that there is a penalty incurred by any
druggist who will not open his door in the middle of the night to sell
it, if demanded '
The descriptions of Acoron, a plant of Colchis, Galatia, Pontus, and
Crete, given by Dioscorides and Pliny, certainly refer to this drug. We
think that the KdXa/uLO? apco/uuriKog of Dioscorides, which he states to
grow in India, is the same, though Royle regards it as an Andvopogon.
The KdAa/zo? of Theophrastus and the Calamus of the English Bible ^
are considered by some authors to refer to the Sweet Flag.
Celsus in the first century mentioned Cala7nus Alexandrinus, the
drug being probably then brought from India by way of the Red Sea.
We know by the testimony of Amatus Lusitanus' that in the 16th
century it used to be so imported into Venice. Rheede,* moreover,
described and figured A cor us Calamus as an Indian plant under the
name Vacha, which it still bears on the Malabar Coast. But in the
pharmaceutical tariff of the German town of Halberstadt of the year
1697, " Calamus aromaticm verus, Indianischer Galmtis," and "Cala-
mus aromaticus 7wstras," common Calmus, are quoted at exactly the
same price," and Murray " states expressly that in his time (1790)
Asiatic calamus was still met with in the pharmacies of Continental
Europe, but that it had mostly been replaced by the home-grown drug.
At the present time the Calamus aromaticus of commerce is Eui'opean ;
in all essential characters it agrees with that of India, a package of
which is now and then offered in the London drug sales.
Collection — The London market is supplied from Germany, whither
the drug is brought, we believe, from Southern Russia. It is no longer
collected in England, — at least in quantity, though it used to be gathered
some years ago in Norfolk.
Description — The rootstock of sweet flag occurs in somewhat
tortuous, subcylindrical or flattened pieces, a few inches long, and from
to 1 inch in greatest diameter. Each piece is obscurely marked on
the upper surface with the scars, often hairy, of leaves, and on the under
with a zigzag line of little, elevated, dot-like rings, — the scars of roots.
The rootstock is usually rough and shrunken, varying in colour from
dark brown to orange-brown, breaking easily with a short corky frac-
ture, and exhibiting a pale brown spongy interior. The odour is
aromatic and agreeable ; the taste, bitterish and pungent.
The fresh rootstock is brownish-red or greenish, white or reddish
within, and of a spongy texture. Its transverse section is tolerably
uniform ; a fine line (medullary sheath) separates the outer tissue from
the lighter central part, the diameter of which is twice or three times
the width of the former.
Microscopic Structure — ^The outermost layer is made up of
' 3fat. M(d. of Hiiidoostan, Madras, 1813.
54.
- Exod. XXX. 23 ; Cant. iv. 14 ; Ezek.
xxvii. 19. — See also page 715, footnote 2.
^ In Diosc. de Mat. Med. Etiarrationes,
Argent. 1554. 33.
■* Hortus Malabar, xi. (1G92) tab. 48. 49.
'F\\\ck\ger,Documenie (quoted page 562),
78.
Apparatus Medkarainum, v. 40.
G78
AROIDEtE.
extended epiblema-cells or of a brown corky tissue, the latter occurring
in the parts free from leaf-scars. The prevailing tissue, both of tlie
outer and the central part, consists of uniform nearly globular cells,
traversed by numerous vascular bundles, especially at the boundary
line (medullary sheath). Besides them, the rootstock like that of many
fresh- water plants, exhibits a large number of intercellular holes. These
air-holes, or more correctly water-holes, are somewhat longitudinally
extended, so as to form a kind of net-work, imparting a spongy con-
sistence^ to the fresh rootstock. At certain places, where the series of
cells cross one another, especially in the outer part, there are single
cells filled witli essential oil,^ which may be made very conspicuous by
adding to sections dilute potash or perchloride of iron. The other cells
are loaded with small starch granules ; a little mucilage and tannic
matter is met with in the exterior coat.
Chemical Composition — The dried rhizome yielded us 1'3 per
cent, of a yellowish neutral essential oil of agreeable odour, which in a
column of 50 mm. long, deviates 13'8° to the right. By working on a
large scale, Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig, obtain 2'4 to 2"6 per
cent.
According to Kurbatow (1873), this oil contains a hj^drocarbon,
C'H''', boiling at 159° C, and forming a crystalline compound with HCl,
and another hydrocarbon boiling at 255-258° C, aflfording no crj^stal-
lizable hydrochloric compound. By submitting the oil to fractional
distillation, we noticed, above 250°, a blue portion, which may be de-
colorized by sodium. The crude oil acquires a dark brownish colour
on addition of perchloride of iron, but is not at all soluble in concen-
trated potash solution.
The bitter principle Acoi'in was extracted by Faust in 1867, as a
semifluid, brownish giucoside, containing nitrogen, soluble both in ether
and in alcohol, but neither in benzol nor in water. In order to obtain
this substance, we precipitated the decoction of 10 lb. of the drug by
means of tannic acid, and followed the method commonly practised in
the preparation of bitter principles. By finally exhausting the residue
with chloroform, we succeeded in obtaining a very bitter, perfectly
crystalline body, but in so minute a quantity, that we were unable to
investigate its nature.
Uses — Sweet Flag is an aromatic stimulant and tonic, now rarely
used in regular medicine. It is sold by the herbalist for flavouring
beer, and for masticating to clear the voice. It is said to be also used
by snuft" manufacturers.
Adulteration — The rhizome of the Yellow Flag, Iris Pseudacorus
L., is occasionally mixed with that of the Sweet Flag, from which it
may be distinguished by its want of aroma, astringent taste, dark
colour, and dissimilar structure.
' This was possibly alluded to by Alber-
tiis Magiius (A.D. 11!}3-1280), who says :—
(Calamus aromaticus) — uascitur in India
et Etliioijia sub cancro, et habet intei'iiis
ex pai'te concava ' ' pellem subtilem, «tcut
tekii fiunt aranearum." — De VKjelabilibiis,
Jessen's ed. 18G7. 376. We suppose the
dru<T under notice was intended.
'■^ Hence the practice of peeUmj the
I'hizonie which prevails in some parts of
the Continent ought to be abandoned.
ALOE.
679
LILIACE^.
ALOE.
Aloes ; F. Aloes on S^ic dAloes ; G. Aloe.
Botanical Origin — Several species of Aloe'- furnish a bitter juice
which when inspissated forms this drug. These plants are natives of
arid, sunny places in Southern and Eastern Africa, whence a few
species have been introduced into Northern Africa, Spain,^ and the
East and West Indies.
The aloes are succulent plants of liliaceous habit with persistent
fleshy leaves, usually prickly at the margin, and erect spikes of yellow
or red flowers. Many are stemless ; others produce stems some feet in
height, which are woody and branching. In the remote districts of
Namaqua Land and Damai-a Land in \yestern South Africa, and in the
Transkei Territory and Northern Natal to the eastern, aloes have been
discovered which attain 30 to 60 feet in height, with stems as much as
12 feet in circumference."* The following species may be named with
more or less of certainty as yielding the drug.^
Aloe socotrina Lam. (A. vera Miller), native of the southern shores
of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, Socotra, and Zanzibar (?). It is the
source of the Socotrine and MoIm Aloes. A. ojjiclnalis Forsk. and
xi. ruhescens DC. are considered to be varieties of this plant. A. abys-
sln'ica Lam. may probably contribute to the aloes shipped from the
Red Sea.
A. vulgaris Lani. {A. perfoliata, var. vr. vera Linn., A. harhadensis
Mill), a plant of India and of Eastern and Northern Africa, now found
also on the shores of Southern Spain, Sicily, Greece, and the Canaries ;
introduced in the beginning of the 16th century (or earlier) into the
AVest Indies. It affords Barbados and Ctiragao Aloes. A. indica
Royle, a plant of the North-west Provinces of India, common in Indian
gardens, appears to be a slight variety of A. vulgaris Lam. A. litovalis
Konig, said to grow in abundance at Cape Comorin, is unknown to us.
Dr. Bidie suggests that it is a form of the preceding, stunted by a poor
saline soil and exposure to the sea breeze. Both A. indica and A.
litoralis are named in the Pharmacopwia of India.
Aloe ferox L., and hybi'ids obta'ned by crossing it with A. africana
Mill, and A. spicata Thunberg, A. perfoliata Linn, (quoad Roxb.) and
A. linguceformis are reputed to yield the best Gape Aloes.
A. africana Mill, and its varieties, and A. pUcatiUs Mill, afford
an extract which Pappe'^ says is thought to be less powerful.
A. arhorescens Mill., A. Commelini Willd. and A. purpurascens
^ From the Syriac Ahmi
- Aloii arboresceiis, A. purpurasretiK, and
A. vulgaris may be seen luxuriantly grow-
ing in Valencia, Granada, Gibraltar.
^ Dyer in Gardeners' Chronicle, May 2,
1874, with figures.
■^Good figures of Aloe africana, A. arhor-
escens, A. ferox, A. inirpurascens, A. socot-
rina, and A. vuhjaris will be found in the
work Monof/rapltia generis Aloes et Mesem-
hryantliemi, auctore Jos. Principe de Salm-
Reifferscheid-Dyck, Bonnae, 1836-1863.
fol.
^ Flora Capensis MtjUea; Prodronins, ed.
2, 1857. 41.
080
LILIACE^.
Haworth are stated to produce a portion of the (Jape Aloes of com-
merce.'
Various species of Agave, especially A. americana L., are largely
grown, since the first half of the 16th century, in the south of Europe,
and popularly called Aloe. All of them are plants of Mexico, while the
true aloes are natives of the old world. Botanieall}^ the genus Agave
differs from Aloe, in that the former has the ovary inferior, while in
the latter it is Huperior. From a chemical point of view there is also
no analogy at all between Aloe and Agave.
History — Aloes was known to the Greeks as a production of the
island of Socotra as early as the 4th century B.C., if we might credit a
remarkable legend thus given in the writings of the Arabian geographer
Edrisi." When Alexander had conquered the king of the Persians and
his fleets had vanquished the islands of India, and he had killed Pour,
king of the Indies, his master Aristotle recommended him to seek the
island that produces Aloes. So when he had finished his conquests in
India, he returned by way of the Indian Sea into that of Oman,
conquered the isles therein, and arrived at last at Socotra, of which he
admired the fertility and the climate. And from the advice which
Aristotle gave him he determined to remove the original inhabitants
and to [)Ut Greeks in their place, enjoining the latter to preserve care-
fully the plant yielding aloes, on account of its utility, and because that
without it certain sovereign remedies could not be compounded. He
thought also that the trade in and use of this noble drug would be a
great advantage for all people. So he took away the original people
of the island of Socotra, and established in their stead a colony of
lonians, who remained under his protection and that of his successors,
and acquired great riches, until the period when the religion of the
Messiah appeared, which religion they embraced. They then became
Christians, and .so their descendants have remained up to the present
time (circa a.d. 1154).
This curious account, which Yule^ says is doubtless a fable, but
invented to account for facts, is alluded to by the Mahomedan
travellers of the 9th century* and in the 10th by Masudi,^ who says
that in his time aloes was produced only in the island of Socotra, where
its manufacture had been improved by Greeks sent thither by Alexander
the Great.
Aloes is not mentioned by Theophrastus, but appears to have been
well known to Celsus, Dioscorides, Pliny and the author of the Periplus
of the Erythrean Sea, as well as to the later Greek" and the Arabian
physicians. From the notices of it in the Anglo-Saxon leech-books
and a reference to it as one of the dru^s recommended to Alfred the
Great by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, we may infer that its use was not
unknown in Britain as early as the 10th century.''
1 In the above revision of the medicinal ^ Marco Polo, ii. 343.
species of Aloi; we have made free use of ^ Anclennes lielations des hides et de la
the observations on the same subject Chine de deux Voyaaeurs Mahometans, qui
mentioned in t\ie Dictionnaire de Botaiii'/iie. y alth'cnt dans le tieiivieme slide, traduites
We have also had the advantage of con- de I'Arabe, Paris, 1718. 113.
suiting W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., F.R.8., ° Tome iii. 36. — See Ajapendix.
whose long familiarity with these plants ^ Alexander Trallianus, in Puschmann's
in cultivation impart great weight to his edition (quoted in the Appendix), i. 578,
opinion. speaks of 'AXoij? hiraT'iTiBoi — Aloii hepatica.
- G6ographie d' Edrisi, i. (1836) 47. ' See p. 439. note 1.
ALOE.
681
At this period and for long afterwards tlie drug was imported into
Europe by way of the Red Sea and Alexandria. After tlie discovery of
a route to India by the Cape of Good Hope the old line of commerce
probably began to change.
Pires, an apothecary at Cochin, in a letter on Eastern drugs^ ad-
dressed to Manuel, king of Portugal, in 1516, reports that aloes grows
in the island of (^acotora, Aden, Cambaya, Valencia of Arragon, and in
other parts, — the most esteemed being that of (^acotora, and next it
that of Spain; while the drug of Aden and Cambaya is so bad as to be
worthless.
In the early part of the 17th century there was a direct trade in
aloes between England and Socotra; and in the records of the East
India Company there are many notices of the drug being bought of the
" King of Socotra." Frequently the king's whole stock of aloes is
mentioned as having been purchased.^
Wellstead, who travelled in Socotra in 1833,^ says that in old times
the aloe was far more largely grown there than at present, and tliat the
walls which enclosed the plantations may still be seen. He adds that
the produce was a monopoly of the Sultan of the island. At the
present day the few productions of Socoti'a that are exported are carried
by the Arab coasting vessels, coming annually from the Persian Gulf to
Zanzibar, at which place they are transhipped for Indian and other
ports. Dr. Kirk, who has resided at Zanzibar from 1860 to 1873,
informs us that aloes from Socoti-a arrives in a very soft state packed
in goatskins. From these it is transferred to wooden boxes, in which
it concretes, and is shipped to Europe and America. To avoid loss the
skins have to be washed; and the aloetic liquor evaporated.
Ligon,^ who visited the island of Barbados in 1647-50, that is about
twenty years after the arrival of the tirst settlers, speaks of the aloe as
if it were indigenous, mentioning also the useful plants which had been
introduced. At that period the settlers knew how to prepare the juice
for medicinal use, but had not begun to expoi't it. Barbados aloes was
in the drug warehouses of London in lOOS.'*
The manufixcture of aloes in the Cape Colony of South Africa was
observed by Thunberg in 1773 on the farm of a boer named Peter de
Wett, who was the first to prepare the drug in that country.*^ Cape
Aloes is enumerated in the stock of a London druggist in 1780, its cost
being set down as £10 per cwt. (Is. 9^cZ. per lb.).
A new and distinct sort of aloes, manufactured in the colony of
Natal, appeared in English commerce in 1870. It will be described
further on.
Ligmim Aloes — It is important to bear in mind that the word
Aloes or Lign Aloes, in Latin Lignum Aloes, is used in the Bible and
in many ancient writings to designate a substance totally distinct from
the modern Aloes, namely the resinous wood of Aquilaria Agallocha
Roxburgh, a large tree' of the order Thymeleacese, growing in the
1 See Appendix. * History of Barbadoes, Lond. 1673. 98.
^ Calendar of State Papcra, Colonial ' Dale's Pharmacologia (1693) 3G1.
Series, East Indies, China and Japan, ^ Thunberg, Travels in Asia, Europe and
1513-1616, Lond. 1862. Africa, ii. 49. 50.
^ Journ. of the Roy. Geograph. Soc. v. ' Fig. in Royle, lllusir. of the Himalayan
(1835) 129-229. Bot. etc. (1839) tab. 36. See also Diction-
nalre de Botaniqiie.
682
LILIACE^.
Malayan Peninsula. Its wood constituted a drug^ which was, down to
the beginning of the present century, generally valued for use as incense,
but now esteemed only in the East.
Structure of the Leaf — The stout fleshy leaves of an aloe have
a strong cuticle and thick-walled epidermis. Their interior substance
is formed of very loose, large-celled, colourless pulp, traversed by
vascular bundles, which, on transverse section, are seen to be accom-
panied by a group of large thin-walled cells" containing the bitter juice
which constitutes the drug under notice. These cells, on a lonoitudinal
section, are seen to be considerably elongated, adjoining a single row of
smaller, prismatic, truncated cells,' by which the former are separated
from the cortical layer. The prismatic cells contain a yellow juice,
apparently different from that which yields aloes. The cortical tissue
is filled with granules of chlorophyll, and exhibits between the cells
groups of needles of calcium oxalate. Similar crystals are also found
sparingly in the pulp.
The transparent pulp-tissue'* is rich in mucilage, which after dilution
with water is precipitated b}^ neutral acetate of lead, but is not coagu-
lated by boiling.
The amount of bitter principles in the leaf probably varies with the
age of the latter and with the season of the year. Haaxman mentions
that, in Curasao, the maximum is found when the leaves are changing
from green to brown.
Cultivation and Manufacture — In Barbados,'^ where J.?oet'w/(7cwis
is systematically cultivated for the production of the drug, the plants
are set 6 inches apart, in i-ows which are 1 to 1^ foot asunder, the
ground having been carefully prepared and manured. They are kept
free from grass and weeds, but yams or pulse are frequently grown
between them, The plants are always dwarf, never in the least degree
arborescent ; almost all of those above a year old bear flowers, which
being bright yellow, have a beautiful effect. The leaves are 1-2 feet
long ; they are cut annually, but this does not destroy the plant, which,
under good cultivation, lasts for several years.
The cutting takes place in March and April, and is performed in the
heat of the day. The leaves are cut off close to the plant, and placed
very quickly, the cut end downwards, in a V-shaped wooden trough,
about 4 feet long and 12 to 18 inches deep. This is set on a sharp
incline, so that the juice which trickles from the leaves very rapidly
flows down its sides, and finally escapes by a hole at its lower end into
a vessel placed beneath. No pressure of any sort is applied to the
leaves. It takes about a quarter of an hour to cut leaves enough to fill
a trough. The troughs are so distributed as to be easily accessible to
the cutters. Their number is generally five ; and by the time the fifth
1 Hanbury, Science Papers, 1876. 263 ;
also Fluckiger, Die Franlcfurter Liste,
Halle, 1873. 37. (ArcJtiv der Pliarm. cci.
511). — For full historical information see
Heyd, LevantehcnuM, ii. (1879), 559.
^ The cells lettered e in Berg's figure 0,
plate iv. y. of his " Offizinelle Gewdchse."
The cells (/, in Berg's figure.
^ This central pulpy tissue is quite taste-
le-sn, and is actually used as food in times of
scarcity in some parts of India. — Stewart,
Ftoijab Plant.'i, 1S69. 232.
^ For the particulars we here give re-
specting Barbados aloes, we have cordially
to thank Sir R. Bowcher Clarke, Chief
Justice of Barbados, and also Major-
General Munro, stationed (1S7-1) at Bar-
bados in command of troops.
ALOE.
683
is filled, the cutters return to the first and throw out the leaves, which
they regard as exhausted. The leaves are neither infused noi' boiled,
nor is any use afterwards made of them except for manui-e.
When the vessels receiving the juice become filled, the latter is
removed to a cask and reserved for evaporation. This may be done at
once, or it may be delayed for weeks or even months, the juice, it is
said, not fermenting or spoiling. The evaporation is generally con-
ducted in a copper vessel ; at the bottom of this is a large ladle, into
which the impurities sink, and are from time to time removed as the
boiling goes on. As soon as the inspissation has reached the proper
point, which is determined solely by the experienced eye of the work-
man, the thickened juice is poured into large gourds or into boxes, and
allowed to harden.
The drug is not always readily saleable in the island, but is usually
bought up by speculators who keep it till there is a demand for it in
England. The cultivators are small proprietors, but little capable as to
mind or means of making experiirients to improve the manufacture of
the drug. It is said, however, that occasionally a little aloes of very
superior kind is made for some special purpose by exposing the juice in
a shallow vessel to solar heat till completely dry. ]3ut such a drug is
stated to cost too much time and trouble to be profitable.^ The
manufacture of aloes in the Dutch West Indian island of Curasao is
conducted in the same manner."
The manufacture of aloes in the Cape Colony has been thus described
to us in a letter^ from Mr. Peter MacOwan of Gill College, Somerset
East The operator scratches a shallow dish-shaped hollow in the dry
ground, spreads therein a goatskin, and then proceeds to arrange around
the margin a radial series of aloe leaves, the cut ends projecting
inwards. Upon this, a second series is piled, and then a third- — ^care
being taken that the ends of each series overhang sutficiently, to drop
clear into the central hollow. When these preparations have been made,
the operator either " loafs about " after wild honey, or, more likely, lies
down to sleep. The skin being nearly filled, four skewers run in and
out at the edge square-fashion, give the means of lifting this primitive
saucer from the ground, and emptying its contents into a cast-iron pot.
The liquid is then boiled, an operation conducted with the utmost
carelessness. Fresh juice is added to that which has nearly acquired
the finished consistence ; the fire is slackened or urged just as it happens,
and the boiling is often interrupted for many hours, if neglect be more
convenient than attention. In facu, the process is thoroughly barbarous,'
conducted without industry or refiection; it is mostly carried on by
Bastaards and Hottentots, but not by Kaflirs. " The only aloe I have
seen used," says Mr. MacOwan, " is the very large one with di- or
tri-chotomous inflorescence, — A. ferox, I believe." Backhouse* also
names " A loe ferox ? " as the species he saw used near Port Elizabeth
in 1838.
From another correspondent, we learn that the making of aloes in
^ Some extremely fine Barbados aloes in
the London market in 1842 was said to
have been manufactured in a vacuum-pan.
-Oudemans, Haiulleidbuj lot dt Phar ma-
cocjiio-ve, 1865. 31G.
^ Under date May 7, 1871, addi-essed to
myself. — D. H.
Visit to Mauritius and South Africa,
1844. 157, also 121.
(384
LILIACE^.
the Cape Colony is not carried ou by preference, but is resorted to when
more profitable work is scarce. The drug is sold by the farmers to the
mercliants of the towns on the coast, some of whom have exerted them-
selves to obtain a better commodity, and have even imported living
aloe-plants from Barbados.
Nothing is known of the manufacture of tlie so-called Socutrine or
Zanzibar Aloes, or even w^ith certainty in what precise localities it is
carried on.
General Description — -The differences in the several kinds of
commercial aloes are due to various causes, such as the species of Aloe
employed and the method of extracting the juice. The drug varies ex-
ceedingly: some is perfectly transparent and amorphous, with a glassy
conchoidal fracture ; some is opaque and dark with a dull waxy fracture,
or opaque and pallid ; or it may be of a light orange-brown and highly
crystalline. It varies in consistence in ever^^ degree, from dry and
brittle to pasty, and even entirely fluid and syrup-like.
These divei-se conditions are partially explained by an examination
of the very fluid aloes that has been imported of recent years from
Bombay. If some of this aloes is allowed to repose, it gradually sepa-
rates into two portions, — the upper a transparent, black liquid, — the
lower, an orange-brown crystalline sediment. If the whole be allowed
to evaporate spontaneously, we get aloes of two sorts in the same mass ;
the one from the upper yjortion being dark, transparent and amorphous,
the other rather opaque and highly crystalline. Should the two layers
become mixed, an intermediate form of the drug results.
The Hepatic Aloes of the old writers^ was doubtless this rather
opaque form of Socotrine Aloes ; but the term has come to be used some-
what vaguely for any sort of liver-coloured aloes, and appears to us
unworthy to be retained. Much of the opaque, so-called Hepatic Aloes
does not however owe its opacity to crystals, but to a feculent matter
the nature of which is doubtful.
The odour of aloes is a character which is much depended on by
dealers for distinguishing the different varieties, but it can only be
appreciated by experience, and certainly cannot be described.^
Varieties — The principal varieties of aloes found in English com-
merce are the following : —
1. Socotrine Aloes — also called Bombay, East Indian, or Zanzibar
Aloes, and when opaque and liver-coloured, Hepatic Aloes. It is im-
ported in kegs and tin-lined boxes from Bombay, whither it has been
carried by the Arab traders from the African coast, the Red Sea ports,
or by way of Zanzibar, from Socotra. When of fine quality, it is of a
dark reddish-brown, of a peculiar, rather agreeable odour, comparable to
myrrh or saff"ron. In thin fragments, it is seen to be of an orange-brown ;
its powder is of a tawny reddish-bi'own. When moistened with spirit
of wine, and examined in a thin stratum under the microscope, good
' As Macer Floridus in the lOtli century,
who writes : —
"Sunt Aloiis species Kfeiuiiia;, qiiie subrubet estque
liitus sicut bepar cum frangitur, hxc epatitc
Dicitur et niagnas babet in medicaraine vires,
Utilior jjiceo qua' fracta colore videtur."
" Thus the pale, liver-coloured aloes of
Natal is in variably associated with the trans-
parent Cape Aloes, simply from the fact
that the two drugs have a similar smell.
Again, the aloes of Curasao is at once re-
cognized by its odour, which an experienced
druggist pronounces to be quite different
from that of the aloes produced in Barbados.
ALOfi.
685
Socotrine Aloes is seen to contain an abundance of crystals. As im-
ported, it is usually soft, at least in the interior of the mass, but it
speedily dries and hardens by keeping/ It is occasionally imported in
a completely fluid state (Liquid Socotrine Aloes, Aloe Juice), and is not
unfrequently somewhat sour and deteriorated.
Some fine aloes from Zanzibar, of which a very small quantity was
offered for sale in 1867, was contained in a skin, and composed of two
layers, the one amorphous, the other a granular translucent substance of
lio-ht colour, which when softened and examined with a lens, was seen
to be a mass of crystals. A very bad, dark, foetid sort of aloes is
brought to Aden from the interior. It seems to be the Moka Aloes of
some writers.
The quantity of aloes imported into Bombay in the year 1871-72
was 892 cwt., of which 73G cwt. are reported as shipped from the Red
Sea ports and Aden.^
2. Barbados Aloes — Characteristic samples show it as a hard dry
substance of a deep chocolate-brown, with a clean, dull, waxy fracture.
In small frafjments it is seen to be translucent and of an orange-brown
hue. When breathed upon, it exhales an odour analogous to, but easily
distinguishable from, that of Socotrine aloes. It is imported in boxes
and gourds. The gourds, into which the aloes has been poured in a
melted state through a square hole, over which a bit of calico is aftei -
wards nailed, contain from 10 to 40 lb. or more. Of late years, Barbados
aloes having a smooth and glassy fracture has been imported ; it is
known to the London drug-brokers as " Capey Barbados." By keeping,
it passes into the usual variety having a dull fracture.
The export of aloes from Barbados in 1871, as shown by the Blue
Book for that colony, was 1046 cwt., of which 954 cwt. were shipped to
the United Kingdom.
Curagao Aloes — manufactured in the Dutch West Indian islands
of Cura9ao, Bonaire, and Aruba, is imported into this country by way
of Holland, packed in boxes of 15 to 28 lb. each. In appearance it
resembles Barbados aloes, but has a distinctive odour.
4. Cape Aloes — The special features of this sort of aloes are its
brilliant conchoidal fracture and peculiar odour. Small splinters seen
by transmitted light are highly transparent and of an amber colour ;
the powder is of a pale tawny yellow. When the drug is moistened and
examined under the microscope, no crystals can be detected, even after
the lapse of some days. Cape aloes has the odour of other kinds of
aloes, with a certain sourish smell which easily distinguishes it. Several
qualities are recognized, chiefly by the greater or lesser brilliancy of
fracture, and by the tint of the powder.
From the Blue Book for the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope,
published at Cape Town in 1873, it appears that the export of aloes in
1872 was 484,532 lb. (4326 cwt.); and that the average market value
during the year was 3|fZ., the lowest price, l\d., being at Riversdale and
^ The average loss as estimated in the
drying of 560 lb., upon several occasions,
was about 14 per cent. — Laboratory statis-
tics, communicated by Messrs. Allen and
Hanburys, London.
- Statement of the Trade and Navigation
of the Presidency of Bombay for 1871-72,
pt. ii. 19.
686
LILIACE^.
Mossel Bay, and the highest, 11^/., at Swellendam. The drug is shipped
from Ca])e Town, Mossel Bay and Algoa Bay.
5. Natal Aloes — Aloes is also imported from Natal, a,nd since 1870
in considerable quantity. Most of it is of an hepatic kind and com-
pletely unlike the ordinary Cape aloes, inasmuch as it is of a greyish-
brown and very opacpie. Moreover it contains a crystalline principle
which has been found in no other sort of aloes.
The drug is manufactured in the upper districts of Natal, between
Pietermaritzburg and the Quathlamba mountains, especially in the
Umvoti and Mooi River Counties, at an elevation of 2000 to 4000 feet
above the sea. The plant used is a large aloe which has not yet been
botanically identified. The people who make the drug are British and
Dutch settlers, employing Kaffir labourers. The process is not very
different from that followed in making Cape aloes, but is conducted with
more intelligence. The leaves are cut obliquely into slices, and allowed
to exude their juice in the hot sunshine. The juice is then boiled down
in iron pots, some care being taken to prevent burning, by stirring the
li(juid as it becomes thick. The drug while still hot, is poured into
wooden cases, in which it is shipped to Europe.^ The exports from the
colony have been as follows : — -
1868 1869 1870 1871 1872
none 38 cwt. 646 cwt. 372 cwt. 501 cwt.
Chemical Composition — All kinds of aloes have an odour of the
same character and a bitter disagreeable taste. The odour which is
often not unpleasant, especially in Socotrine aloes, is due to a volatile
oil, which the drug contains only in minute proportion. T. and H.
Smith of Edinburgh, who contributed a specimen of it to the Vienna
Exhibition of 1873, inform us that they obtained it by sulyecting to
distillation with water 400 lb. of aloes, which quantity they estimate to
have yielded about an ounce. The oil is stated in a letter we have
received from them, to be a mobile pale yellow liquid, of sp. gr. 0'863,
with a boiling point of 266-271° C.
Pui'e aloes dissolves easily in spirit of wine with the exception of a
few flocculi ; it is insoluble in chloroform and bisulphide of carbon, as
well as in the so-called petroleum ether, the most volatile portion of
American petroleum. The sp. gr. of fine transparent fragments of aloes,
dried at 100° C, and weighed in the last-named fluid at 16° C, was
found by one of us (F.) to be 1'304 ; showing that aloes is much more
ponderous than most of the resins, which seldom have a higher sp. gr.
than 100 to I'lO. In water aloes dissolves completely only when
heated. On cooling, the aqueous solution, whether concentrated or
dilute, becomes turbid by the separation of resinous drops, which unite
into a brown mass, — the so-called Resin of Aloes!^ The clear solution,
after separation of this substance, has a slightly acid reaction ; it is
coloured dark brown by alkalis, black by ferric chloride, and is precipi-
tated yellowish-grey by neutral lead acetate. Cold water dissolves about
' We have to thank .J. W. Akermaii, Esq. ,
of Pietermaritzburg, for the foregoing in-
formation as to the manufacture of this
drug.
^ Blue Books for the Colony of Natal for
1868, 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872.
^ The average yield of aqueous extract
made by the jjharmacopoeia process from
commercial Socotrine aloes containingabout
14 ijer cent, of water, "v^ as found from the
record of five experiments, in wliich 179 lb.
were used, to be 62 '7 per cent. Barbados
aloes, which is always much drier, afforded
on an average 80 j>er cent.
ALOE.
687
half its weight of aloes, forming an acid liquid which exhibits similar
reactions. The solution of aloes in potash or ammonia is precipitated
by acids, but not by water.
The most interesting constituents of aloes are the substances known
as Alo'in. This name was originally applied to an alo'in which, as it
appears to be found exclusively in Barbados aloes, is now tei-med Bar-
halo'in, in order to distinguish it from allied substances occurring in
Natal and Socotrine aloes.
Barbaloin was discovered by T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh in 1851,'
and was described (1851) by Stenhouse. From good qualities of the
drug it can be obtained, according to Tilden,^ as a crystalline mass, to
the extent of 20 to 25 per cent., but in others it appears, to occur partly
amorphous or in a chemically altered state. Barbaloin is a neutral sub-
stance, crystallizing in tufts of small yellow prisms. These crystals
represent hydrated aloin, and part with one molecule of water (= 2 69
per cent.) by desiccation in vacuo, or by the prolonged heat of a water-
bath. Barbaloin, C^^ff^O'^ -I- H'O, dissolves sparingly in water or alcohol
but very freely if either liquid be even slightly warmed ; it is insoluble
in ether.
The solutions alter quickly if made a little alkaline, but if neutral
or slightly acid, are by no means very prone to decomposition. By
oxidation with nitric acid, barbaloin yields, as Tilden (1872) has shown,
about a third of its weight of chrysammic acid, besides aloetic, oxalic,
and picric acids. It easilj^ combines with bromine to form yellow
needles of Bromaloin, C''H''Br'0'* ; Ghlondoln, C^'-'H="C1''0" + 6H-'0, cry-
stallizing in prisms, has likewise been obtained.
In examining Natal aloes in 1871, we observed it to contain a
distinct crystalline body, much less soluble than the ordinary aloin of
Barbados aloes. We have accordingly named it NaUdoln.
Nataloin exists naturally in Natal aloes, from which it can be easily
prepared in the crude state, if the drug is triturated with an equal
weight of alcohol at a temperature not exceeding 48° C. This will
dissolve the amorphous portion, from which the crystals should be
separated by a filter, and washed with a small quantity of cold spirit.
Fr-om 16 to 25 per cent, of crude nataloin in pale yellow crystals may be
thus extracted. When purified by crystallization from methylic alcohol
or spirit of wine, it forms thin, brittle, rectangular scales, often with one
or more of their angles truncated. The fornaula assigned to nataloin by
Tilden, which is supported by the composition of the acetyl derivative
he has succeeded in obtaining, is C'^H^^O".
At lo'5° C, 60 parts of alcohol, 35 of methylic alcohol,^ 50 of acetic
ether, 1236 of ether, and 230 of absolute alcohol, dissolve respectively
one part of nataloin. It is scarcely more soluble in warm than in cold
spirit of wine, so that to obtain crystals it is best to allow the solution
to evaporate spontaneously. Water hot or cold dissolves it very
sparingly. Nataloin gives off no water when exposed over oil of vitriol,
or to a temperature of 100° C. By the action of nitric acid, it affords
both oxalic and picric acids, but no chrysammic acid. It appears not
' Most beautiful specimens have been pre- ^ The best crystals can be got by this
sented to each of us by these gentlemen. solveiit.
-Pharm. Journ. April 28, 1872. 845.—
See also Nov. 5, 1870. 375.
688
LILIACEiE.
to combine with chlorine or bromine, and we have failed in obtaining
from it any such body as bromaloin.
Liquid Socotrine aloes, imported into London about 1852, was
noticed by Pereira to abound in minute crystals, which he termed the
Alo'in of Socotrine Aloes, and regarded as probably identical with that
of Barbados aloes. Some fine dry aloes from Zanzibar of very pale hue,
in our possession, is in reality a perfectly crystalline mass.
Histed was the first to assert that the crystalline matter of Socotrine
or Zanzibar aloes is a peculiar substance, according neither with bar-
baloin nor with natalo'in. This observation was fully corroborated by
our own experiments,^ made chiefly on the Zanzibar aloes just described,
and we shall call the substance thus discovered Socaloin. In this drug,
the crystals are prisms of comparatively large size, such as we have
never observed in Natal aloes. They cannot be so easily isolated as
uataloin, since they are nearly as soluble as the amorphous matter sur-
rounding them. Histed recommends treating the powdered crude drug
with a little alcohol, sp. gr. 0"9G0, and strongly pressing the pasty mass
between several thicknesses of calico ; then dissolving the yellow
crystalline cake in warm weak alcohol, and collecting the crystals which
are formed by cooling and repose.
Socaloin forms tufted acicular prisms, which by solution in methylic
alcohol may be got 2 to 3 millimetres long. It is much more soluble
than natalo'in. At ordinary temperatures; 30 parts of alcohol, 9 of acetic
ether, 380 of ether, 90 of water are capable of dissolving respectively
one part of socaloin; while in methylic alcohol, it is most abundantly
soluble. Socaloin is a hydrate, losing when dried over oil of vitriol 11
to 12 per cent, of water, but slowly regaining it if afterwards exposed to
the air. Its elementary composition according to the analysis made by
one of lis (F.) is C'^^H^^O^^ + 5 H^O. We have not succeded in obtaining
any well-defined bromine compound of socaloin.
The three aloins, Barbaloln, Natalo'in, and Socaloin, are easily dis-
tinguished by the following beautiful reaction first noticed by Histed :
— a drop of nitric acid on a porcelain slab gives with a few particles of
barbaloln or nataloin, a vivid crimson,^ but produces little effect with
socaloin. To distinguish barbaloin from nataloin, test each by adding a
minute quantity to a drop or two of oil of vitriol, then allowing the
vapour from a rod touched with nitric acid to pass over the surface.
Barbaloin (and socaloin) will undergo no change, but nataloin will
assume a fine blue.*
The researches of E. von Sommaruga and Egger in Vienna (1874)
have been directed in particular to the aloin of Socotrine aloes. The
melting point of this aloin was found to be between 118° and 120° C,
that of barbaloin being: much higi'her. The authors conclude that the
three form an homologous series, that their composition may probably
be represented thus : —
Barbaloin Ci^H^oQ"
Nataloin C^eHiso?
Socaloin C15H1S0'
' Fliickiger, Crystalline Principles in
Aloes, — Pharm. Journ. September 2, 1871.
195.
- Rapidly fading in the case of barbaloin,
but permanent with nataloin unles.s heat
be applied.
These reactions may be sometimes got
even with the crude drugs.
ALOE.
689
They derive in all probability from anthracene, C^H'".
The portion of aloes insoluble in cold water was formerly distin-
guished as Resin of Aloes, from the soluble portion which was called
Bitter of aloes or Aloetin. From the labours of Kossmann (1863), these
portions appear to have neai'ly the same composition. The soluble
portions treated with dilute sulphuric acid, is said to yield Aloeresic
and Aloeretic Acids, both crystallizable, besides the indifferent sub-
stance Aloeretin. These observations have not to our knowledge been
confirmed.
It has been shown by Tilden and Rammell ^ that the Resin of
Aloes may by prolonged treatment with boiling water be separated
into two bodies, which they distinguish as Soluble Resin A. and In-
soluUe Resin B. With the first it is possible to form a brominated
compound, which though non-crystalline is apparently of definite com-
position. In the view of these chemists the Resin A. is a kind of anhy-
dride of barbaloin— Barbaloin, 2(C3*H3fiO") less H20 = Aloe Resin A.,
Q6SJJ70Q27 ^\^q resin boiled with nitric acid yields a large amount of
chrysammic acid, together with picric and oxalic acids, and carbonic
anhydride. Insoluble Resin B. was found to have nearly the same
composition as Resin A.
Aloes treated with various reagents affords a number of remarkable
products. Thus, according to Rochleder and Czumpelick (1861) it
yields, when boiled with soda-lye, colourless crystals an inch long,
which appear to consist of a salt of Pcmicumaric Acid, together
with small quantities of fragrant essential oils and volatile fatty
acids.
When, boiled M'ith dilute sulphuric acid, aloes yields paracumaric
acid, from which by fusion with caustic potash, as also directly from
aloes, Hlasiwetz (1865) obtained Pam-oxybenzoic Acid (p. 408).
Weselsky (1872-73) has shown that accompanying the last two pro-
ducts, there is a peculiar, crystallizable acid, CH^"©^, which he has
named Alorcinic Acid.
By distillation with quick-lime, E. Robiquet (1846) obtained Alo'isol,
a yellowish oil, which Rembold (1866) proved to be a mixture of dime-
thylated phenol (Xylenol) C^H ' | ^ , with acetone and hydro-
carbons.
Nitric acid forms with Barbadoes aloes, but still better, as Tilden has
shown, with barbaloin, Aloetic Acid, C'"'H''(NOyO^ Chrysammic Acid,
C"HXNO•')^0^ and finally Picric Acid, together with Oxalic Acid. The
first two of these acids are distinguished by the splendid tints of their
salts, which might be utilized in dyeing.
Chlorine, passed into an aqueous solution of aloes, forms a variety of
substitution- products, and finally Chloranil, C^CVO^.
When somewhat strongly heated, aloes swells up considerably, and
after ignition leaves a light, slow-burning charcoal, almost free from
inorganic constituents. Ordinary Cape aloes, for example, dried at
100° C, leaves only 1 per cent, of ash.
Commerce — ^There were imported into the United Kingdom in the
year 1870, 6264 cwt. of aloes. Of this quantity. South Africa shipped
1 PJiarm. Journ. Sept. 21, 1872. 235.
2 X
690
LILIACEiE.
4811 cwt. ; and Barbados 970 cwt. The remainder was probably
furnished by Eastern Africa.
The commercial value of the varieties of aloes is very different. In
1874, Barbados Aloes v^as quoted in price-currents at £3 5s. to £9 10s.
per cwt.; Socotrme at £5 to £13; while Gaj^e Aloes was offered at £1 10s.
to £2. In England, the first two alone are allowed for pharmaceutical
preparations. Even the Veterinary Phannacopoeia^ names only Aloe
Barbadensis. Cape Aloes is esteemed on the Continent, and chiefly
consumed there.
Use — Aloes is a valuable purgative in very common use, it is
generally given combined with other drugs.
Adulteration — The physical chai'acters of aloes, such as colour of
the powder, odour, consistence and freedom from obvious impurity,
coupled with its solubility in weak alcohol, usually suffice for determin-
ing its goodness.
BULBUS SCILLiE.
Radix Scilloe ; Squill ; F. Bulbe ou squames de Scille, Ognon marin ;
G. Meerzwiebel.
Botanical Origxri—Urgiiaea maritinia Baker^ {Scilla maritima L.,
Urginea Scilla Steinheil). It is found generally in the regions bordering
the Mediterranean, as in Southern France, Italy, Dalmatia, Greece, Asia
Minor, Syria, North Africa and the Mediterranean islands. In Sicily,
where it grows most abundantly, Urginea ascends to elevations of 3000
feet. It is also very common throughout the South of Spain, where it
is by no mea^ns confined to the coast ; it occurs also in Portugal. In
the Riviera of Genoa the peasants like to see it growing under the fig
trees.
Two varieties of squill, termed respectively white and red, are distin-
guished by druggists. In the first, the bulb-scales are colourless ; in the
second they are of a roseate hue. No other difference in the plants can
be pointed out, nor have the two varieties distinct areas of growth.
History — Squill is one of the most ancient of medicines. Epimenides,
a Greek who lived in the 30th Olympiad, is said to have made much
use of it, from which circumstance it came to be called Epimenidea^^ It
is also mentioned by Theophrastus, and was probably well known to all
the ancient Greek physicians. Pliny was not only acquainted with it,
but had noticed its two varieties. Dioscorides describes the method of
making vinegar of squills ; and a similar preparation, as well as com-
pounds of squill with honey, were administered by the Arabian physi-
cians, and still remain in use. The medical school of Salerno preferred
the red variety of the drug, which on the whole is not frequently met
with in mediaeval literature.
Description — The bulb of squill is pear-shaped, and of the size of a
1 By R. V. Tuson, London, 1869.
^ Joiirn. of Linn. Soc, Bot., xiii. (1872)
221. — The genus Urginea has flat, discoid
seeds, while in Scilla proper they are tri-
quetrous. The name C/rr/Hjm was given in
allusion to the Algerian tribe Ben Urgin,
near Bona, where Steinheil (1834) ex-
amined this plant.
* Haller, Bihliolheca botanka, i. 12.
BULBUS SCILL^.
691
man's fist or larger, often weighing more than four pounds. It has the
usual structure of a tunicated bulb ; its outer scales are reddish-brown,
dry, scarious, and marked with parallel veins. The inner are fleshy and
juicy, colourless or of a pale rose tint, thick towards the middle, very
thin and delicate at the edges, smooth and shining on the surface. The
fresh bulb has a mucilaginous, bitter, acrid taste, but not much odour.
For medicinal use, squill is mostly imported ready dried. The bulbs
are collected in the month of August, at which period they are leafless,
freed from their dry outer scales, cut transversely into thin slices, and
dried in the sun. Thus prepared, the drug appears in the form of narrow,
flattish or four-sided curved strips, 1 to 2 inches long, and | to | of an
inch wide, flexible, translucent, of a pale dull yellowish colour, or when
derived from the red variety, of a decided roseate hue. When thoroughly
dried, they become brittle and pulverizable, but readily absorb water to
the extent of about 11 per cent. Powdered squill by the absorption of
water from the air, readily cakes together into a hard mass.
Microscopic Structure — The officinal portion of the plant being
simply modified leaves, has the histological characters proper to many
of those organs. The tissue is made up of polyhedral cells, covered on
both sides of the scales by an epidermis provided with stomata. It is
traversed by numerous vascular bundles, and also exhibits smaller bundles
of laticiferous vessels. If thin slices of squill be moistened with dilute
alcohol, most of the parenchymatous cells are seen to be loaded with
mucilage, which contracts into a jelly on the addition of alcohol. In the
interior of this jelly, crystalline particles are met with consisting of
oxalate- of calcium. This salt is laigely deposited in cells, forming
either bundles of needle-shaped crystals, or large solitary square yjrisms,
frequently a millimetre long. In either case they are enveloped by the
mucilaginous matter already mentioned. Oxalate of calcium as occurring
in other plants has been shown in many instances to originate in the
midst of mucilaginous matter. The fact is remarkably evident in Scilla,
especially when examined in polarized light.
On shaking thin slices of the bulb with water, the crystals are de-
posited in sufficient quantity to become visible to the naked eye, though
their weight is actually very small. Direct estimation of the oxalic acid
(by titration with chamteleon solution) gave us only 3'07 per cent, of
C^CaO*,3II^O from white squill dried at 100° C, which moreover yielded
only 2 to 5 per cent, of ash. It is these extremely sharp brittle crystals
which occasion the itching and redness, and sometimes even vesication,
which result from rubbing a slice of fresh squill on the skin. These
effects, which have long been known, were attributed to a volatile acrid
principle, until their true cause was recognized by Schroff".'
The mucilage also contains albuminous matters, hence the orange
colour it assumes on addition of iodine. The vascular bundles are
accompanied by some rows of longitudinally extended cells, containing
a small number of starch granules. In the red squill the colouring
matter is contained in many of the parenchymatous cells, others being
entirely devoid of it. It turns blackish -green if a persalt of iron be
added.
1 We have found that the slimy juice of
the leaves of Agapanthus umhellatus Herit.,
which is very rich in spicular crystals, also
occasions vi'hen rnbbed on the skin both
itching and redness, lasting for several
hours.
602
LILIA^EiE.
Chemical Composition — The most abundant among the consti-
tuents of squill are mucilaginous and saccharine matters. Mucilage may
be precipitated by means of neutral and basic acetate of lead, yet there
remains in solution another substance of the same class, called Sinistrin.
It was discovered in 1879 by Schmiedeberg, who obtained it by mixing
the powder of squill, either red or white, with a solution of basic acetate
of lead in slight excess. The gummy matters thus forming insoluble
lead compounds being removed, the liquid is deprived of the lead and
mixed with slaked lime. An insoluble compound of sinistrin and cal-
cium separates and yields the former on decomposing the well washed
precipitate with carbonic acid. The small amount of calcium remaining
in the filtrate is to be removed by adding cautiously to the warm solu-
tion the small quantity just required of oxalic acid. Lastly, sinistrin is
thrown down by alcohol. It is a white amorphous powder, on exposure
to air soon forming transparent brittle lumps. The composition of sinis-
trin is that of dextrin = C°H'"0^ both these svibstances being very closely
allied, yet the aqueous solution of sinistrin deviates the plane of polariza-
tion to the left. The rotatory power appears not to be much influenced
by the concentration or the temperature of the solution of sinistrin.
An alkaline solution of tartrate of copper is not acted upon by sinistrin.
It is transformed into sugar by boiling it for half an hour with water
containing 1 per cent, of sulphuric acid. The sugar thus produced is stated
b}' Schmiedeberg to consist of Irevulose^ and another sugar, which in all
probability, when perfectly pure, must prove devoid of rotatory power.
The name sinistrin " has also been applied to a mucilaginous matter
extracted from barley (see Hordeum decorticatum); it remains to be
proved that the latter is identical with the sinistrin of squill.
We have obtained a considerable amount of an uncrystallizable
levogyre sugar by exhausting squill with dilute alcohol.^ Alcohol added
to an aqueous infusion of squill causes the separation of the mucilage,
together with albuminoid matter. If the alcohol is evaporated and a
solution of tannic acid is added, the latter will combine with the bitter
lyrinciple of squill, which has not yet been isolated, although several
chemists have devoted to it their investigations, and applied to it the
names of Scillitin or Skide'in. Schroff, to whom we are indebted for a
valuable monograph on Squill,^ infers from his physiological experiments
the presence of a non-volatile acrid principle {Skulein?), together with
scillitin, which latter he supposes to be a glucoside.
Merck of Darmstadt has isolated Scillipicrin, soluble in water;
Scillitoxin, likewise a bitter principle, insoluble in water, but readily
dissolving in alcohol ; and Scillin, a crystalline substance, abundantly
soluble in boiling ether. The physiological action of these substances and
of Scillain has been examined (1878) by Moeller, and hy Jarmersted
(1879) ; that of scillitoxin and scillain was found to be analogous to
that of Digitalis.
1 This is the name applied to the Isevo-
gyrate uncrystallizable glucose produced,
together with crystallizable dextro-glucose,
by decomposing cane sugar by means of
dilute acids.
^ In 1834 first proposed, by Marquart,
for inulin.
^ In Greece they have even attempted to
manufacture alcohol by fermenting and
distilling squill bulbs. — Heldreich, Nvtz-
TpflanT-en Griechcnlmids, 1862. 7.
^ Reprinted from the Zi'itachrift der Ge-
.tellschaft der Aerzte zu Wien, No. 42 (1864).
Abstracted also in Canstatt's Jnhresberkht
1864. 19, and 1865. 238.
RHIZOMA VERATRI ALBI.
093
Commerce — Dried squill, usually packed in casks, is imported into
England from Malta.
Use — Commonly employed as a diuretic and expectorant.
Substitutes — There are several plants of which the bulbs ai'e used
in the place of the officinal squill, but which, owing to the abundance
and low price of the latter, never appear in the European market.
1. Urciinea altissima Baker (Ornithogalum cdtissimum L.), a South
African species, very closely related to the common squill, and having,
as it would appear, exactly the same properties.^
2. U. indica Kth. {Scilla indica Roxb.), a widely diffused plant,
occurring in Northern India, the Coromandel Coast, Abyssinia, Nubia,
and Senegambia, It is known by the same Arabic and Persian names
as U. maritima, and its bulb is used for similar purposes. But according
to Moodeen Sherift'^ it is a poor substitute for the latter, having little
or no action when it is old and large.
3. Scilla indica Baker ^ (non Roxb.), (Ledebouria hyacinthina
Roth), native of India and Abyssinia, has a bulb which is often confused
in the Indian bazaars with the preceding, but is easily distinguishable
when entire by being seedy not tunicated) ; it is said to be a better
representative of the European squill.*
4. Drhnia ciliaris Jacq., a plant of the Cape of Good Hope, of the
order Ldiacece. Its bulb much resembles the officinal squill, but has a
juice so irritating if it comes in contact with the skin, that the plant is
called by the colonists Jeukbol, i.e. Itch-bulb. It is used medicinally as
an emetic, expectorant, and diuretic.'
5. Crhium asiaticuvi var. taxicarmm Herbert (C. toxicarium
Roxb.), a large plant, with handsome white flowers and noble foliage,
cultivated in Indian gardens, and also found wild in low humid spots
in various parts of India and the Moluccas, and on the sea-coast of Cey-
lon. The bulb has been admitted to the Pharmacopoeia of India
(1868), chiefly on the recommendation of O'Shaughnessy, who considers
it a valuable emetic. We have not been able to examine a specimen,
and cannot learn that the drug has been the subject of any chemical
investigation.
Radix Vevatri, Radix Hellehori albi ; White Hellebore ; 'E.Racine
d'Ellehore hlanc ; G. Weisse Nieswurzel, Germer.
Botanical Origin — Veratrum album L. — This plant occurs in moist
grassy places in the mountain regions of Middle and Southern Europe,
MELANTHACEJS.
RHIZOMA VERATRI ALBI.
' Pappe, Fierce Medicm Capensis Prodro-
mus, ed. 2, 1857. 41.
- tSiippkment to the Pharmacopoeia of
India, Madras, 1869. 250.
(1870) appendix, p. 12.
^ Suppl. to the Pharm. of India, 250.
Pappe, op. cit. 42.
Saunders, Refurjium Botanicum, iii.
MELANTHACE^.
as Auvergne, the Pyrenees, Spain, Switzerland, and Austria. In Norway
it reaches, according to Schiibeler (I. c. p. 556), the latitude of 71°. It
also grows throughout European and Asiatic Russia as far as 61' N.
lat., in Amurland, the island of Saghalin, Northern China, and Japan.
History — The confusion that existed among the ancients between
Melampodium, Helleborus, and Veratrimi, makes the identification of
the plant under notice extremely unsatisfactory.' It was perfectly
described or figured by Brunfels, Tragus, and other botanists of the
16th century, and likewise well known to Gerarde (circa A.D. 1600).
Under the names of Ellehorus (or Helleborus alhus and Veratrum, it
has had a place in all the London Pharmacopoeias. In the British
Pharmacopoeia (1867) it has been replaced by the nearly allied American
species, Veratrum viride Alton.
Description — White Hellebore has a cylindrical, fleshy, perennial
rootstock, 2 to 3 inches in length, and f to 1 inch in diameter, beset
with long stout roots. When fresh it has an alliaceous smell. In the
dried state, as it occurs in commerce, it is cylindrical or subconical, of a
dull earthy black, very rough in its lower half with the pits and scars
of old roots ; more or less beset above with the remains of recent roots.
The top is crowned with the bases of the leaves, the outer of which are
coarsely fibrous. The plant has generally been cut off close to the
summit of the rhizome, which latter is seldom quite entire, being often
broken at its lower end, or cut transversely to facilitate drying. Inter-
nally it is nearly colourless; a transverse section shows a broad white
ring surrounding a spongy pale buff central portion.
The drug has a sweetish, bitterish acrid taste, leaving on the tongue
a sensation of numbness and tingling. In the state of powder, it occa-
sions violent sneezing.
Microscopic Structure — When cut transversely, the rhizome
shows at a distance of 2-4 mm. from the thin dark outer bark, a fine
brown zigzag line (medullary sheath) surrounding the central part,
which exhibits a pith not well defined. The zone between the outer
bark and the medullary sheath is pure white, with the exception of
some isolated cells containing resin or colouring matter, and those places
where the rootlets pass from the interior. The latter is sprinkled as it
were, with short, thin somewhat lighter bundles of vessels which run
irregularly out in all directions. The parenchyme of the centre rhizome
is filled with starch, and contains numerous needles of calcium oxalate.
The rootlets, which the collectors usually remove, are living and juicy
only in the upper half of the rhizome, the lower part of which is
I'ather woody and porous.
Chemical Composition — In 1819 Pelletierand Caventou detected
in the rhizome of Veratrum a substance which they regarded as identi-
cal with veratrine, the existence of which had just been discovered by
Meissner in cebadilla seeds. But according to the observations of Maisch
(1870) and Dragendorff,^ the veratrine of cebadilla cannot be found
either in Veratrum album or V. viride.
Simon (1837) found in the root the alkaloid Jervine, Tobien (1877)
1 Those who wish to study the question, - Beitr. ztir gerkhtl. Chemif, St Petersh.,
can consult Murray's Apparatus Medicami- 1872. 95.
intm. vol. V. (1790) 142-146.
RHIZOMA VERATRI VIRIDIS.
695
the Veratrouline, discovered by Bullock (1876) in Veratrum vlride.
Tobien assigns to jervine the formula C''^"H'*'N'''0* ; that of veratroidine
is not yet settled. The latter is to some extent soluble in water.
Weppen (1872) has isolated from this drug Veratraviarin, an amor-
phous, deliquescent, bitter principle. It occurs in minute quantity only,
and is resolvable into sugar and other products. Veratramarin dissolves
in water or spirit of wine, not in ether or in chloroform. The same
observer has also isolated, to the extent of | per miile, Jervic Acid in
hard crystals of considerable size,i of the composition C"ff °0'" + 2 H'O.
The acid requires 100 parts of water for solution at the ordinary tem-
perature, and a little less of boiling alcohol. It is decidedly acid, and
forms well-defined crystallizable salts, containing 4 atoms of the
monovalent metals.
By exhausting the entire rhizome (roots included) with ether and
anhydrous alcohol, we obtained 25'8 per cent, of soft resin, which
deserves further examination. Pectic matter to the amount of 10 per
cent, was pointed out by Wiegand in 1841.
According to Schroff (1860), in the rootlets the active principle
resides in the cortical part, the woody central portion being inert. He
also asserts that the rhizome acts less strongly than the rootlets, and in
a somewhat different manner.
Commerce — The drug is imported from Germany in bales. The
price-currents distinguish Swiss a,nd Austrian, and generally name the
drug as " without fibre."
Uses — Veratrum is an emetic and drastic purgative, rarely used
internally. It is occasionally employed in the form of ointment in
scabies. Its principal consumption is in veterinary medicine.
Substitutes — The rhizome of the Austi-ian Veratrum nigrum L. is
said to be sometimes collected instead of White Hellebore ; it is of much
smaller size, and, according to SchrofF, less potent. That of the Mexican
Helonias frigid a Lindley {Ve7'at)'um frigidum Schl.) appears to exactly
resemble that of Veratrum album.
RHIZOMA VERATRI VIRIDIS.
American White Hellebore,^ Indian Pohe.
Botanical Origin — Veratrum viride Alton, a plant in every respect
closely resembling V. album, of w hich it is one of the numerous forms.
In fact, the green -coloured variety of the latter (F. Lobelianum
Bernh.), a plant not uncommon in the mountain meadows of the Alps,
comes so near to the American V. viride that we are unable to point
out any important character by which the two can be separated.'*
^ For good specimens of which I am
indebted to Dr. Weppen.— F. A. F.
- The name Green Hellebore is sometimes
applied to this drng, but it properly belongs
to Htllehorus viridia L. , which is medicinal
in some parts of Europe.
3 Sims in contrasting Veratriunviridevfiih.
V. album observes that the flowers of the
former are "more inclined to a yellow green,"
the petals broader and more erect, with the
margins, especially about the claw, thick-
ened and covered with a white mealiness.
Bot. Mag. xxvii. (1808) tab. 1096. — Kegel
has described four varieties of Veratrum
album L., as occurring in the region of the
Lower Ussiiri and Amurland, one of which,
var. y., he has identified with the Ameri-
can V. viride. — Tentamen Fierce Ussuriensis,
St. Petersb. 1761. 153.
696
MELANTHACEiE.
The American Veratrmn is common in swamps and low grounds from
Canada to Georgia.
History — The aborigines of North America were acquainted with
the active properties of this plant before their intercourse with Euro-
peans, using it according to Josselyn/ who visited the country in 1638-
1671, as a vomit in a sort of ordeal. He calls it White Hellebore, and
states that it is employed by the colonists as a purgative, antiscorbutic
and insecticide.
Kalm (1749) states ° that the early settlers used a decoction of the
roots to render their seed-maize poisonous to birds, which were made
" delirious " by eating the grain, but not killed ; and this custom was
still practised in New England in 1835 (Osgood).
The effects of the drug have been repeatedly tried in the United
States during the present century ; and about 1862, in consequence of
the strong recommendations of Drs. Osgood, Norwood, Cutter, and
others, it began to be pi-escribed in this country.
Description — In form, internal structure, odour and taste, the
rhizome and roots accord with those of Ve7'atrum album ; yet owing to
the method of drying and preparing for the market, the American vera-
trum is immediately distinguishable from the White Hellebore of Euro-
pean commerce. We have met with it in three forms: —
1. The rhizome with roots attached, usually cut lengthwise into
quarters, sometimes transversely also, densely beset with the pale brown
roots, which towai'ds their extremities are clothed with slender fibrous
rootlets.
2. Rhizome and roots compressed into solid rectangular cakes, an
inch in thickness.
3. The rhizome j>»e?' se, sliced transversely and dried. It forms
whitish, buff", or brownish discs, J to 1 inch or more in diameter, much
shi'unken and curled by drying. This is the form in which the drug is
required by the United States Pharmacopoeia.
Chemical Composition — No chemical difference between Veratrum
viride and V. album has yet been ascertained. The presence of vera-
trine, suspected by previous chemists, was asserted by Worthington^ in
1839, J. G. Richardson of Philadelphia in 1857, and S. R. Percy in 1864.
Scattergood^ obtained from the American drug 0 4 per cent, of this
alkaloid, which however, in consequence of some observations of Dra-
gendorff" (p. 694), we must hold to be not identical with that of cebadilla.
As stated in a pi-evious page jervine and veratroidine are present as in
the White Hellebore of Europe. Robbins^ further isolated Veratridine,
a crystallized alkaloid possessed of a similar physiological action to that
of veratrine, though in a less degree. Veratridine is readily soluble in
ether; its solution in concentrated sulphuric acid is at first yellow,
changing quickly to a pink-red, and, after several hours' standing,
assumes a clear indigo-blue colour, much the same as that displayed by
veratrine if mixed luith sugar (Weppen's test, 1874). The resin of the
1 Neiv Emjlands Rarities discovered, Lond.
1672. 43; also Account of tioo Voyages to
New England, Lond., 1674, 60. 76.
- Travels in North America, vol. ii. (1771)
91.
3 Am. Journ. of F harm. iv. (18.39) 89.
■* Proc. of Am. Pharm. Assoc. 1862. 226.
■-' Ibid, 1877. 439. 523.
SEMEN SABADILL^.
697
drug may be prepared by exhausting it with alcohol and precipitating
with boiling acidulated water, repeating the process in order to entii-ely
eliminate the alkaloids. It is a dark brown mass, yielding about a
fourth of its weight to ether. Scattergood obtained it to the extent of
4^ per cent. By exhausting the drug successively with ether, absolute
alcohol and spirit of wine, we extracted from it not less than 31 per
cent, of a soft resinoid mass. Worthington pointed out the presence of
gallic acid and of sugar.
Uses — Veratritm viride has of late been much recommended as a
cardiac, arteral and nervous sedative. It is stated to lower the pulse,
the respiration and heat of the body, not to be narcotic, and rarely to
occasion purging;^ but to what principle these effects are due has not
yet been ascertained. By some observers, as Bigelow,^ Fee,* Schroff/
and Oulmont,^ it is alleged to have the same medicinal powers as the
European Veratrum album.
SEMEN SABADILLiE.
Frudus Sabadilhe; GebadiUa, Gevadilla; F. C4vadille; G. Sabadillsa-
men, Ldusesamen.
Botanical Origin — Asagrcea offi.cincdis Lindley (Veratrum offi.-
cinale Schlecht., Sabadilla officinanim Brandt, Schoenocaidon offichiale
A. Gray). — A bulbous plant, growing in Mexico, in grassy places on the
eastern declivities of the volcanic range of the Cofre de Perote, and
Orizaba, near Teosolo, Huatusco and Zacuapan, down to the sea-shore,
also in Guatemala. Cebadilla is (or was) cultivated near Vera Cruz,
Alvarado and Tlacatalpan in the Gulf of Mexico.
Another form of Asagva'.a, first noticed by Berg,*^ but of late more
particularly by Ernst of Caracas, who thinks it may constitute a distinct
species, is found in plenty on grassy slopes, 3,500 to 4,000 feet above
the sea-level, in the neighbourhood of Caracas, and southward in the
hilly regions bordering the valley of the Tuy.'^ It differs chiefly in
having broader and more carinate leaves.^ Of late years it has furnished
large quantities of seed, which, freed from their capsules, have been
shipped from La Guaira to Hambui'g.
History — Cebadilla was first described in 1517 by Monardes, who
states that it is used by the Indians of New Spain as a caustic and
1 Cutter, Lancet, Jan. 4, Aug. 16, 1862;
Pharm. Journ. iv. (1863) 134.
^ American Medical Botany, ii. (1819)
121-136.
3 Coursd'Hist. Nat. Pharm. i. (1828) 319.
■* Medisinische Jahrbiicher, xix. (Vienna,
1863) 129-148.
^ Buchner's Repertor'mm fur Pharmacie,
xviii. (1868) 50; also Wiggers and Huse-
mann's Jahreshericht, xviii. 1868. 505.
^ Berg u. Schmidt, Offiz. Geiocichse, i.
(1858) tab. ix. e. " Sabadilla officinonim."
'' Ernst, communication to the Linnean
Society of London, 15 Dec, 1870.
^ Veratrum Sabadilla. Ketzius is stated
by Ijindley [Flora Medica, p. 586) to be a
native of Mexico and the West Indian
Islands, and to furnish a jjortion of the
cebadiUa seeds of commerce. The plant is
unknovi'n to us : we have searched for it in
vain in the herbaria of Kew and the British
Museum. It is not mentioned as West
Indian by Grisebach {Flor. of Brit. W. I.
Inlands, 1864 ; Cat. Plant. Cubensium,
1866). The figure by Descourtilz {Flor.
mM. de.i Antilles, iii. 1827. t. 1859) who had
the plant growing at St. Domingo, shows it
to resemble Veratrum album L. , and there-
fore to be very different from Asaijruu.
(598
MELANTHACE^.
I
corrosive application to wounds; but it does not seem to have been
brought into European commerce, for neither Parkinson who described
it in 1640 as the India^i Causticke Barley, nor Ray (1693) did more
than copy from Monardes. It was regarded in Germany a rare drug
even in 1726, but in the latter half of the last century it begun to be
recommended in France and Germany for the destruction of pediculi.
A famous composition for this purpose was the Poudre des Capucins,
consisting of a mixture of stavesacre, tobacco, and cebadilla, which was
applied either dry or made into an ointment with lard.^ Cebadilla was
also administered combined into a pill with gamboge and valerian,^ for
the destruction of intestinal worms, but its virulent action made it
liazardous.
Upon the introduction of veratrine into medicine about 182-i ceba-
dilla attracted some notice, and was occasionally prescribed in the form
of tincture and extract; but it subsequently fell into disuse, and is now
only employed for the manufacture of veratrine.
Description — Each fruit consists of three oblong pointed follicles,
about |- an inch in length, surrounded below by the remains of the
6-partite calyx, and attached to a short pedicel. The follicles are
united at the base, spread somewhat towards the apex, and open by
their ventral suture. They are of a light brown colour and papery
substance. Each usually contains two pointed narrow black seeds,
of an inch in length, which are shining, rugose, and angular or con-
cave by mutual pressure. The compact testa encloses an oily albumen,
at the base of which, opposite to the beaked apex, lies the small
embryo. The seed is inodorous and has a bitter acrid taste; when
powdered, it produces violent sneezing.
Microscopic Structure — A transverse section shows the horny
concentrically radiated albumen, closely attached to the testa. The
latter consists of an outer layer of cuboid cells, and three rows of smaller,
thin- walled, tangentially-extended cells, all of which have brown walls.
The tissue of the albumen is made up of large porous cells, containing
drops of oil, granules of albuminoid matter, and mucilage. Traces of
tannic acid occur only in the outer layers of the seed.
Chemical Composition — Meissner, an apothecary of Halle,
Prussia, in 1819 discovered in cebadilla a basic substance, which he
termed Sahadilline; in publishing, in 1821, the description of it the
word " alkaloid" was introduced by Meissner at that occasion. The
name Veratrine^ was applied likewise in 1819 by Pelletier and Caven-
tou to a similar preparation. For many years this substance was
known only as an amorphus powder, in which state it frequently con-
tained a considerable proportion of resin; but in 1855 it was obtained
by G. Merck in large rhombic prisms. Cebadilla yields only about 3
per mille of veratrine. The alkaloid is easily soluble in spirit of wine,
ether or chloroform;- these solutions, as well as the watery solutions of
its salts, are devoid of rotatory power. Veratrine, like the drug from
which it is derived, occasions, if inhaled, prolonged sternutation.
^ Murray, Apparatus Medkaminura, v. - Peyrilhe, Coins. iVHist. Nat. MM. ii.
(1790) 171 ; Merat and De Lens, Diet. Mat. (1804) 490.
Mid. vi. (1834) 862. ^ So called from Schlechtendal's name for
the plant, Veratrum officinale.
CORMUS COLCHICI.
699
Again, ia 1834, Gonerbe described an alkaloid from cebadilla under
the name ot Sabadilline, and Weigelin (1871) another called SabcUrine.
From the investigations of Wright and Luff (1878) it appears that
the above-mentioned statements must be resumed thus : — There are in
cebadilla three alkaloids, namelv Veratrlne, C'^H^^NO^^, Cevadine,
and Cevadilline, C^^H^O^, the second only being crystal-
lizable.
Veratrin may be decomposed by means of caustic lye into a new
alkaloid, verine, and dimethyl-protocatechuic acid, C^'IP | '"COOH '
By the same treatment, cevadine yields an acid which appears to be
identical with tigiinic acid (page 506), and an alkaloid called cevine.
Cebadilla yielded to Pelletier and Caventou a volatile fatty acid,
SabadilliG or Cevadic Acid, the needle-shaped crystals of which fuse at
20° C. Lastly, E. Merck (1839) found a second peculiar acid termed
Verati'ic Acid, affording quadrangular prisms, which can be sublimed
without decomposition. It is yielded by cebadilla to the extent of but
^ per mille. It has been shown in 1876 by Korner to be identical with
dimethyl-protocatechuic acid just mentioned (see also our article
Tubera Aconiti, p. 9).
Commerce — The quantity of cebadilla (seeds only) shipped in 1870
from La Guaira, the por-t of Caracas, was 35,033 kilos., of which 25,900
went to Gei'many. No other sort is now imported.
Uses — Cebadilla is at present, we believe, only used as the source
of veratrine. In Mexico, the bulb of the plant is employed as an
anthelminthic, under the name of GeboUeju, but it is said to be very
dangerous in its action.
CORMUS COLCHICI.
Tuber vel Bulbus vel Radix Colchici ; Meadow Saffroii Root ; F. Bulbe
de Colchique ; G. Zeitlosenknollen.
Botanical Origin — Golcldcum autumncde L.— This plant grows in
meadows and pastures over the greater part of Northern Africa, Middle
and Southern Europe, and is plentiful in many localities in England
and Ii-eland. In the Swiss Alps, it ascends to an elevation of 5500 feet
above the sea level.
History — Dioscorides drew attention to the poisonous properties
of KoXxfcoi/, which he stated to be a plant growing in Messenia and
Colchis.^
This character for deleterious qualities seems to have prevented the
use of colchicum both in classical and mediaeval times. Thus Tragus
(1552) warns his readers against its use in gout, for which it is recom-
mended in the writings of the Arabians. Jacques Grcivin, a physician
of Paris, author of Deux Livres des Venins, dedicated to Queen Eliza-
beth of England, and printed at Antwerp in 1568, observes — "ce poison
est ennemy de la nature de'l'homme en tout et par tout." Dodoens
1 His description is exact, except that he which seems not trvie for Colchicum antum-
declares the corm to have a sweet taste, nale, but may be so for some other species.
700
MELANTHACE^.
calls it 2'>e'"''^'i'Ciosum Golchicurtt ; and Lyte in his translation of this
author (1578) says — " Medow or Wilde Saffron is corrupt and venemous,
therefore not used in medicine." Gerarde declares the roots of " Mede
Saffron" to be " very hurtfull to the stomacke."
Wedel published in 1718, at Jena, an essay De Colchico veneno et
alexiiiliarmaco, in which, to show the great disfavour in which this
plant had been held, he remarks, — " hactenus . . '. velut infame
habitum ct damnatum fuit colchicum, indignum habitum inter herbas
medicas vel officinales . . ." He further states that, in the 17th
century, the corms were worn by the peasants in some parts of Ger-
many as a charm against the plague.
In the face of these severe denunciations, it is strange to find that
in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1618 (the second edition), "Radix
Golchici," as well as Hermodactylus, is enumerated among the simple
drugs ; and again in the editions of 1627, 1632 and 1639. It is omitted
in that of 1650, and does not reappear in subsequent editions until
1788, when owing to the investigations of Storck (1763), Kratochwill
(1764), De Berge (1765) Ehrmann (1772), and others, the possibility of
employing it usefully in medicine had been made evident.
Development of the Corm^ — At the period of flowering, the
corm is surrounded with a brown, closed double membrane or tunic,
which is prolonged upwards into a sheath around the flowering-stem ;
at the base of the corm is a tuft of simple roots. On removing the
membranes, we find a large, ovoid, fleshy body (Corm No. 1), marked at
its apex by a depressed scar, the point of attachment of the flower-stem
of the previous year ; it is on one side flattened, and traversed by a
shallow longitudinal furrow, from the upper part of which arises a much
smaller and rudimentary corm (No. 2), bearing a flower-stem. After
the production of the flower in the autumn, Corm No. 2 increases in
size, throwing up as spring advances its fruit-stem and leaves, and
acquires, after these latter have come to maturity, its full development.
Corm No. 1 on the other hand, having performed its functions, shrivels
and diminishes in size, in proportion as No. 2 advances to maturity,
and ultimately decays, leaving a rounded cicatrix, showing its point of
attachment to its successor.
Collection— In England the corms are usually dug up and brought
to market in July, at the period between the decay of the foliage and
the production of the flower, or even after the latter has appeared. For
some preparations, they are used in the fi'esh state. If to be dried, it is
customary to slice them across thinly and evenly with a knife, and to
dry the slices quickly in a stove with a gentle heat ; the membranes
are afterwards removed by sifting or winnowing.
Schroff has stated, as the result of his experiments,^ that the corms
possess the greatest medicinal activity when collected in the autumn
during or after inflorescence ; that they ought to be dried entire, by
exposure to the sun and air ; and that if thus preserved, they lose none
of their strength, even if kept for several years.
1 The term corm is applied by English
writers to the short, fleshy, bulb-shaped
base of an aiiiiiial stem, cither lateral as in
Colchicum, or terminal as in Crocun. By
many continental botanists, tlie corm of
Colcliicum is regarded either as a form of
tuber, or of bulb.
^ OesterreicJdsche Zeitschrift filr prakfifsche
Hcilkunde, 1856, Nos. 22-24; also Wiggers,
Jahresbericht clcr Pharm. 18.56. 15.
CORMUS COLCHICI.
701
Description — The fresh corni is conical or inversely pear-shaped,
about 2 inches long by an inch or more wide, rounded on one side,
flattish on the other, covered by a bright brown, membranous skin,
within which is a second of paler colour. When cut transversely, it
appears white, lirm, fleshy and homogeneous, abounding in a bitter,
starchy juice, of disagreeable odour. The dried slices are inodorous,
and have a bitterish taste. They should be of a good white, clean,
crisp and brittle, — not mouldy or stained.
Microscopic Structure — The outer membrane is formed of tan-
gentially-extended cells, with thick brownish walls ; the main body of
the corm, of large thin- walled, more or less regularly globular cells,
loaded with stai'ch, and interrupted by vascular bundles containing
spiral vessels. The original form of the starch granules is globular or
egg-shaped, but from mutual pressure and agglutination, many are
angular or truncated. A large proportion are more or less compound,
consisting; of several "■ranules united into one. In all, the hilum is
very distinct, appearing in some as a mere point, but in most as a line
or star.
Chemical Composition — The corms contain Golchicin (see next
article), starch, sugar, gum, resin, tannin, and fat. When sliced and
dried, they lose about 70 per cent, of water.^ By drying, the (pro-
bably) volatile body upon which the odour of the fresii corm depends,
is lost.
Uses — Colchicum is much prescribed in cases of gout, rheumatism,
dropsy, and cutaneous maladies.
Other medicinal species of Colchicum.
Under the name Hermndactylus^ the corms of other species of Col-
chicum of Eastern origin anciently enjoyed great reputation in medi-
cine. These corms are in structure precisely like those of ordinary
colchicum ; they are entire, but deprived of membranous envelopes, of
a flattened, heart-shaped form, not wrinkled on the surface, and often
very small in size. The starch grains they contain are similar to those
of 0. autmnnale, but in some specimens twice as large.
There is a great uncertainty as to the species of Colchicum which
furnish hermodactyls. Prof J. E. Planchon, who has written an ela-
borate article on the subject,^ is in favour of G. variegatmii L., a native
of the Levant. But one can hardly suppose this plant to be the source
of the hermodactyls (Surinjdn) of the Indian bazaars, which are stated
to be brought from Kashmir.
1 This is tlie average obtained during ten
years in drying 16 cwt., in the laboratory
of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London.
"2 The Bitter He.rmodactyl of Eoyle is not
in our opinion the produce of a Colchicum
at all ; see also Cooke in Pharm. Journ.
April 1, 1871.
Ann. dc.1 Sciences Hat., Bot., iv. (1855)
132; abstract in Pharm. journ. xv. (1856)
465.
702
MELANTHACEiE.
SEMEN COLCHICI.
Colchicum Seed ; F. Sevience de Colchique ; G. Zeitlosensamen.
Botanical Origin — Colchicum autumnale L., see page G99. The
inflated capsule, which grows up in the spring after the disappeai'ance
of the flower in the autumn, is three-celled, dehiscent towards the apex
by its venti'al sutures, and contains, attached to the inner angle of the
carpels, numerous globular seeds, which arrive at maturity in the latter
part of the summer.
History — Colchicum seeds were introduced into medical practice
by Dr. W. H. Williams, of Ipswich, about 1820, on the ground of their
being more certain in action than the corm.^ The}' were admitted to
the London Pharmacopoeia in 1824.
Description — The seeds are of globose form, about tc of an inch
in diameter, somewhat pointed by a strophiole, which when dry is not
very evident. They are rather rough and dull ; when recent of a pale
brown, but become darker by drying, and at the same time exude a
sort of saccharine matter. They are inodorous even when fresh, but
have a bitter acrid taste ; they are very hard and difficult to powder.
Microscopic Structure — The reticulated, brown coat of the seed
consists of a few rows of large, thin-walled tangentially-extended cells,
considerably smaller towards the interior, the outermost containing
starch grains in small number. The thin testa is closely adherent to
the horny greyish albumen. The cells of the latter are remarkable for
their thick walls, showing wide pores; they contain granular plasma
and oil-drops. The very small leafless embryo may be observed on
transverse section close beneath the testa on the side opposite the
strophiole.
Chemical Composition — The active principle of colchicum seed is
termed Colchicin, but the chemists who have made it the subject of
investigation are not agreed as to its properties. Thus Oberlin (1856)
showed it to contain nitrogen, but without possessing basic properties.
By treatment with acids, the amorphous colchicin yields a crystallizable.
body, Golchicein. Hlibler (1864) prepared colchicin in the same way by
which the so-called "bitter principles," like dulcamarin (p. 451) are
obtainable. He assigned to colchicein acid qualities and, strangely
enough, the same formula he gave for colchicin itself, namely C"ff^NO'.
Maisch^ as well as DiehP again obtained discrepant results. Colchicin of
definite composition has not yet been isolated.
It would appear that in an aqueous or alcoholic extract of the seed
an extremely small amount of an alkaloid is present, but that a basic
substance is immediately formed on addition of mineral acids, or also
oxalic acid. This suggestion is to some extent supported by the follow-
ing facts : —
By adding the usual test .solution for alkaloids, i.e. iodohydrogyrate
of potassium (50 grammes of iodide of potassium, 13"5 of perchloride of
mercury in one litre), to an aqueous solution of an alcoholic extract of
^London Medical Repository, Aug. 1, ^P/frtJvw. Jomj'«. ix. (1867) 249.
1820. iProc. Americ. Fharm. Assoc. 1867. 36.3.
RADIX SARSAPARILL^.
703
the seeds, a very slight turbidity, or an insignificant precipitate is
observed. Yet on addition of sulphuric, or nitric, or hydrochloric acid,
an abundant precipitate of a beautiful yellow is at once produced. This
experiment succeeds with a few seeds, either entire or powdered ; it
may be conveniently applied for the detection of colchicum in any pre-
paration. We have ascertained that the yellow precipitate can be
obtained also with the other parts of the plant. If the yellow compound
is decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen, the filtrate, after due concen-
tration, now precipitates immediately on addition of the iodohydrorgy-
rate, yet still more abundantly in presence of a mineral acid.
The seeds contain traces of gallic acid, much sugar and fatty oil. Of
the last we obtained 6 6 per cent, by exhausting the dried seed with
ethex'. The oil concreted at — 8° C. Rosenwasser (1877) obtained
8"4 per cent, of the oil.
Uses — The same as those of the conn.
SMILACE^.
RADIX SARSAPARILLy^:,
Radix Sarzoi vel Sarsoi ; Sarsaparilla ; F. Racine de Salse^Mveille ;
G. SarsapariUxvurzel.
Botanical Orgin — Sarsaparilla is afforded by several plants of the
genus Smilax, indigenous to the northern half of South America, and
the whole of Central America as far as the southern and western coast-
lands of Mexico.
These plants are woody climbers, often ascending lofty trees by the
strong tendrils which spring from the petiole of the leaf Their stems
are usually angular, armed with stout prickles, and thrown up from a
large woody i-hizome. The medicinal species inhabit swampy tropical
forests, which are extremely deleterious to the health of Europeans, and
can only be explored amid great difficulties. This circumstance taken
in connexion with the facts that the plants are dicecious, that their scan-
dent habit often renders their flowers and fruits (produced at difierent
seasons) inaccessible, and that their leaves vary exceedingly in form,^
explains why we are but very imperfectly acquainted with the botanical
sources of sarsaparilla.
It is not too much to assert that the sarsaparilla plant of no district
in Tropical America is scientifically well known. The species moreover,
to which the drug is assigned, have for the most part been founded upon
characters that are totally insufiicient, so that after an attentive study
of herbai'ium specimens, we are obliged to regard as still doubtful several
of the plants that have been named hy previous writers.
Having made these preliminary remarks, we will enumerate the
plants to which the sarsaparilla of commerce has been ascribed.
^ The common Smilax aspera L. , of
Southern Europe, is a plant which presents
such diversity of foliage, that if like its
congeners of Tropical America, it were
known only by a few leafy scraps preserved
in herbaria, it would assuredly have been
referred to several species.
704
SMILACEiE.
1. Smilax officinalis H.B.K. — This plant was obtained in the year
1805, by Humboldt, at Bajorque, a village since swept away by the
stream, about in 7° N. lat., on the Magdalena in New Granada. The
specimens, comprising only a few imperfect leaves, which we have
examined in the National Herbarium of Paris, are the materials upon
which Kunth founded the species. Humboldt' states, that quantities
of the root are shipped by way of Mompox and Cartagena to Jamaica
and Cadiz.
In 1853 this plant was again gathered at Bajorque by the late De
Warszewicz, who sent to one of us (H.) leaves and stems, accompanied
by the root, which latter agrees with the Jamaica SarsajxiriUa of
commerce. But at Bajorque the root is no longer collected for
exportation.
The same botanical collector, at the request of one of us, obtained in
the year 1851, on the volcano and Cordillera of Chiriqui in Costa Rica,
fruits, leaves, stems, and roots, of the plant there collected by the Indians
as Sarsa peluda or Sarson. These specimens agree, so far as comparison
is possible, with those of the Bajorque plant, while the root is undistin-
guishable from the Jamaica sarsaparilla of the shops. Other specimens
of the same plant, gathered by the same collector in 1853, were for-
warded to England with a living root, which latter however could not
be made to grow.
Finally, in 1869, Mr. R. B. White obligingly communicated to us
leaves and roots of a sarsaparilla collected at Patia in New Granada,
which apparently belongs to the same species.
In the island of Jamaica, there has been cultivated for many years,
and of late with a view to medicinal use, a sarsaparilla plant which
appears to be Smilax officinalis. The specimens transmitted to us"
include neither flowers nor fruits ; but the leaves and square stem
accord exactly with those of the plant collected at Bajorque. The root
is of a light cinnamon-brown, and far more amylaceous than the so-
called Jamaica Sarsaparilla of commerce (see p. 710).
2. Smilax medica Schl. et Cham. — This species,^ which was
discovered in Mexico by Schiede in 1820, is without doubt the source
of the sarsaparilla shipped from Vera Cruz. According to our observa-
tions, it has a flexuose (or zigzag) stem, and much smaller foliage than
S. offlcincdis ; the leaves, though very variable, often assume an
auriculate form, with broad, obtuse, basal lobes.
It grows on the eastern slopes of the Mexican Andes, and is the
only species of that region of which the roots are collected. These,
according to Schiede, are dug up all the year round, di'ied in the sun
and made into bundles.
1 Kunth, Synopsis Plant, i. (1822) 278.—
Smilax officinalis is a large, strong climber,
attaining a height of 40 to 50 feet, with a
perfectly square stem armed with prickles
at the angles. The leaves are often a foot
in length, of variable form, being triangular,
ovate-oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, either
gradually narrowing towards the apex or
rounded and apiculate, and at the base
either attenuated into the petiole, or trun-
cate, or cordate. They are usually 5-nerved,
the 3 inner nerves being prominent and
enclosing an elliptic area. The flowers are
in stalked vxmbels. A fine specimen of the
plant is most luxuriantly growing since
many years in the Royal Gardens, Kew,
but has not flowered.
- We owe them to the kindness of H. J.
Kemble, Esq., who procured them, with
specimens of the root, from the Government
garden at Castleton.
' Figured in Nees von Eaenbeck's Plantw
Medicinales, suppl. tab. 7.
RADIX SARSAPARILL^.
705
Doubt and confusion hang over the other species of Smilax which
have been quoted as the sources of sarsaparilla. S. syphilitica H.B.K.,
with flowei's in a raceme of umbels, discovered on the Cassiquiare
in New Granada, and well figured by Berg and Schmidt from an
authentic specimen, appears from Poppig's statements to yield some of
the sarsaparilla shipped at Para. But Kunth states that Poppig's plant,
gathered near Ega, is not that of Humboldt and Bonpland. Spruce, who
collected S. syjykilitica (herb. No. 3779) in descending the' Rio Negro in
1854, has informed us that the Indians in various places in the
Amazon valley always strenuously asserted it to be a species worthless
for " Salsa."
S. ])apyracea, described by Poiret ^ in 1804, and figured by Martius,'^
is but very imperfectly known. It has foliage resembling that of
*S'. officinalis, but, judging from Spruce's specimens (No. 1871) collected
on the Rio Negro, a multangular stem. It is probably the source of
the Pavd Sarsaparilla.
8. cordato-ovata Rich, is a doubtful plant, perhaps identical with
aS>. ScJwmhurgkiana Knth., a Panama species. Poppig alleges that its
root is mixed with that of the plant which he calls S. syphilitica.
S. Purhampuy Ruiz, a Peruvian species, said to afford a valuable sort
of sarsaparilla, is practically unknown, and is not admitted by Kunth.^
No new information on the several above mentioned species of
Smilax is found in the review of this genus by A. and C. De' Candolle,*
where 105 American species are enumerated
History — Monardes^ has recorded that sarsaparilla was first intro-
duced to Seville about the year 1536 or 1545, from New Spain ; and a
better variety soon afterwards from Honduras. He further narrates
that a drug of excellent quality was subsequently imported from the
province of Quito, that it was collected in the neighbourhood of Guaya-
quil, and was of a dark hue, and larger and thicker than that of Hon-
duras.
Pedro de Ciezo de Leon, in his Chronicle of Peru,® which contains the
observations made by him in South America between 1532 and 1550,
gives a particular account of the sarsaparilla which grows in the province
of Guayaquil and the adjacent island of Puna, and recommends the
sudorific treatment of syphilis, exactly as pursued at the present time.
These statements are confirmed by the testimony of other writers.
Thus, Joao Rodriguez de Castello Branco, commonly known as Amatus
Lusitanus, a Portuguese physician of Jewish origin, who practised
chiefly in Italy, has left a work i-ecording his medical experiences and
narrating cases of successful treatment.'' One of the latter concerns a
patient suffering from acute rheumatism, for whom he finally prescribed
^Lamarck, EncijclopMle. mdthodique, Bot. ,
vi. 1804. 468.
2 Flor. Bras. i. (1842-71) tab. 1.
^ It must not be supposed that all species
of Smilax are capable of furnishing the
drug. There are many, even South Ame-
rican, which like the S. aspera of Europe,
have thin, wiry roots, which would never
pass for medicinal sarsaparilla.
* Monographtai 2>haneroga7narum, i.(1878)
6-199.
2
° Pages 18 and 88 of the work quoted in
the Appendix.
^ Parte 2)nm''m de la Chronica del Peru,
Sevilla, 1553, folio Ixix. —a translation for
the Hakluyt Society in 1864, by Markham,
who obser\'es that Cieza de Leon never
himself visited Guayaquil.
' Curationum medicinalium centurice qna-
tuor, Basilete. 1556. 365.
y
706
SMILACE^.
I
Sarswparilla. This drug, he explains, has of late years been brought
from the newly found country of Pei u, that it is in long whip-like roots,
growing from the stock of a sort of bramble resembling a vine, that the
Spaniards call it Zarza jMrrilla, and that it is an excellent medicine.
About the same period, sarsaparilla was described by Auger Ferrier,^
a physician of Toulouse, who states that in the treatment of syphilis,
which he calls Lues Hispanica, it is believed to be better than either
China root or Lignum sanctum. Girolamo Cardano of Milan, in a little
work called De radice Cina et Sarza Parilia judicium,'^ expresses similar
opinions. After so strong recommendations, the drug soon found its way
to the pharmaceutical stores ; we find it quoted for instance in 1563, in
the tariff of the "Apotheke" of the little town of Annaberg in Saxony.^
We have also noticed " Sarsaparilla " in the Ricettario Fiorentino of
the year 1573.* Gerarde,^ who wrote about the close of the century,
states that the sarsaparilla of Peru is imported into England in abun-
dance.
Collection of the Root — Mr. Richard Spruce, the enterprising
botanical explorer of the Amazon valley, has communicated to us the
following particulars on this subject, which we give in his own graphic
words : —
" When I was at Santarem on the Amazon in 1849-50, where consi-
derable quantities of sarsaparilla are brought in from the upper regions
of the river Tapajoz, and again when on the Upper Rio Negro and
Uaupes in 1851-53, I often interrogated the traders about their criteria
of the good kinds of sarsaparilla. Some of them had bought their
stock of Indians of the forest, and had themselves no certain test of its
genuineness or of its excellence, beyond the size of the roots, the
thickest fetching the best price at Para. Those who had gathei*ed
sarsaparilla for themselves were guided by the following characters : —
1. Many stems from a root. 2. Prickles closely set. 3. Leaves thin. —
The first character was (to them) alone essential, for in the species of
Smilax that have solitary stems, or not more than two or three, the
roots are so few as not to be worth grubbing up ; whereas the multicaul
species have numerous long roots, — three at least to each stem, —
extending horizontally on all sides.
" In 1851, when I was at the falls of the Rio Negro, which are
crossed by the equator, nine men started from the village of St. Gabriel
to gather Salsa, as they called it, at the head of the river Cauaburis.
During their absence I made the acquaintance of an old Indian, who
told me that four years ago he had brought stools of Salsa from the
Cauaburis and had planted them in a tabocdl, — a clump of bamboos,
indicating the site of an ancient Indian village, — on the other side of
the falls, whither he invited me to go and witness the gathering of his
first crop of roots. On the 23rd March, I visited the tabocdl, and
found some half-dozen plants of a Smilax with very prickly stems, but
' De Pudendagra lite Hispanica, Uhri
duo, first published atToulouse in 1553, and
many times reprinted. We have consulted
the Antwerp edition of 1564, with which
Cardano's work is printed. The latter is
said to have first apjjeared in 1559.
2 Basile», 1559, fol.
^ Fllickiger, Documenle (quoted at p. 404,
note 7) 24.
See Apj)endix.
^ HerhaU, enlarged by Johnson, 16.36.
8.".9.
RADIX SARSAPARILLzE.
707
no flowers or fruit. At my request the Indian operated on the finest
plant first. It had five stems from the crown, and numerous roots
about 9 feet long, radiating horizontally on all sides. The thin covering
of earth was first scraped away from the roots b}' hand, aided by a
pointed stick ; and had the salsa been the only plant occupying the
groimd, the task would have been easy. But the roots of the salsa
were often difficult to trace among those of bamboo and other plants,
which had to be cut through with a knive whenever they came in the
way. The roots being at length all laid bare — (in this case it was the
work of half a day, but with large plants it sometimes takes up a
whole day or even more) — they were cut off" near the crown, a few
slender ones being allowed to remain, to aid the plant in renewing its
growth. The stems also were shortened down to near the ground, and
a little earth and dead leaves heaped over the crown, which would soon
shoot out new stems
"The yield of this plant, of four years' growth, was 16 lb. — half a
Portuguese arroba— of roots ; but a well-grown plant will afford at the
first cutting from one to two arrobas. In a couple of years, a plant
may be cut again, but the yield will be much smaller and the roots
more slender and less starchy."
General Description — The medicinal species of Smilax have a
thick, short, knotty rhizome, called by the druggists chump, from
which grow in a horizontal direction long fleshy roots, from about the
thickness of a quill to that of the little finger. These roots are mostlj'
simple, forked only towards their extremities, beset with thread-like
branching rootlets of nearly uniform size, which however are not
emitted to any great extent from the more slender part of the root near
the stock. When fresh the root is plump,^ but as found in commerce
in the dried state it is more or less furrowed longitudinally, at least in
the vicinity of the rhizome. When examined with a good lens both
roots and rootlets may be seen in some specimens to be clothed with
short velvety or shaggy hairs.
The presence or absence in greater or less abundance of starch in the
bark of the root is regarded as an important criterion in estimating the
good quality of sarsaparilla. In England the non-amylaceous or non-
mealy roots are preferred, they alone being suitable for the manufacture
of the dark fluid-extract that is valued by the public. On the Con-
tinent, and especially in Italy, sai'sa parilla, which when cut exhibits a
thick bark, pure white within, is the esteemed kind.
The more or less plentiful occurrence of starch in the roots of
Smilax is a character which has no botanical significance, and appears,
indeed, to vary in the same species. If one examines Jamaica sar-
saparilla by shaving ofi' a little of the bark, one finds a large majority
of roots to be non-amylaceous in their entire length ; but others can be
picked out which, though non-amylaceous for some distance from the
rhizome, acquire a starchy bark, which is ^vhite internally in their
middle and lower portions ; — and there are still others which are
slightly starchy even as they start from the parent rhizome, becoming
We have been kindly permitted to exa- Kew ; and have found that it agrees in
mine the fresh root of the large plant of appearance and in structure with Jamaica
Srnilax officinalift in the Royal Gardens, sarsaparilla.
708
SMILACE^..
still more as they advance. In Guatemala sarsaparilla, which is con-
sidered a very mealy sort, it is easy to perceive that the bark is hardly
amylaceous in the vicinity of the rhizome, but that it acquires an
enormous deposit of fecula as it proceeds in its growth.
Sarsaparilla varies greatly in the abundance of rootlets, technically
called heard, with which the roots are clothed. This character depends
partly on natural circumstances, and partly on the practice of the
collectors who remove or retain the rootlets at will. Di*. Rhys of
Belize has stated that the proportion of rootlets depends much on the
nature of the soil, their development being most favoured by moist
situations.
Dry sarsaparilla has not much smell, y^t when large quantities are
boiled, or when a decoction is evaporated, a peculiar and very per-
ceptible odour is emitted. The taste of the root is earthy, and not well
marked, and even a decoction has no very distinctive flavour.
Microscopic Structure ' — On a tranverse section of the root, its
libro-vascular bundles are seen to be restricted to the central part,
being all enclosed by a brown ring. Within this ring the bundles are
densely packed so as to form a ligneous zone. The very centre of the
section consists of white medullary tissue, through which sometimes a
certain number of fibro-vascular bundles are scattered. A similar
medullary parenchyme is met with between the brown ring or nucleus
sheath or the epidermis. On a longittulinal section the latter exhibits
several rows of elongated cells, having their outer brown walls
thickened by secondary deposits. The brown nucleus sheath, on the
other hand, consists of only one row of prismatic cells, their inner
and lateral walls alone having secondary deposits. The vascular
bundles contain large scalariform vessels and lignified prosenchymatous
cells.
The parenchymatous cells, if not devoid of solid contents, are
loaded with large compound starch granules ; some cells also exhibit
bundles of acicular crystals of calcium oxalate. In non-mealy
sarsaparilla the vessels and ligneous cells sometimes contain a yellow
resin.
The various sorts of sarsaparilla differ, not only in being mealy or
non-mealy, but also as regards the thickness of the ligneous zone,
which in some of them is many times thinner than the diameter of the
centi'al medullary tissue. In other kinds this diameter is very much
smaller. Yet the nucleus sheath affords still better means for
distinguishing the sorts of this drug, if we examine its single cells
in a transverse section. The outline of such a cell may be of a
square or somewhat rounded shape, or it may be more or less extended.
In this case it may be extended in the direction of a radius, or in
the direction of a tangent. The secondary deposits may vary in
thickness.
Sorts of Sarsaparilla — In the present state of our knowledge no
botanical classification of the different kinds of sarsaparilla being
possible, we shall resort to the arrangement adopted by Pereira and
^ For more particulars consult Vaiidercolme, Ilisloire hoi. ctlMrapmt. des Salsepareilles,
Paris, 1870, 127 pp., 3 plates ; and Otten, in J)va,^QndorS's Jahresheincht, 1876. 74.
RADIX SARSAPARILLiE.
709
place them in two groups, — the mealy, or those of which starch is a
prevalent constituent, and the non-mealy, or those in which starch
exists to a comparatively small extent.
(A.) Mealy Sarsaparillas.
1. Honduras Sarsaparilla — This drug is exported from Belize.
It is made up in hanks or rolls about 30 inches long and 2-i- to 4 inches
or more in diameter, closely wound round with a long root so as to
form a neat bundle. The hanks are united into bales by large pieces
of hide, placed at top and bottom, and held together with thongs of the
same, further strengthened with iron hoops.
The roots are deeply furrowed, or sometimes plump and smooth,
more or less provided with heard or rootlets. In a very large propor-
tion of their length they exhibit when cut a thick bark loaded with
starch ; yet in those parts which are near the rhizome the bark is
brown, resinous, and non-amylaceous. They are of a pale brown,
sometimes verging into orange. But the drug is subject to great
variation, so that it is impossible to lay down absolutely distinctive
charactei's.
The annual imports into the United Kingdom of sarsaparilla from
British Honduras during the five years ending with 1870 averaged
about 52,000 lb.
2. Guatemala Sarsaparilla — This sort of sarsaparilla, which first
appeared in commerce about 1852, resembles the Ilonduras kind in
many of its characters, and is packed in a similar manner. But it has
a more decided orange hue; the roots as they start from the rhizome
are lean, shrunken, and but little starchy, but they become gradually
stouter (^'o- inch diam.), and acquire a thick bark, which is internally
very white and mealy. There is a tendency in the bark of this
sarsaparilla to crack and split oft', so that bare spaces showing the
central woody column are not unfrequent.
According to Bentley,^ who examined specimens of the plant, this
drug is derived from Smilax papyracea; we are not prepared to agree
in this opinion.
3. BraziUan, Para or Lisbon Sarsaparilla — Though formerly
held in high esteem Brazilian sarsaparilla is not now appreciated in
England, and is rarely seen in the London market."^ It is packed in a
very distinctive manner, the roots being tightly compressed into a cylin-
drical bundle, 3 feet or more in length and about 6 inches in diameter,
firmly held together by the flexible stem of a bignoniaceous plant, closely
wound round them, the ends being neatly shaved off".
(B.) Non-mealy Sarsaparillas.
4. Jamaica Sarsaparilla — To the English druggist this is the most
important variety ; it is that which appears to have the greatest claim
to possess some medicinal activity, and it is the only sort admitted to the
British Pharmacopoeia. Although constantly called / amaica sarsapa-
rilla, it is well known that it only bears the name of Jamaica through
^ Pharm. Journ. xii. (1853) 470, with - We noticed 66 rolls of it from Para,
figure. offered for sale 15 Dec. 1853. — D. H.
710
SMILACE^.
having been formerly shipped from Central America by way of that
island/ At the commencement of the last century, Jamaica was an
emporium for sarsaparilla, great quantities of which, according to Sloane/
wei*e brought thither from Honduras, New Spain and Peru. Its actual
place of gi'owth, according to De Warszewicz (1851), is the mountain
range known as the Cordillera of Chiriqui, in that part of the isthmus of
Panama adjoining the republic of Costa Rica : here the plant grows at
an elevation of 4000 to 8000 feet above the level of the sea. The
root is brought by the natives to Boca del Toro on the Atlantic coast
for shipment.
The drug consists of roots, 6 feet or more in length, bent repeatedly
so as to form bundles of 18 inclies long, and 4 in diameter, which are
secured by being twined round (but less trimly and closely than the
Honduras sort) with a long root of the same drug. The rhizome is
entirely absent, but the fibre or beard is preserved, and is reckoned a
valuable portion of the drug. The roots are deeply furrowed, shrunken,
and generally more slender than in the Plonduras kind ; the bark when
shaved off with a penknife is seen to be brown, hai'd and non-mealy
throughout. Yet it is by no means uncommon to find roots which have
a smooth bax'k rich in starch. In colour, Jamaica sarsapai'illa varies from
a pale earthy brown to a deeper more ferruginous hue, the latter tint
being the most esteemed.
The sarsaparilla referred to at p. 704 as grown in the island of Jamaica,
is a well prepared drug, yet so pale in colour and so amylaceous, that it
finds but little favour in the English market. There were exported of it
from Jamaica in 1870, 17471b. f in 1871, 1290 lb.
5. Mexican Sarsajyarilla — The roots of this variety are not made
into bundles, but are packed in straight lengths of about 3 feet into bales,
the chump and portion of an angular (but not squwre) thorny stem being
frequently retained. The roots are of a pale, dull brown, lean, shrivelled,
and with but few fibres. When thick and large, they have a somewhat
starchy bark, but when thin and near the rhizome, they are non-
amylaceous.
6. Giiayaqinl Sarsa'parilla — An esteemed kind of sarsaparilla has
long been exported from Guayaquil (p. 705). Mr. Spruce has informed
us that it is obtained in most of the valleys that debouch into the plain
on the western side of the Equatorial Andes, but chiefly in the valley of
Alausi, where, in 1859, he saw plants of it at the junction of the small
river Puma-cocha with the Yaguachi. The plant appears to be very
productive, an instance being on record of as much as 75 lb. of fresh
roots having been obtained from a single stock.'*
Guayaquil sarsaparilla differs considerably from the sorts previously
noticed. It is rudely packed in large bales, and is not generally made
into separate hanks. The rhizome (chump) and a portion of the stem
^ The coiiuexiou between .Tamaica and
Central America dates back from the time
of Charles II., during whose reign (1661-
85), the king of the Mosquito Territory, a
district never couquei-ed by the Spaniards,
applied to the governor of Jamaica for
protection, which was accorded. The
protectornte lasted until 1 860, when Mos-
quitia was ceded to the government of
Nicaragua.
^ Nat. Hist, of Jamaica, i. (1707), intro-
duction, p. Ixxxvi.
^ Bliw Books — Island of Jamaica for 1870
and 1871.
* Journ. of Linn. Soc, Bot., iv. (I860)
185.
RADIX SARSAPARILLiE.
711
are often present, the latter being roivnd and not prickly. The root is
dark, large and coarse-looking, with a good deal of fibre. The bark is
furrowed, rather thick, and not mealy in the slenderer portions of the
root which is near the rootstock ; but as the root becomes stout, so its
bark becomes smoother, thicker and amylaceous, exhibiting when cut a
fawn-coloured or pale yellow interior.
The quantity exported from Guayaquil in 1871 was 1017 quintals,
value £3814.'
Chemical Composition — Galileo Pallotta, at Naples, in 1824, first
attempted to obtain from sarsaparilla a peculiar principle, which he be-
lieved to be an alkaloid, and termed Pariglina, or as now wi'itten
Parillin. He exhausted the crude drug with boiling water and mixed
the decoction with milk of lime, whereby a greyish precipitate was pro-
duced. This was dried, and treated with hot alcohol which extracted
the parillin. Pallotta says the substance slightly reddens litmus, but
does not explicitly state whether he got it in crystals or not. Berzelius
in 1826 replaced the name pariglina by Smilacin. The same substance
was obtained, more or less pure, by Thubeuf in 1831 and called Salse-
parin; Batka in 1833 termed it Parillinic acid. We have isolated
parillin" by exhausting Mexican sarsaparilla with boiling alcohol, 0'835
sp. gr., and evaporating the tincture to ^ of the weight of the root.
B}^ diluting 2 parts of the residue with 3 parts of cold water, a yellowish
deposit of crude parillin is formed and may be separated after a few days
by decantation. The deposit is then mixed with about half a volume
of strong alcohol, now filtered and washed with dilute alcohol, about
0"965 sp. gr. It may further be purified by repeated re-crystallization
from dilute alcohol and the use of a little charcoal. The yield is about
019 per cent, of perfectl}^ white crystallized parillin ; a little more may
be removed from the washings, but with much difiieulty. These liquids
and the mother liquors may be concentrated and boiled with a little
sulphuric acid in oi'der to afford parigenin.
Parillin forms brilliant scales, or can be obtained in thin prisms from
boiling alcohol 0'965 sp. gr. Parillin is almost insoluble in cold water,
but dissolves in 20 parts of boiling water. On cooling, the latter solu-
tion affords no crystals ; an abundance of them are however produced
on addition of alcohol. Parillin is also soluble in 25 parts of alcohol,
0"814 sp. gr., at 25° C, and much more abundantly in boiling alcohol, from
which it partly separates in crystals on cooling. In both absolute
alcohol or water, parillin is less stluble than in dilute alcohol. Hence
aqueous solutions are precipitated by absolute alcohol, and parillin, on
the other hand, separates from alcoholic solutions on addition of cold
water. With chloroform, parillin yields a viscid solution which affords
no crystals.
The alcoholic solutions of parillin have a somewhat acrid taste, and
are devoid of rotatory power.
By dilute mineral acids, parillin is resolved into Parigenin and
sugar ; the liquid gradually acquires a dingy brown or greenish hue
and fluorescence, which is most obvious if paiillin dissolved in chloro-
form is decomposed by hydrochloric gas. Parigenin is easily isolated ;
1 Vice-Consul Smith on the commerce of - Yearbook of Pharm. 1878. 136.
Ecuador — Consular Reports, presented to
Parliament, Jnly. 1872.
712
SMILACE^.
it is insoluble even in boiling water, but crystallizes in white scales
from alcohol.
The composition of parillin and parigenin is not settled ; the former
belongs to the class of saponin. Yet parillin differs from saponin as
contained in Saponaria or Quillaja ^ by not being sternutatory ; its
solutions froth when shaken.
The presence in sarsaparilla of starch, resin, and calcium oxalate, as
revealed by the microscope, has been already pointed out. Pereira ^
examined the essential oil, which is heavier than water and has the
odour and taste of the drug ; 140 lb. of Jamaica sarsaparilla afforded of
it only a few drops.
The nature of the dark extractive matter which water removes
from the root in abundance, and the proportion of which is considered
by druggists a criterion of goodness, has not been studied.
Commerce— The importation of sarsaparilla into the United King-
dom in 1870 (later than which year we have no returns) amounted to
345,907 lb., valued at £2G,564.
Uses — Sarsaparilla is regarded by many as a valuable alterative
and tonic, but by others as possessing little if any remedial powers.
It is still much employed, though by no means so extensively as a few
years ago. The preparations most in use are those obtained by a pro-
longed boiling of the root in water.
TUBER CHINiE.
Radix China} ; China Root ; F. Squine ; G. Chinawurzel.
Botanical Origin — Smilax China L., a woody, thorny, climbing-
shrub, is commonly said to afford this drug. The plant is a native
of Japan, the Loochoo islands, Formosa, China, Cochinchina, also of
Eastern India, as Kasia, Assam, Sikkim, Nepal. The chief authority
for attributing the China root to this plant is Kampfer, who saw the
latter in Japan and figured it.^
S. glabra Roxb. and S. lanceoifolia Roxb., natives of India and
Southern China, have tubers which, according to Roxburgh, cannot be
distinguished from the China root of medicine, though the plants are
perfectly distinct in appearance from S. China. Dr. Hance,^ of
Whampoa, received a living specimen of China root, which proved to
be that of 8. glabra. The three above-named species all gi'ow in the
island of Hongkong.
History — The use of this drug as a remedy for syphilis was made
known to the Portuguese at Goa by Chinese traders about A.D. 1535.
Garcia de Orta, who makes this statement, further narrates that so
1 See Christoplison, in Dragendorff's Jah-
resbericht, 1874. 155.
2 Elements of Mat. Med. ii. (1850) 1168.
^ "Sankira," p. 783 iu the first work
quoted in the Appendix ; another fig. will be
found in Nees von Esenbeck's Plaiitai
medicinaleji, Diisseldorf, 1828.
■> Trimeu's Journ. of Bot. i. (1872) 102.
— .S". glabra and S. lancecefoUa have been
figured by Seemann in his Botam/ of the
Herald, 1852-57, tabb. 99-100. S. China
is well represented 'm the Kew Herbarium,
where we have examined specimens from
Nagasaki, Hakodadi, and Yokohama ; from
Loochoo, Corea, Formosa, Ningpo ; and
Indian ones from Khasia, Assam, and
Nepal.
TUBER CHINyE.
713
great was the reputation of the new drug, that the small quantities
first brought to Malacca were sold at the rate of 10 crowns per ganta,
a weight of 24 ounces.
Possibly the drug found its way to Europe even before that year,
for we find a careful description of it in the posthumous works ^ of
Valerius Cordus and Walther Ryft"" states in 1548 that the root was
brought a few years ago to Venice.
The reported good effects of China root on the Emperor Charles V.
who was suffering from gout, acquired for the drug a great celebrity in
Europe, and several works ^ were written in praise of its virtues. But
though its powers were soon found to have been greatly over-rated,
it still retained some reputation as a sudorific and alterative, and
was much used at the end of the I7th century in the same way
as sarsaparilla. It still retains a place in some modern pharma-
copoeias.
Description — The plant produces stout fibrous roots, here and
there thickened into large tubers, which when dried become the drug
China root. These tubers, as found in the market, are of irregularly
cylindrical form, usually a little flattened, sometimes producing short
knobby branches. They are from about 4 to 6 or more inches in
length, and 1 to. 2 inches in thickness, covered with a rusty-coloured,
rather shining bark, which in some specimens is smooth and in others
more or less wrinkled. They have no distinct traces of rudimentary
leaves, which however are perceptible on those of some allied species.
Some still retain portions of the cord-like woody runners on which
they grew ; the bases of a few roots can also be observed. The tubers
mostly show marks of having been trimmed with a knife.
China root is inodorous and almost insipid. A transverse section
exhibits the interior as a dense granular substance of a pale fawn
colour.
Microscopic Structure — The outermost cortical layer is made up
of brown, thick-walled cells, tangentially extended. They enclose
numerous tufts of needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate, and reddish
brown masses of resin. The bark is at once succeeded by the inner
parenchyme which contrasts strongly with it, consisting of large, thin-
walled, porous cells which are completely gorged with starch, but here
and there contain colouring matter and bundles of crystals. The starch
granules are large (up to 50 mkm.), spherical, often flattened and angular
from mutual pressure. Like those of colchicum, they exhibit a radiate
hilum : very frequently they have burst and run together, probably in
consequence of the tubers having been scalded. The vascular bundles
scattered through the parenchyme, contain usually two lai"ge scalariform
or reticulated vessels, a string of delicate thin-walled parenchyme, and
elegant wood-cells with distinct incrusting layers and linear pores.
Chemical Composition — The drug is not known to contain any
substance to which its supposed medicinal virtues can be referred. We
1 Edit, by Conrad Gesuer, fol. 212 of the
work quoted in the Appendix.
.... Bericht der Natur .... der Wurtzel
China, Wiirzburg, 1548. 4°.
' The earliest of which is by Andreas
Vesalivis, Epistola rationem, modumque pro
pinandi radicis Chymae [sic !] decocii, quo
nuper invictis.nmu.s Carolus V. imperator
u.ius est, Venet, 1546.
714
GRAMINEJ5.
have endeavoured to obtain from it Par'dlin, the crystalline principle
of sarsaparilla, but without success.
Commerce — China root is imported into Europe from the South of
China — usually from Canton. The quantity shipped from that port in
1872, was only 384 peculs (51,200 lb.) ; while the same year there was
shipped from Hankow, the great trading city of the Yangtsze, no less
than 10,258 peculs (1,367,7331b.), all to Chinese ports. For the year
1874, these figures were: Hankow 9393 peculs, valued at 53,194 taels
(one tael about 5s. IQd), Kewkiang 3G27 peculs, Ningpo 2905 peculs,^
and for 1877 Hankow 12,075 peculs, Kewldang 3942 peculs.
Uses — Notwithstanding the high opinion formerly entertained of
the virtues of China root, it has in England fallen into complete disuse.
In China and India it is still held in great esteem for the relief of
rheumatic and syphilitic complaints, and as an aphrodisiac and demul-
cent. Polak asserts that the tubers of Smilax are consumed as food
by Turcomans and Mongols.'^
Substitutes — Several American species of Smilax furnish a nearly
allied drug, which at various times has been brought into commerce as
Radix China} accid entalis. It was already known to the authoi's of
the 16th century; we met with it in 1872, and before, in the London
market, as an importation from Puntas Arenas, the p6rt of Costa Rica
on the Pacific coast.
Of the exact species it is difficult to speak with certainty: but
S. Pseudo-China L. and 8. tamnoides L. growing in the United States
from New Jersey southwards ; S. Balhisiana Knth., a plant common
in all the West Indian Islands ; and S. Japicanga Griseb., S. syringoides
Griseb. and S. Brasiliensis Spreng., are reputed to afford large tuberous
rhizomes which in their several localities replace the China root of Asia,
and are employed in a similar manner.''
GRAMINE^.
SACCHARUM.
Sugar, Cane Sugar, Sucrose; F. Sucre, Sucre de canne; G. Zucker,
Rohrzucker.
Botanical Origin — Saccharum ojjicinarum L., the Sugar Cane.
The jointed stem is from 6 to 12 feet high, solid, hard, dense, internally
juicy, and hollow only in the flowering tops. Several varieties are cul-
tivated, as the Country Cane, the original form of the species ; the Rib-
bon Cane, with purple or yellow stripes along the stem ; the Bourbmi
or Tahiti Cane, a more elongated, stronger, more hairy and very pro-
^ Returns of Trade at the Treat ij Ports in.
China for 1872, pp. 34, 154, and the same
for 1874.
2 See p. 324, note 2. — We quote this state-
ment with reserve, knowing that both
Chinese and Europeans sometimes confound
China root with the singular fungoid iiro-
duction termed Pachyma Cocot^. The first
is called in Chinese Tii-fuh-liny, — the
second Fuh-ling or Pe-fvh-liny. — See Hau-
l)ury, Pharm. Journ. iii. (1862) 421; and
Science Papers,2Q2. 267.— F. Porter Smith,
Mat. Med. and Nat. Hist, of China, 1871.
198; Dragendorflf, Volksmedicin Turkestana
in Buohner's Reperiorimn, xxii. (1873) 135.
^ De CaudoUe's monograph, quoted at p.
705, note 4, may be consulted on the above
species.
SACCHARUM.
715
ductive variety. Saccharam violacemn Tussac, the Batavian Cane, is
also considered to be a variety ; but the large S. chinense Roxb. intro-
duced from Canton in 1796 into the Botanic Gardens of Calcutta, may be a
distinct species; it has a long, slendei', erect panicle, while that of S. offici-
naruvi is hairy and spreading, with the ramifications alternate and more
compound, not to mention other differences in the leaves and flowers.
The sugar cane is cultivated from cuttings, the small seeds very
seldom ripening. It succeeds in almost all tropical and subtropical
countries, reaching in South America and Mexico an elevation above
the sea of 5000-6000 feet. It is cultivated in most parts of India and
China up to 30-31° N. lat., the mountainous regions excepted.
From the elaborate investigations of Ritter,^ it appears that Saccha-
riim ojfficinariim was originally a native of Bengal, and of the Indo-
Chinese countries, as well as of Borneo, Java, Bali, Celebes, and other
islands of the Malay Archipelago. But there is no evidence that it is
now found anywhere in a wild state.
History^ — The sugar cane was doubtless' known in India from time
immemorial, and grown for food as it still is at the present day, chiefly
in those regions which are unsuited for the manufacture of sugar.'
Herodotus, Theophrastus, Seneca, Strabo, and other early writers
had some knowledge of raw sugar, which they speak of as the Honey of
Canes or Honey made by human hands, not that of bees; but it was
not until the commencement of the Christian era, that the ancients
manifested an undoubted acquaintance with sugar, under the name of
Saccharon.
Thus Dioscorides^ about A.D. 77 mentions the concreted honey called
XuKxupou found upon canes {eirl twv KaXujuwv) in India and Arabia
Felix, and which in substance and brittleness resemble salt. Pliny
evidently knew the same thing under the name Saccharum ; and the
author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, A.D. 54-68, states that
honey from canes, called a-dicxnpi, is exported from Barygaza, in the
Gulf of Cambay, to the ports of the Red Sea, west of the Promontorium
Aromatum, that is to say to the coast opposite Aden. Whether at
that period sugar was produced in Western India, or was brought
thither from the Ganges, is a point still doubtful.
Bengal is probably the country of the earliest manufacture of sugar ;
hence its names in all the languages of Western-Asiatic and European
nations are derived from the Sanskrit Sharkard, signifying a substance
in the shape of small grains or atones. It is strange that this word
contains no allusion to the taste of the substance.
Candy, as sugar in large crystals is called, is derived from the
Arabic Kand or Kandat, a name of the same signification. An old
Sanskrit name of Central Bengal is Giuu, whence is derived the word
Gida, meaning raiv sugar, a term for sugar universally emploj^ed in
^ Erdkumle von Asien, ix. West-Asieii,
Berlin, 1840. pp. 230-291.
^ The learned investigations of Heyd,
Levantehandel, ii. (1879) 665-667, afford
exhaustive information about the medicinal
history of sugar.
' The production which the English
translators of the Bible have rendered Sweet
Cane, and which is alluded to by the pro-
phets Isaiah (ch. xliii. 24) and Jeremiah
(ch. vi. 20) as a commodity imported from
a distant country, has been the subject of
much discussion. Some have supposed it
to be the sugar cane ; others, v.n aromatic
grass (Andropogon). In our opinion, there
is more reason to conclude that it was
Cassia Bark.
^ Lib. ii. c. 104.
71G
GRAMINE^.
the Malayan Archipelago, where on the other hand they have their
own names for the susfar cane, althou2;h not for suo-ar. This fsict ao-ain
speaks in favour of Ritter's opinion, that the preparation of sugar in a
dry crystalline state is due to the inhabitants of Bengal. Sugar under
the name of Shi-mi, i.e. Stone-honey, is frequently mentioned in the
ancient Chinese annals among the productions of India and Persia ;
and it is recorded that the Emperor Tai-tsung, a.d. 627-650, sent an
envoy to the kingdom of Magadha in India, the modern Bahar, to learn
the method of manufacturing sugar.^ The Chinese, in fact, acknowledge
that the Indians between A.D. 766 and 780 were their first teachers in
the art of refining sugar, for which they had no particular ancient
written character.
An Arabian writer, Abu Zayd al Hasau,^ informs us that about A.D.
850 the sugar cane was growing on the north-eastern shore of the
Persian Gulf; and in the following century, the traveller Ali Istakhri^
found sugar abundantly produced in the Persian province of Kuzistan,
the ancient Susiana. About the same time (A.D. 950), Moses of Chorene,
an Armenian, also stated that the manufacture of sugar was flourishing
near the celebrated school of medicine at Jondisabur in the same
province, and remains of this industry in the shape of millstones, &c.,
still exist near Ahwas.
Persian physicians of the 10th and 11th centuries, as Rhazes, Haly
Abbas, and Avicenna, introduced sugar into medicine. The Arabs cul-
tivated the sugar cane in many of their Mediteri-anean settlements, as
Cyprus, Sicily, Italy, Northern Africa, and Spain. The Calendar of
Cordova'* shows that as early as A.D. 961 the cultivation was well
understood in Spain, which is now the only country in Europe where
sugar mills still exist.
William II., King of Sicily, presented in A.D. 1176 to the convent
of Monreale mills for grinding cane, the culture of which still lingers at
Avola near Syracuse, though only for the sake of making rum. In
1767, the sugar plantations and sugar houses at this spot were described
by a traveller as " worth seeing."
During the middle ages England, in common with the rest of
Northern Europe, was supplied with sugar from the Mediterranean
countries, especially Egypt and Cyprus. It was imported from Alex-
andria as early as the end of the 10th century by the Venetians, with
whom it long remained an important article of trade. Thus we find "
that in A.D. 1319, a merchant in Venice, Tommaso Loredano, shipped to
London 100,000 lb. of sugar, the proceeds of which were to be returned
in ^vool, which at that period constituted the great wealth of England.
Sugar was then very dear : thus from 1259 to 1350, the average price
in England was about Is. per lb., and from 1351 to 1400, Is. 7d.^ In
France during the same period it must have been largely obtainable,
though doubtless expensive. King John II. ordered in 1353 that the
apothecaries of Paris should not use honey in making those confections
' Bretschneider, Chinese Botanical Wor'ks,
1870. 46.
2Eitter, I.e. 286.
^ P. 57 of the book quoted in the Ap-
pendix.
■* Le Calendrier de Cordoue de I'aiinee
961, par R. Dozy, Leyde, 1878. 25. 41. 91.
^ There are several in the neighbourhood
of Malaga.
6 Riedesel, Travels through Sicily, Lond.
1773. 67.
^ Marin, Comniereio de' Veneziani, v. 306.
Rogers, Hist, of Agriculture and Prices
In England, i. (1866) 633. 641.
SACCHARUM.
717
which ought to be prepared with the good white sugar called cafetin}
a name alluding to the peculiar shape of the loaf which was not un-
common at that time."
The importance of the sugar manufacture in the East was witnessed
in the latter half of the 13th century by Marco Polo;^ and in 1510 by
Barbosa and other European travellers ; and the trading nations of
Europe rapidly spread the cultivation of the cane over all the countries,
of which the cliuiate was suitable. Thus its introduction into Madeira
goes back as far as a.d. 1420 ; it reached St. Domingo in 1494/ the
Canary Islands in 1503, Brazil in the beginning of the 16th century,
Mexico about 1520, Guiana about 1600, Guadaloupe in 1644, Martinique
in 1650,° Mauritius towards 1750, NataP and New South Wales, about
1852, while from a very early period the sugar cane had been propa-
gated from the Indian Archipelago over all the islands of the Pacific
Ocean.
The ancient cultivation in Egypt, probably never quite extinct, has
been revived on an extensive scale by the Khedive Ismail Pasha.
There were 13 sugar factories, making raw sugar, belonging to the
Egyptian Government at work in 1872, and about 100,000 acres of land
devoted to sugar cane. The export of sugar from Egypt in 1872
reached 2 millions oi kantars, or about 89,200 tons.^
The imperfection of organic chemistry previous to the middle of the
18th century, permitted no exact investigations into the chemical
nature of sugar. Marggraf of Berlin" proved in 1747 that sugar occurs
in many vegetables, and succeeded in obtaining it in a pure crystallized
state from the juice of beet-root. The enormous practical importance
of this discovery did not escape him, and he caused serious attempts to
be made for i-endering it available, which were so far successful that
the first manufactory of beet-sugar was established in 1796 by Achard
at Kunern in Silesia.
This new branch of industr}?- was greatly promoted by the pro-
hibitive measures, whereby Napoleon excluded colonial sugar from
almost the whole Continent ; and it is now carried forward on such a
scale that 640,000 to 680,000 tons of beet-root sugar are annually pro-
duced in Europe, the entire production of cane sugar being estimated
at 1,260,000 to 1,413,000 tons."
Among the British colonies, Mauritius,^^ British Guiana,'^ Trinidad,"
^ Ordminances des rois de France, ii.
(1729) 535.
- Several other varieties of sugar occurring
in the mediajval literature are explained in
the Docinnente (quoted at page 404, foot-
note 7) p. 32.
3 Yule, Booh of Ser Marco Polo, ii. (1871)
79. 171. 180. &c.
* Letters of Christ. Columbus (Hakluyt
Society) 1870. 81-84.
5 De Candolle, Gdogr. hotanique, 836.
" The value of the sugar exported from
Natal in 1871 reached the astonishing-
amount of £180,496 and £135,201 in 1876.
' Yet owing to the gold discoveries, the
propagation of the cane in Australia was
little thought of until about 1866 or 1867,
when small lots of sugar were made.
^ Consul Rogers, Report on the Trade of
Cairo for ] 872, presented to Parliament.
^ Experiences chyjniques faites dans le
dessein de tirer un veritable sucre de diverses
plantes qui croissent dans nos contries, par
Mr. Marggraf, traduit du latin — Hist, de
V Acadimie royale des sciences et belles
lettres, annee 1747 (Berlin 1749) 79-90.
And also that of milk sugar, which was
then much used on the Continent to adulte-
rate cane sugar.
^1 Produce Markets Review, March 28,
1868.
^^2,255,249 quintals (one quintal =108
lb. avdp.) in 1876.
13 120,030 hhds (one hogshead = 1,792
lb.) in 1876.
■"114,968,384 lb. in 1876.
718
GRAMINE^.
Barbados/ and Jamaica,' produce at present the largest quantity of
sugar.
Production — No crystals are found in the parenchyme of the cane,
the sugar existing as an aqueous solution, chiefly within the cells of the
centre of the stem. The transverse section of the cane exhibits numerous
fibro-vascular bundles, scattered through the tissue, as in other monoco-
tyledonous stems; yet these bundles are most abundant towai'ds the
exterior, where they form a dense ring covered with a thin epidermis,
which is very hard by reason of the silica which is deposited in it.^ In
the centre of the stem the vascular bundles are few in number ; the
parenchyme is far more abundant, and contains in its thin-walled cells
an almost clear solution of sugar, with a few small starch granules and
a little soluble albuminous matter. This last is met with in larger
quantity in the cambial portion of the vascular bundles. Pectic prin-
ciples are combined with the walls of the medullary cells, which how-
ever do not swell much in water (Wiesner).
From these glances at the microscopical structure of the cane, the
process to be followed for obtaining the largest possible quantity of
sugar becomes evident. This would consist in simply macerating thin
slices of the cane in water, which would at once penetrate the paren-
chyme loaded with sugar, without much attacking the fibro-vascular
bundles containing more of albuminous than of saccharine matter. By
this method, the epidermal layer of the cane would not become saturated
with sugar, nor would it impede its extraction, — results which necessarily
follow when the cane is crushed and pressed.*
The process hitherto generally practised in the colonies,^ — that of
extracting the juice of the cane by crushing and pressing, — has been
elaborately described and criticised by Dr. leery of Mauritius.'^ In that
island, the cane, six varieties of which are cultivated, is when mature
composed of Cellulose, 8 to 12 per cent. ; Sugar, 18 to 21 ; Water, includ-
ing albuminous matter and salts, 67 to 73. Of the entire quantity of
juice in the cane, from 70 to 84 per cent, is extracted for evaporation,
and yields in a crystalline state about three-fifths of the sugar which
the cane originally contained. This juice, called in French vesou, has on
an avei'age the following composition : —
Albuminous matters ... ... ... ... 003
Granular matter (starch ?) ... ... ... ... O'lO
Mucilage containing nitrogen ... ... ... 0'22
Salts, mostly of organic acids" ... ... ... 0'29
Sugar 18-36
Water 81 00
1 38,013 hhds. in 1876.
2 29,074 hhds. in 1876.
^ Stems of American sugar cane, dried at
100° C, yielded 4 per cent of ash, nearly
half of which was silica. — Popp, in Wiggers'
Jahreshericht, 1870. 35.
The plan of obtaining a syrup by mace-
rating the sliced fresh cane, has been tried
in Guadaloupe, but abandoned owing to
some practical difficulties in exhausting the
cane and in carrying on the evaporation of
the liquors with sufficient rapidity. Exr
periments for extracting a pure syrup by
100-00
means of cold water from the sliced and
dried cane, seem to promise good results. —
See a paper by Dr. H. S. Mitchell in Jourii.
ofSoc. of Arts, Oct. 23, 1868.
5 Annales de CJiimie et de Physique, v.
(1865) 350-410.— See also, for Cuba, Alvaro
Eeynoso Ensaijo sobre el cultlvo de la cafia
de Azucar, Madrid, 1865. 359.— For British
Guiana, Catal. of Contributions from Biit.
Guiana to Paris Exhib. 1867.pp.xxxviii. -xli.
^ Aconilic Acid (p. 11) has been met
with by Bebr (1877) in West Indian
molasses.
SACCHARUM.
719
There is also present in the juice a very small amount of a slightly
aromatic substance (essential oil ?) to which the crude cane sugar owes
a peculiar odour which is not observed in sugar from other sources.
The first two classes of the above enumerated substances render the
juice turbid, and greatly promote its fermentation, but they easily
separate by boiling, and the juice may then be kept a short time with-
out undergoing change. In many colonies the yield is said to be far
inferior to what it should be ; yet the juice is obtained in a state allow-
ing of easier purification, when its extraction is not carried to the
furthest limit.
In beet i-oot as well as in the sugar cane, cane sugar only was said to be
present; leery however has proved that in the cane some uncrystallizable
(inverted) sugar is always present. Its quantity varies much, according
to the places where the cane grows, and its age. The tops of quick-
growing young canes yielded a vesou containing 24 per cent, of uncrystal-
lizable sugar ; 3"6 of cane sugar ; and 94 of water. Moist and shady
situations greatly promote the formation of the former kind of sugar,
which also prevails in the tops, chietiy when immature. Hence that
-observer concludes that at first the uncrystallizable variety of sugar is
formed, and subsequently transformed into cane sugar by the force of
vegetation, and especially by the influence of light. Perfectly ripened
canes contain only -J^j to Jg- of all their sugar in the uncrystallizable state.
Description and Chemical Composition — Cane sugar is the type
of a numerous class of well-defined organic compounds, of frequent
occurrence throughout the vegetable and animal kingdoms, or artificially
obtained by decomposing certain other substances ; in the latter case,
however, glucose or some other sugar than cane sugar is obtained. Cane
sugar, C^^H220", or C''H'XOH)'0', melts, without change of composi-
tion, at 160° C, several other kinds of sugar giving off" water, with which
they form crystallized compounds at the ordinary temperature.
Cane sugar forms hard crystals of the oblique rhombic system, having
a sp. gr. of I'oO. Two parts are dissolved at 15° C. by one part of
water,' and by much less at aiL elevated temperature ; a slight depression
of the thermometer is observable in the former case. One part of
sugar dissolved in one of water, forms a liquid of sp. gr. 12S; two of
sugar in one of water, a liquid of sp. gr. 1'33. Sugar requires 65 parts
of spirit of wine (sp. gr. 0'84) or 80 parts of anhydrous alcohol for solu-
tion ; ether does not act upon it.
A ray of polarized light is deviated by an aqueous solution of cane
sugar to the right, but by some other kinds of sugar to the left, as first
shown by Biot. These optical powers are highly important, both in the
practical estimation of solutions of sugai', and in scientific studies con-
nected with sugar or saccharogenous substances. The optical as well as
chemical properties of sugar are altered by many circumstances, as the
action of dilute acids or alkalis, or by the influence of minute fungi.
Yeast occasions sugar to undergo alcoholic fermentation. Other ferments
set up an action by which butyric, lactic or propionic acid are produced.
Cane sugar is of a purer and sweeter taste than most other sugars.
Though it does not alter litmus paper, yet with alkalis it forms com-
^ It is commonly stated that tJiree parts can be dissolved in one of cold water ; but this
is not the fact.
720
GRAMINEiE.
pounds some of which are crj'stallizable. From an alkaline solution of
tartrate of copper, cane sugar throws down no protoxide, unless after
boiling.
If sugar is kept a short time in a state of fusion at 160° C, it is
converted into one molecule of Orcqie Sugar and one of Levulosan ;
the former can be either isolated by crystallization or destroyed by fer-
mentation, the latter being incapable of crystallizing or of undergoing
fermentation.
Cane sugar which has been melted at 160° C. is deliquescent and
readily soluble in anhydrous alcohol, and its rotatory power is diminished
or entirely destroyed. It is no longer crystallizable, and its fusing point
has become reduced to about 93° C. Yet before undergoing these
evident alterations, it assumes an amorphous condition if allowed to
melt with a third of its weight of water, becoming always a little
coloured by pyrogenous products. In the course of time, however, this
amorphous sugar loses its transparency and reassumes the crystalline
form. Like svilphur and arsenious acid, it is capable of existing either
in a crystallized or an amorphous state.
If sugar is heated to about 190° C. water is evolved, and we obtain
the dark brown products commonly called Caramel or Burnt Sugar.
They are of a peculiar sharp flavour, of a bitter taste, incapable of fer-
menting and deliquescent. One of the constituents of caramel, Cara-
vielane, C'lI'^O", has been obtained by G^lis (1862) perfectly colourless.
When the heat is augmented, the sugar at last suffers a decomposition
resembling that which produces tar (see p. 621), its pyrogenous products
being the same or very analogous to those of the dry distillation of wood.
Varieties of Cane Sugar — The experiments of Marggraf referred
to at p. 717, note 9, showed that cane sugar is by no means confined to
the sugar cane ; and it is in fact extracted on an extensive scale from
several other plants, of which the following deserve mention
Beet Root — The manufacture of cane sugar from the fleshy root of
a cultivated variety of Beta maritivia L., is now largely carried on in
Continental Europe and in America, and with admirable results.
Of fresh beet root, 100 parts contain on an average 80 per cent, of
water, 11 to 13 of cane sugar, and about 7 per cent, of pectic and albu-
minous matters, cellulose and salts. Of the total amount of juice which
the root contains, eight-ninths are extracted ; and by the best process
now in practice, 8 to 9 parts of sugar from every 100 parts of fresh root.
The yield of crystalline sugar is still on the increase, owing to continual
improvements in the mechanical and chemical parts of the process.
Palm — Several species are of great utility for the production of the
sugar called by Europeans Jaggery.^ This substance is obtained by the
natives of India in the following manner: — The young growing spadix,
or flowering shoot, of the palm is cut off" near its apex ; and an earthen
vessel is tied on to the stump to receive the juice that flows out. This
vessel is emptied daily ; while to promote a continuous flow of sap, a
thin slice is cut from the wounded end. The juice thus collected, if at
once boiled down, yields the crude brown sugar known as jaggery. If
allowed to ferment, it becomes the inebriating drink called Toddy or
' A word of Sanskrit origin, corrupted from the Cauarese sJtarkari.
SACCHAEUM.
721
palm wine ; or it may be converted into vinegar. The spirit distilled
from toddy is Arrack.
Of the sugar-yielding palms of Asia, Phoenix silvestris Roxb., which
is supposed to be the wild form of the date palm, is one of the more
important. The coco-nut palm, Cocos nucifera L.; the magnificent
Palmyra palm, Borassiis fiahelliformis L.; and the Bastard Sago, Garyota
wrens L., also furnish important quantities of sugar. In the Indian
Ai'chipelago, sugar is obtained from the sap of Arenga saccharifera
Mart, which grows there in abundance as well as in the Philippines
and the Indo-Chinese countries. It is also got from Nipa fruticans
Thunb., a tree of the low coast regions, extensively cultivated in Tavoy.
De Vry^ has advocated the manufacture of sugar from the palm as
the most philosophical, seeing that its juice is a nearly pure aqueous
solution of sugar : that as no mineral constituents are removed from the
soil in this juice, the costly manuring, as well as the laborious and
destructive processes required to eliminate the juice from such plants
as the sugar cane and beet root, are avoided. And finally, that palms
are perennial, and can many of them be cultivated on a soil vinsuitable
for any cereal.
Maple — In America, considerable quantities of sugar identical with
that of . the cane are obtained in the vs^oods of the Northern United
States and of Canada, by evaporating the juice of maples. The species
chiefly employed are Acer saccharimim Wangenh., the Common Sugar
Maple, and its variety (var. nigrum) the Black Sugar Maple. A. Penn-
sylvctnicum L., A. Negunclo L. {Negundo aceroides Moench.) and A.
dasycarpurii Ehrh. are also used ; the sap of the last is said to be the
least saccharine.
As the juice of these trees yields not more than about 2 per cent, of
sugar, it requires for its solidification a large expenditure of fuel. The
manufacture of maple sugar can therefore be advantageously carried on
only in countries remote from markets whence ordinary sugar can be
procured, or in regions where fuel is extremely plentiful. In North
America it flourishes only between 40° and 43° N. lat. We are not
aware of any estimate of the total production of maple sugar. The
Census of Pennsylvania of 1870 gave the following figures as referring
to its manufacture in that State : — •
1850 1860 1870
2,326,5251b. 2,768,9651b. 1,545,917 Ib.^
Sorghum — Another plant of the same order as Saccharum is
Sorghum saccharatum Pers. {Holcus saccharatus L.) a native of Northern
China,^ which has of late been much tried as a sugar-yielding plant
both in Europe and North America ; yet without any great success, as
the purification of the sugar is accomplished with peculiar difficulty.
As in the sugar cane, there are in sorghum crystallizable and uncrystal-
lizable sugars, the former being at its maximum amount when the grain
reaches maturity. The importance of the plant however is rapidly
increasing on account of the value of its leaves and grain as food for
^Journ. de Pharm. i. (1865) 270. — Sicard, Monographie de la Canne A mere
^ Consul Kortright, in Consular Reports de la Chine, dite Sorgho k sucre, Marseille,
presented to Parliament, July 1872. p. 988. 1856; Joulie, Journ. de Pliarm. i. (1865)
^Introduced into Europe in 1850, by M. 188.
de Montigny, French Consul at Shanghai.
2 z
722
GRAMINEyE.
horses and cattle, and of its stems which can be employed in the manu-
facture of paper and of alcohol.
Commerce — The value of the sugar imported into the United
Kingdom is constantly increasing, as shown by the following figures : —
1868 1870 1872
Unrefined . . £13,339,758 £14,440,502 £18,044,898
Sejined . . . £1,156,188 £2,744,366 £3,142,703
The quantity of Unrefined Sugar imported in 1872 was 13,776,696
cwt., of which about 3,000,000 cwt. were furnished by the Spanish West
India Islands, 2,700,000 cwt. by the British West India Islands,
1,800,000 cwt. by Brazil, 1,100,000 cwt. by France, and 960,000 cwt.
by Mauritius.
Of Refined Sugar the imports from France and Belgium into the
United Kingdom were —
1874 1875 1876
133,800 102,300 92,044 tons.
Uses — Refined sugar is employed in pharmacy for making syrups,
electuaries and lozenges, and is useful not merely for the sake of
covering the unpleasant taste of other drugs, but also on account of a
preservative influence which it exerts over their active constituents.
Muscovado or Raw Sugar is not used in medicine. The dark uncrys-
tallizable syrup, known in England as Molasses, Golden Syrup, and
Treacle,^ and in foreign pharmacy as Syrupus Hollandicus vet communis,
which is formed in the preparation of pure sugar by the influence of
heat, alkaline bodies, microscopic vegetation, and the oxygen of the air,
is sometimes employed for making pill masses. The treacle of colonial
sugar alone is adapted for this purpose, that of beet root having a dis-
agreeable taste, and containing from 19 to 21 per cent, of oxalate,
tartrate and malate of potassium, and only 56 to 64 of sugar." The
treacle of colonial sugar usually contains 5 to 7 per cent, of salts.
HORDEUM DECORTICATUM.
Hordeum 'perlatnm, Fructus vel Semen Hordei; Pearl Barley ; F. Orge
monde ou perle ; G. Oerollte Oerste, Oerstegrawpen.
Botanical Origin — Hordeum distichum L., — the Common or Long-
eared Barley is probably indigenous to western temperate Asia, but has
been cultivated for ages throughout the northern hemisphere. In
Sweden its cultivation extends as far as 68° 38' N. lat.; on the Nor-
wegian coast up to the Altenfjord in 70° N. lat. ; even in Lapland, it
succeeds as high as 900 to 1350 feet above the level of the sea. In
several of the southern Swiss Alpine valleys, barley ripens at 5000 feet,
and in the Himalaya at 11,000 feet. In the Equatorial Andes, where it
is extensively grown, it thrives up to at least 11,000 feet above the sea.
No other cereal can be cultivated under so great a variety of climate.
1 How the word Treacle came to be trans-
ferred from its application to an opiate
medicine to become a name for molasses,
we know not. In tlie description of sugar-
making given by Salmon in his EnrjUsh
Physician or Dr uggist's Shop opened, Lond.
1663, treacle is never mentioned, but only
" melussas."
" Landolt, Zeitschr.fur analyt. Chein. vii.
(1868) 1-29.
HORDEUM DECORTICATUM.
723
According to Brefcschneider/ barley is included among the five
cereals which it is related in Chinese history were sowed by the Emperor
Shen-nung, who reigned about 2700 B.C.; but it is not one of the five
sorts of grain which are used at the ceremony of ploughing and sowing
as now annually performed by the emperors of China.
Theophrastus was acquainted with several sorts of barley (Kpidy'i),
and among them, with the six-rowed kind or hexastichon, which is the
species that is represented on the coins struck at Metapontum ^ in
Lucania, between the 6th and 2nd centuries B.C.
Strabo and Dioscorides in the 1st century allude to drinks made
from barley, which according to Tacitus were even then familiar to the
German tribes, as they are known to have been still earlier to the Greeks
and Egyptians.
Barley is mentioned in the Bible as a plant of cultivation in Egypt
and Syria, and must have been,among the ancient Hebrews, an important
article of food, judging from the quantity allowed by Solomon to the
servants of Hiram, king of Tyre (b.c. 1015). The tribute of barley paid
to King Jotham by the Ammonites (B.C. 741) is also exactly recorded.
The ancients were frequently in the practice of removing the hard
integuments of barley by roasting it, and using the torrefied grain
as food.
Manufacture — For use in medicine and as food for the sick, barley
is not employed in its crude state, but only when deprived more or less
completely of its husk. The process by which this is eflfected is carried
on in mills constructed for the purpose, and consists essentially in
passing the grain between horizontal millstones, placed so far apart as
to rub off" its integuments without crushing it. Barley partially deprived
of its husk is known as Scotch, hulled or Pot Barley. When by longer
and closer grinding the whole of the integuments have been removed,
and the grain has become completely rounded, it is termed Pearl Barley.
In the BrifAsh Pharmacopmia it is this sort alone which is ordered to
be used.
Description — Pearl Barley is in subspherical or somewhat ovoid
grains about 2 lines in diameter, of white farinaceous aspect, often partly
yellowish from remains of the adhering husk, which is present on the
surface, as well as in the deep longitudinal furrow with which each grain
is indented. It has the farinaceous taste and odour which are common
to most of the cereal grains.
Microscopic Structure — The albumen which constitutes the main
portion of the grain is composed of large thin- walled parenchyme, the
cells of which on transverse section are seen to radiate from the furrow,
and to be lengthened in that direction rather than longitudinally. In
the vicinity of the furrow alone the tissue of the albumen is narrower.
Its predominating large cells show a polygonal or oval outline, whilst
the outer layer is built up of two, three or four rows of thick-walled,
coherent, nearly cubic gluten-cells. This layer, about 70 mkm. thick, is
coated with an extremely thin brown tegument, to which succeeds a layer
about 30 mkm. thick, of densely packed, tabular, greyish or yellowish
1 On Chinese Botanical Worlcs, etc., Foo- the rivers Bradano and Basento in the giilf
chow, 1870. 7. 8. of Taranto.
- Metapontum lay in the plain between
724
GRAMINEiE.
cells of very small size ; this proper coat of the fruit in the furrow is
of rather spongy appearance.
In some varieties of barley the fruit is constituted of the above
tissues alone and the shell, but in most the palese are likewise present.
They consist chiefly of long fibrous, thick-walled cells, two or four rows
deep, constituting a very hard layer. On tranverse section, this layer
forms a coherent envelope about 35 mkm. thick ; its cells when exa-
mined in longitudinal section show but a small lumen of peculiar undu-
lated outline from secondary deposits.
The gluten-cells varying considerably in the different cereal grains,
afford characters enough to distinguish them with certainty. In wheat,
for instance, the gluten-cells are in a single row, in rice they form a
double or single row, but its cells are transversely lengthened.
The inner tissue of the albumen in barley is filled up with large
irregularly lenticular, and with extremely small globular starch granules,
the first being 20 to 35 mkm., the latter 1, 2 to 3 mkm. in diameter,
with no considerable number of intermediate size. The concentric layers
constituting the large granules may be made conspicuous by moistening
with chromic acid.
The layer alluded to as being composed of ghiten-cells is loaded with
extremely small granules of albuminous matters (gluten), which on
addition of iodine are coloured intensely yellow. These granules, which,
considering barley as an article of food, are of prominent value, are
not confined to the gluten-cells, but the neighbouring starch-cells also
contain a small amount of them : and in the narrow zone of denser
tissue projecting from the furrow into the albumen, protein principles
are equally deposited, as shown by the yellow coloration which iodine
produces.
The gluten-cells, the membrane embroynnaire of Mege-Mouries, con-
tain also, according to the researches on bread ^ made by this chemist
(1856), Cerealin, an albuminous principle soluble in water, which causes
the transformation of starch into dextrin, sugar, and lactic acid. In the
husks (epiclerme, epicarpe and endocarpe) of wheat, Mege-Mourifes found
some volatile oil and a yellow extractive matter, to which, together with
the cerealin, is due the acidity of bread made with the flour containing
the bran.
Chemical Composition— Barley has been submitted to careful
analyses by many chemists, more especially by Lermer.^ The grains
contain usually 13 to 15 per cent, of water; after diying, they yield to
ether 3 per cent, of fat oil, with insignificant proportions of tannic and
bitter principles, residing chiefly in the husks. Lermer further found in
the whole grains, 63 per cent, of starch, 7 of cellulose, 6"6 of dextrin,
2'5 of nitrogen, a small amount of lactic acid, and 2 4 of ash.
The analysis of Poggiale (1856) gave nearly the same composition,
namely, water 15, oil 2'4, starch 60, cellulose 8"8, albuminous principles
10-7, ash 2-6.
The protein, or albuminous matter consists of different principles,
chiefly insoluble in cold water. The soluble portion is partly coagulated
on boiling, partly retained in solution : 2-5 per cent, of nitrogen, as
1 He actually examined «<;/(6a<, not barley; Wittstein, Vierteljaliresschr. fur praht.
we assume the chemical constitution of the Pharm. xii. (1863) 4-23.
two grains to be similar.
OLEUM ANDROPOGONIS.
725
above, would answer to about 16 pei- cent, of albuminous matters. Their
soluble part seems to be deposited in the starch-cells, next to the gluten-
cells, which latter contain the insoluble portion.
The ash, according to Lermer, contains 29 per cent, of silicic acid,
32-6 of phosphoric acid, 227 of potash, and only 37 of lime. In the
opinion of Salm-Horstmar, fluorine and lithia are indispensable con-
stituents of barley.
The fixed oil of barley, as proved in 1863 by Hanamann, is a com-
pound of glycerin with either a mixture of palmitic and lauric acids, or
less probably with a peculiar fatty acid. Beckmann's Hordeinic Acid
obtained in 1855 by distilling barley with sulphuric acid, is probably
lauric acid. Lintner (1868) has shown barley to contain also a little
Gholesterin (p. 420).
Lastly, Kiihnemann (1875) extracted from bai-ley a crystallized
dextrogyrate sugar, and (1876) an amorphous Isevogyrate mucilaginous
substance Sinistrin (see p. 692) ; according to that chemist, dextrin is
altogether wanting in barley.
Barley when malted loses 7 per cent. ; it then contains 10 to 12 per
cent, of sugar, produced at the expense of the starch ; before malting,
no sugar is to be found.
Uses — Barlej'' as a medicine is unimportant. A decoction is some-
times prescribed as a demulcent or as a diluent of active remedies. An
aqueous extract of malt has been employed.
OLEUM ANDROPOGONIS.
Oleum Graminis Indici ; Indian Grass Oil.
Botanical Origin — Among the numerous species of Andropogon^
which have foliage abounding in essential oil, the following furnish the
fragrant Grass Oils of commerce : —
1. Andropogon Nardus L.,^ — a noble-looking plant, rising when in
flower to a height of 6 or more feet, extensively cultivated in Ceylon
and Singapore for the production of Gitronella Oil.
2. A. citratus D.C.,^ Lemon Grass, — a large coarse glaucous grass,
known only in a cultivated state, and very rarely producing flowers. It
is grown in Ceylon and Singapor-^ for the sake of its essential oil, which
is called Lemon Grass Oil, Oil of Verbena or Indian Melissa Oil ; it is
also commonly met with in gardens throughout India and is not unfre-
quent in English hothouses. In Java it is called Sireh.
3. A. Schwnanthus L.,* a grass of Northern and Central India, having
^ Major -General Munrohas at oxir request
investigated the botanical characters of the
fragrant species of Andropogon, and exa-
mined a numerous suite of specimens in our
j)OSsession. The synonyms in foot-notes
are given upon his authority.
'^A. MariiniThyf sites, Enum. Plantarum
Zeylanim nec aliorum. — Fig. in Bentley and
Trimen's Med. Plants, part 28 (1878).
^ A. citratum A. P. De CandoUe, Catalogus
Plantarum Horti Botanici Monspeliensis,
1813 ; A. ScJicenanthus Wallich, Plant.
Asiat. rariores, iii. (1832) tab. 280; Rox-
burgh, Flora Inclica, i. (1820) 278, quoad
observ atioues, sed non quoad diagnosis.
* Ventenat, Jardin de Cels, 1803. tab.
89 ; A. Martini Roxb. Flor. Iiul. i. (1820)
280 ; A. pachnodes Triuius, Species Gra-
■minum, iii. (1836) tab. 327 ; A. Calamus
aromaticus Royle, Illustrations of Bot. of
Himalayan Mountains, 1839. tab. 97.
72G
GRAMINE^.
leaves rounded or slightly cordate at the base, yielding by distillation
the oil known as Rusa Oil, Oil of Ginger Grass or of Geranium.
History — The aromatic properties of certain species of Andropogon
were well known to Rheede, Rumphius, and other early writers on
Indian natural history ; and an oil distilled from the Sireh grass in
Amboyna was known as a curiosity as early as 1717/
But it is only in very recent times that the volatile oils of these
plants have become objects of commerce with Europe. Lemon grass oil
is mentioned by Roxburgh in 1820 as being distilled in the Moluccas ;
and it was first imported into London about the year 1832. Citronella
oil is of much more recent introduction. Ginger grass oil, called in
Hindustani Ricsa ka tel, is stated by Waring^ to have been first brought
to notice by Dr. N. Maxwell in 1825.
Production — Citronella and Lemon grass are cultivated about Gallo
and at Singapore, the same estate often producing both. The grasses
are distilled separately, the essential oils being regarded as entirely dis-
tinct, and having different market values. In Ceylon they are cut for
distillation at any time of year, but mostly in December and January.
On the Perseverance Estate at Gaylang, Singapore, belonging to Mr.
John Fisher, an area of 950 acres is cultivated with aromatic grasses and
other plants, for the production of essential oils. The manufacture was
tried on a small scale in 1865, and has been so successful that an aggre-
gate of 200 lb. of various essential oils is now produced daily. These
oils are stated to be Citronella, Lemon Grass, Patchouly, Nutmeg, Mace,
Pepper, and Oman (p. 302) : and mint is now being cultivated.^
Ginger grass oil is distilled in the collectorate of Khandesh in the
Bombay Presidency. That produced in the district of Namar in the valley
of the Nerbudda, is sometimes called Grass Oil of Namar. We have no
particulars of the distillation, which however must be carried on exten-
sively.
Description — The Indian grass oils are lighter than water, devoid
of rotatory power when examined by polarized light, and do not alter
litmus paper. They are all extremely fragrant, having an odour like
a mixture of lemon and rose. Lemon grass, which in colour is a
deep golden brown, has aa odour resembling that of the sweet-scented
verbena of the gardens, Lip])ia citriodora H.B.K. Ginger grass oil, the
colour of which varies from pale gi-eenish yellow to yellowish-brown, has
the odour of Pelargonium Radula Alton. The colour of citronella oil is
a light greenish-yellow. The manufacture of Winter of Ceylon, and of
Fisher of Singapore, have a reputation for excellence, and are generally
indicated by name in drug sale catalogues.
Chemical Composition — Stenhouse* examined in 1844 oil ot
ginger grass given to him by Christison as Oil of Namur (or Nimar).
The sample was of deep yellow, and apparently old, for when mixed with
water and subjected to distillation, it left nearly one half its bulk of a
fluid resin, the oil which passed over being colourless. After rectification
from chloride of calcium, it was shown to consist of a hydrocarbon
mixed with a small proportion of an oxygenated oil. The latter having
^ Ephemerides Naturos Curlosorum, cent. Straits Settlements Blue Booh for 1872,
v.-vi. (1717), cappendix 157. Singaijore, 1873. 465.
Pharmacopeia of India, 1868. 465. * Mcvi. of Chem. Sor. ii. (1845) 122.
OLEUM ANDROPOGONIS.
727
been decomposed by sodium, and the oil again rectified, a second analysis
was made which proved it isomeric with oil of turpentine.
A genuine grass oil from Khandesh, derived as we suppose from the
same species, which was examined by one of us (F.), yielded nothing
crystalline when saturated with dry hydrochloric acid ; but when the
liquid was afterwards treated with fuming nitric acid, crystals of the
compound, C^*^ff^ HCl, sublimed into the upper part of the vessel. We
have observed that the oils both of lemon grass and citronella yield solid
compounds, if shaken with a saturated solution of bisulphite of sodium.
Citronella oil was found by Gladstone (1872) to be composed chiefly
of an oxidized oil, which he called Gitronellol, and which he sepax'ated
by fractional distillation into two portions, the one boiling at 202-205° C,
the other 199-202° C. The composition of each portion is indicated by
the formula C'^ff '^0.
Wright's researches (1874) tend rather to show the prevailing part of
citronella oil to consist of the liquid C^"ff *0, boiling near 210°, which he
calls Gitronellol. It unites with bromine, and the resulting compound,
upon heating, breaks up according to the following equation : —
C"H^^OBr^ = Off . 2 HBr . C^»H".
Cymene.
Commerce — The growing trade in grass oil is exemplified in a
striking manner by the following statistics. The export of Citronella
Oil from Ceylon in 1864 was 622,000 ounces, valued at £8230. In the
Ceylon Blue Book, the exports for 1872 are returned thus: —
To the United Kingdom .... 1,163,074 ounces 1
British India 5,713 ,, > 1,595,257 ounces.'
United States of North America . . 426,470 ,, )
In 1875 the oil shipped from Ceylon to the United Kingdom was
valued at 42,871 rupees, that sent to other foreign countries at 45,871
rupees, to British possessions 660 rupees (one rupee equal to about 2s).
Oil of Lemon Grass, which is a more costly article and less extensively
produced, was exported from Ceylon during the same year to the extent
of 13,515 ounces, more than half of which quantity was shipped to the
United States. There are no analogous statistics for these two oils from
Singapore, where, as stated at p. 726, they are now largely manufactured.
By the official Report on the External Commerce of Bombay, published
in 1867, we find that during the year ending 31 March, 1867, Grass Oil
[i.e. Ginger-grass or Rusa Oir\ wa? exported thence to the amount of
41,643 lb. This oil is shipped to England and to the ports of the
Red Sea.
Uses — Grass oils are much esteemed in India as an external appli-
cation in rheumatism. Rusa oil is said to stimulate the growth of the
hair. Internally, grass oil is sometimes administered as a carminative in
colic ; and an infusion of the leaves of lemon grass is prescribed as a dia-
phoretic and stimulant. In Europe and America the oils are used
almost exclusively by the soapmakers and perfumers.^
1 In addition to which, there were "842
dozens and 33 ■packages " of the same oil
shipped to the United States. One ounce
equal to 31 "1 grammes.
^ The foliage of the large odoriferous
species of A ndropogon is used in India for
thatching. It is eaten voraciously by cattle,
whose flesh and milk become flavoured with
its strong aroma.
728
GRAMINE.E.
I
But the most remarkable use made of any grass oil is that for adul-
terating Attar of Rose in European Turkey. The oil thus employed is
that of Andropogon Schoenanthus L. (see p. 725) ; and it is a curious fact
that its Hindustani name is closely similar in sound to the word rose.
Thus under the designation Rttsa, Rowsah, Rosa, Rose, Roshe^ it is
exported in large quantities from Bombay to the ports of Arabia, pi'o-
bably chiefly to Jidda, whence it is carried to Turkey by the Mahom-
medan pilgrims. In Arabia and Turkey, it appears under the name
Idris ydgJd, while in the attar-producing districts of the Balkan it is
known, at least to Europeans, as Oeranium Oil or Palmarosa Oil. Before
being mixed with attar, the oil is subjected to a certain preparation,
which is accomplished by shaking it with water acidulated with lemon
juice, and then exposing it to the sun and air. By this pi'ocess,
described by Baur,- the oil loses a penetrating after-smell, and acquires
a pale straw colour. The optical and chemical difierences between
grass oil thus refined and attar of rose are slight and do not indicate a
small admixture of the former. If grass oil is added largely to attar,
it will prevent its congealing.
Adulteration — The grass oil prepai-ed by the natives of India is not
unfrequently contaminated with fatty oil.
Other Products of the genus Andropogon.
Herba Schcenanthi vel Squinanthi, Juncus odoratus, Foenum
Camelorum.
The drug bearing these names has had a place in pharmacy from the
days of Dioscorides down to the middle of the last century, and is still
met with in the East. The plant which affords it, formerly confounded
with other species, is now known to be Andropogon laniger Desf, a
grass of wide distribution, growing in hot dry i-egions in Northern Africa
(Algeria), Arabia, and North-western India, reaching Thibet, where
it is found up to an elevation of 11,000 feet. Mr. Tolbort has sent us
specimens under the name of Khdvi, gathered by himself in 1869 between
Multan and Kot Sultan, and quite agreeing with the drug of pharmacy.
The grass has an aromatic pungent taste, which is retained in very old
specimens. We are not aware that it is distilled for essential oil.
Cuscus or Vetti-ver' — This is the long fibrous root of Andropogon
muricatus Retz, a large grass found abundantly in rich moist ground in
Southern India and Bengal. Inscriptions on copper-plates lately dis-
covered in the district of Etawah, south-east of Agra, and dating from
A.D. 1103 and 1174, record grants of villages to Brahmins by the
kings of Kanauj, and enumerate the imposts that were to be levied.
These include taxes on mines, salt pits and the trade in precious metals,
also on mahwah (Bassia) and mango trees, and on Cuscus Grass.^
Cuscus, which appears occasionally in the London drug sales, is used
in England for laying in drawers as a perfume. In India it serves for
1 50 cases, containing about 2250 lb., im-
ported from Bombay, were offered as "Eose
Oil" at public sale, by a London drugbroker,
31 July, 1873.
2 See p, 267.
Ciiscus, otherwise written Khus-hhus, a
name adopted by the English in India, is
probably from the Persian Kltas. Vetti-ver
is the Malyalim name of the plant.
^ Proc. ofAsiat. Soc. of Bengal, Aug. 1873.
161.
RHIZOMA GRAMINIS.
729
making tatties or screens, which are placed in windows and doorways,
and when wetted, diffuse an agreeable odour and coolness. It is also
used for making ornamental baskets and many small articles, and has
some reputation as a medicine.
RHIZOMA GRAMINIS.
Radix Graminis; Couch Grass, Quitch Grass, Dog's Grass; F. Chien-
dent comrixun ou Petit Ghiendent; G. Queckenwurzel, Grasxvurzel.
Botanical Origin — Agropyo^um repens P. Beauv. {Triticum re-
pens L.), a widely diffused weed, growing in fields and waste places in
all parts of Europe, in Northern Asia down to the region south of the
Caspian, also in North America; and in South America to Patagonia
and Tierra del Fuego.
History — The ancients were familiar with a grass termed" Ay /ococrTt?
and Gramen, having a creeping rootstock like that under notice. It is
impossible to determine to what species the plant is referable, though it
is probable that the grass Gynodon Dactylon Pers., as well as Agropyrum
repens, was included under these names.
Dioscorides asserts that its root taken in the form of decoction, is a
useful remedy in suppression of urine and vesical calculus. The same
statements are made by Pliny ; and again occur in the writings of Ori-
basius^ and Marcellus Empiricus' in the 4th, and of Aetius^ in the 6th
century, and are repeated in the medifeval herbals,* where also figures
of the plant may be found, as for instance in Dodonteus. The drug is
also met with in the German pharmaceutical tariffs of the 16th century.
Turner'^ and Gerarde both ascribe to a decoction of grass root diuretic
and lithontriptic virtues. The drug is still a domestic remedy in great
repute in France, being taken as a demulcent and sudorific in the form
of tisane.
Description — Couch-grass has a long, stiff, pale yellow, smooth
rhizome, of an inch in diameter, creeping close under the surface of
the ground, occasionally branching, marked at intervals of about an inch
by nodes, which bear slender branching roots and the remains of sheath-
ing rudimentary leaves.
As found in the shops, the rhizome is always free from rootlets, cut
into short lengths of ^to ^ of an inch, and dried. It is thus in the form
of little, shining, straw-coloured, many-edged, tubular pieces, which are
without odour, but have a slightly sweet taste.
Microscopic Structure — A transverse section of this rhizome shows
two different portions of tissue, separated by the so-called nucleus-sheath.
The latter consists of an unbroken ring of prismatic cells, analogous to
those occurring in sarsaparilla. In Rhizoma Graminis, the outer part
of the tissue exhibits a diffuse circle of about 20 liber bundles, and the
interior part about the same number of fibro-vascular bundles more
1 De virtute simpUcium, cap. i. (Agrostis).
- De medicamentis, cap. xxvi.
^ Tetrabibli primee, sermo i.
As in the Herharius Pataviw printed in
1485, in which it is said of Gramen — " aqua
decoctionis ejus . . . valet contra dissuriam
. . . et frangit lapidem et curat vulnera
vesicffi et provocat urinam . . . . "
■5 Herhall, part 2, 1568. 13.
730
GRAMINEiE.
I
densely packed. The pitli is reduced to a few rows of cells, the rhizome
being always hollow, except at the nodes. No solid contents are to be
met with in the tissue.
Chemical Composition — The constituents of couch-grass include
no substance to which medicinal powers can be ascribed. The juice
of the rhizome afforded to H. Muller^ about 3 per cent, of sugar, and 7
to 8 per cent, of Triticin, a tasteless, amorphous, gummy sub-
stance, easily transformed into sugar if its concentrated solution is kept
for a short time at 110° C. When treated with nitric acid, it yields
oxalic acid. The rhizome affords also another gummy matter containing
nitrogen, and quickly undergoing decomposition ; the drug moreover is
somewhat rich in acid malates. Mannite is probably occasionally pre-
sent as in taraxacum (p. 394), for such is the inference we draw from
the opposite results obtained by Stenhouse and by Volcker. Starch,
pectin and resin are wanting. The rhizome leaves 4|- per cent, of ash.
Uses — A decoction of the rhizome has of late been recommended in
mucous discharge from the bladder.
Substitutes — Agrojpyrum acutum R. et S., A. 'pungens R. et S., and
A . junceum P. Beauv., by some botanists regarded as mere maritime
varieties of A. repens, have rootstocks perfectly similar to this latter.
Gynodon Dactylon Pers., a grass very common in the South of
Europe and the warmer parts of Western Europe, also indigenous to
Northern Africa as far as Sennaar and Abyssinia, affords the Gros Ghien-
'dent or Ghiendent pied-de-poule of the French. It is a rhizome differing
from that of couch-grass in being a little stouter. Under the microscope
it displays an entirely different structure, inasmuch as it contains a
large number of much stronger fibro-vascular bundles, and a cellular
tissue loaded with starch, and is therefore in appearance much more
woody. It thus approximates to the rhizome of Garex arenaria L.,
which is as much used in Germany as that of Gyiiodon in Southern
Europe. The latter appears to contain Asparagin (the Gynodin of
Semmola^), or a substance similar to it. •
1 ArcJdv der Pharm. 203. (1873) 17.
^ Delia CiHO(Z«ia, nuovoprodotto organico,
trovato nella gramigna officinale, Cynodon
Dactylon. — Opere minori di Giovanni Sem-
viola, Napoli, 1841. — Abstracted in the
Jahresbericht of Berzelius, Tubingen, 1845.
535.
IL—CRYPTOGAMOUS or FLOWERLESS PLANTS.
LYCOPODI ACE JE.
SPORiE LYCOPODII.
Lycopodium; Semen vel Sporuloi Lycopodii; F. Lycopode;
G. Bdrlapp)savien, Hexenmehl.
Botanical Origin — Lycopodium clavatum L. — This plant, the Com-
mon Clubmoss, is almost cosmopolitan. It is found on hilly pastures and
heaths throughout Central and Northern Europe from the Alps and
Pyrenees to the Arctic reunions, in the mountains of the east and centre
of Spain, throughout Russian Asia to Amurland and Japan, in North
and South America, the Falkland Isles, Australia and the Cape of Good
Hope. It occurs throughout Great Britain, but is most plentiful on the
moors of the northern counties.
The part of the plant employed in pharmacy is the minute spores,
which, as a yellow powder, are shaken out of the kidney -shaped capsules
or sporangia, growing on the inner side of the bracts covering the
fruit-spike.
The manner in which those sporse are able to reproduce the mother
plant is not yet satisfactorily ascertained.^
History — The Common Clubmoss was well known as Mnscus ter-
restris or Muscus clavatus, to the older botanists, as Tragus, Dodonseus,
Tabernsemontanus, Bauhin, Parkinson and Ray, by most of whom its
supposed virtues as a herb have been commemorated. Though the
powder (spores) was officinal in Germany, and used as an application to
wounds in the middle of the 17th century,^ it does not appear to have
been known in the English shops until a comparatively recent period.
It is not included by Dale * in the list of drugs sold by London druggists
in 1692, nor enumerated in English drug lists of the last century; and
it never had a place in the London Pharmacopoeia.
^ The few particulars may be found in the
excellent description of Lycopodium in
Luerssen's " Medicinisch - pharmaceutische
Botanih," i. (Leipzig, 1878) 635, with
figures.
2 Schroder, Pharmacopeia Medico-chy-
mica, ed. 4, Lugd. 1656. 538. — Fliickiger,
" Documente" (quoted p. 404) 63. 68.
Pharmacologia, Lond. 1693.
732
LYCOPODIACEiE.
Description — Lycopodium is a fine, mobile, inodorous, tasteless
powder of pale yellow hue, having at 16° C. a sp. gr. of 1-0G2. It floats
on water and is wetted with difficulty, yet sinks in that fluid after
boiling. By strong titration it coheres, assumes a grey tint, and leaves
an oily stain on paper ; it may then be mixed with water. It is imme-
diately moistened by oily and alcoholic liquids, chloroform, or ether. It
loses only 4 per cent, of moisture when dried at 100° C. When slowly
heated, it burns away quietly, but when projected into flame, it ignites
instantly and explosively, burning with much light, an effect exhibited
by some other pulverulent bodies having a peculiar structure, as fern
spores and kamala.
Microscopic Structure — Under the microscope lycopodium is seen
to be composed of uniform cells or granules, 25 mkm. in diameter, each
bounded by four faces, one of which (the base) is convex, while the
others terminate in a triangular pyramid, the tln-ee furrowed edges of
which do not reach quite to the base. These tetrahedral granules are
marked by minute ridges, forming by their intersections, regular five- or
six-sided meshes. At the points of intersection, small elevations are
produced, which, under a low magnifjdng power, give the granules a
speckled appearance. Below this network lies a yellow, coherent, thin,
but compact membrane, which exhibits considerable power of resistance,
not being ruptured either by boiling water or by potash lye. Oil of
vitriol does not act upon it in the cold, even after several days ; but it
instantly penetrates the grains and renders them transparent, while at
the same time numerous drops of oil make their appearance and quickly
exude.
Chemical Composition — One of the most remarkable constituents
of lycopodium spores is a fixed oil, which they contain to the astonishing
amount of 47 per cent. Bucholz pointed out its existence in 1807, but
obtained it only to the extent of 6 per cent. Yet if the spores are
thoroughly comminuted by prolonged trituration with sand, and are
then exhausted with chloroform or ether, we find that the larger pro-
portion above mentioned can be obtained. The oil is a bland liquid,
which does not solidify even at - 15° C.
By subjecting lypocodium or its extract to distillation with or
without an alkali, Stenhouse obtained volatile bases, the presence of
which we can fully confirm ; but they occur in exceedingly small pro-
portion. The ash of lycopodium amounts to 4 per cent. ; it is not alkaline ;
it contains alumina, and one per cent, of phosphoric acid, constituents
likewise found in the green parts of the plant.
Production and Commerce — To obtain lycopodium, the tops of
the plant are cut as the spikes approach maturity, taken home, and the
powder shaken out and separated by a sieve. It is collected chiefly in
July and August, in Russia, Germany and Switzerland. The quantity
obtained varies greatly by reason of frequent failures in the growth of
the plant.
France imported in 1870, 7262 kilo. (16,017 lb.) of lycopodium,
chiefly from Germany. The consumption in England is probably very
much smaller, but there are no data to consult.
Uses — Lycopodium is not now regarded as possessing any medicinal
virtues, and is only used externally for dusting excoriated surfaces and
RHIZOMA FILICIS.
733
for placing in pill boxes to prevent the mutual adhesion of pills. It is
also employed by the pyrotechnist.
Adulteration — The spores are so peculiar in structure, that they
can be distinguished with certainty by the microscope from all other
substances. It is only the species of clubmoss that are nearly related
to L. clavatum,^ that yield an analogous product, and this may be used
with equal advantage.
The pollen of phrenogamous plants, as of Pinus silvestris, looks at
first sight much like lycopodium, but its structure is totally different and
very easily recognized by the microscope.
Water, even on boiling, is unable to dissolve anything from lyco-
podium ; slight traces of sulphate of calcium are not seldom met with
in the filtrate. Yet an undue proportion of gypsum will be detected
by the following methods : —
Starch and dextrin, which are sometimes fraudulently mixed with
the spores, are easily recognized by the well-known tests. Inorganic
admixtures, as gypsum or magnesia, may be detected by their sinking
in bisulphide of carbon, whereas lycopodium rises to the surface ;
or by incineration, a good commercial drug leaving about 4 per cent,
of ash.
FILICES.
RHIZOMA FILICIS.
Radix Filicis maris ; Male Fern Rhizome, Male Fern Root ; F. Racine
de Fougere mdle ; G. Farmvurzel.
Botanical Origin — Aspidium Filix mas Swartz {Poly20odium L.
Neiohrodium Michaux). The male fern is one of the most widely dis-
tributed species, usually growing in abundance and, in temperate
regions, ascending as high as the arborescent vegetation. It occurs all
over Europe from Sicily to Iceland, in Greenland, throughout Central
and Russian Asia to the Himalaya and Japan ; is found throughout
China, and again in Java and the Sandwich Islands, as well as in
Africa from Algeria to the Cape Colony and Mauritius. In North
America it is wanting in the Eastern United States, being principally
replaced by the nearly allied Aspidium marginale Sw. and A. Gol-
dieanum Hook. ; but it is met with in Canada, California and Mexico,
as well as in New Granada, Venezuela, Brazil, and Peru.
History — The use of the rhizome of ferns as a vermifuge was well
known to the ancients,^ as Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Pliny all
giving curious descriptions of the plant. The remedy would appear to
have been administered also during the middle ages, for it was again
noticed by Valerius Cordus,^ and had a place in German pharmaceutical
tariffs of the sixteenth century as well as in Schroder's Dispensatory.^
^ Especially L. annotinum, L. compla- ^ Lib. 4, cap. 156 of the work quoted in
natum and L. inundatum. the Appendix.
^Murray, Apparatus medkaminum, v. * Medicm-cJiymische Apotheke, l^i\rnherg,
(1790) 453-471. 1656. 20.
734
FILICES.
Yet Tragus ^ remarks that, at least in Germany, the root was little
used. It was in fact subsequently nearly forgotten until revived by the
introduction of certain secret remedies for tapeworm, of which
powdered male fern rhizome, combined with drastic purgatives, was
a chief constituent.
A medicine of this kind was prepared by Daniel Mathieu, a native
of Neuchatel, born in 1741, who established himself as an apothecary
in Berlin. His treatment for the parasite was so successful that it
attracted the notice of Frederick the Great, who purchased his nostrum
for an annuity of 200 thalers (£30), besides conferring upon him the
dignity of Aulic Councillor.^
Great celebrity was also gained for the method of treating tapeworm
practised by Madame Nuflfter or Nuffer, the widow of a surgeon at
Murten (Morat), likewise in Switzerland, who in 1775 obtained for the
secret from Louis XIV., after an inquiry by savans of the period, the
sum of 18,000 livres. Her method of treatment consisted in the
administration of — 1. Panada made of bread with a little butter. 2.
A clyster of salt water and olive oil. 3. The " specifique " — simply
powdered fern-root. 4. A purgative bolus of calomel, gamboge,
acammony, and Confectio hyacinthidis, — given in the foregoing order,^
J. Peschier,* a pharmacien of Geneva, recommended as a substitute
for the bulky powder of the root, an ethereal extract, an efficient
preparation, which though proposed in 1825, was scarcely used in
England until about 1851 ; at present it is the only form in which
male fern is employed. Peschier already observed a crystallized deposit
in his extract.
Description — The fresh rhizome or caudex is short and massive,
2-3 inches in diameter, decumbent, or rising a few inches above the
ground, and bearing on its summit a circular tuft of fronds, which in
their lower part are thickly beset with brown chaffy scales. Below
the growing fronds are the remains of those of previous seasons, Avhich
retain in their firm, fleshy bases, vitality and succulence for yeai's
after their upper portion has perished. From among these fleshy
bases, spring the black, wiry, branching I'oots.^ The rhizome is rather
fleshy, and easily cut with a knife, internally of a bright pale yellowish
green ; it has very little odour and a sweetish astringent taste. For
pharmaceutical use, it should be collected in the late autumn, winter or
early spring, divested of the dead portions, split open, dried with a
gentle heat, reduced to coarse powder, and at once exhausted with ether.
Extract obtained in this way is more efiicient than that which has
been got from rhizome that has been kept some time.
Microscopic Structure — On transverse section of the rootstock,
the tissue shows rounded, somewhat polyhedral cells with porous
walls ; the outer cells are brown and rather smaller, but do not exhibit
1 P. 547 of the work quoted in the Ap-
pendix.
Cornaz, Les families midicales de la
ville de Neuchatel, 1864. 20.
^ Traitement contre le Tinia ou ver soli-
taire, pratiqui a Morat en Suisse, examiiii
et 6prouv6 a. Paris. Public par ordre du
Roi, 1775. 4°, pp. 30. 3 plates, one repre-
senting the plant, its rhizome and leaves. —
Also English translation by Dr. Simmons,
London, 1778. 8°.
* BibliotMque Universelle, xxx. (1825) 205;
XXX. (1826) 326.
' For a full account of the growth and
structure of that rhizome see Luerssen,
Medicinisch-pharmaceutische Botanik, i.
(1878) 504. 561.
RHIZOMA FILICIS.
735
the regular flattened shape, usual in many suberous coats. Within
this cortical layer, there is a circle of about 10 large vascular bundles,
besides a large number of smaller ones scattered beyond the circle.
The leaf-bases exhibit a somewhat different structure, their vascular
bundles, usually 8, forming but one diffuse circle.
The cells of the parenchyme contain starch, greenish or brownish
granules of tannic matter, and drops of oil. In the green, vigorously
vegetating parts of the rootstock thei'e are numerous smaller and
larger intercellular spaces, into which a few stalked glands project, as
shown by Prof Schacht of Bonn in 1863. These globular glands
originate from the cells bordering the intercellular spaces. After their
complete development, and the appearance of starch in the adjacent
parenchyme, they exude a greenish fluid, which when thin slices of the
rhizome are kept some time in glycei'in, solidifies in acicular crystals.^
Such glands appear to be wanting in most of the allied ferns, such as
Aspidmm Oreoyteris Sw. and Asplenium Filix foemina Bernh. They
have been observed by one of us (F.), in the small rhizome of A. simiu-
sloum Sw. Similar glands, but not exuding a green liquid, occur
between the palese below the vegetating cone of the rootstock.
Chemical Composition — Of the numerous examinations which
have been made of this drug, those of Bock (1852), of Luck (1860), and
of Kruse (1876), may be especially mentioned. Besides the universally
distributed constituents of plants, there have been found in the rhizome
5 to 6 per cent, of a green fatty oil, traces of volatile oil, resin, tannin
(Luck's Tannaspidic and Pteritannic Acids) and crystallizable sugar,
which according to Bock is probably cane sugar.
The medicinal ethereal extract, of which the rhizome yields about
8 per cent., deposits a colourless, granular, crystalline substance, noticed
by Peschier as early as 1826, and subsequently designated by Luck,
Filicic Acid. Grabowski (1867) assigned it the formula C"ff*0".
We learn from Prof Buchheim that he regards filicic acid as the source
of the medicinal efficacy of the drug. By fusion with potash, filicic acid
is converted into phloroglucin and butyric acid. The green liquid poi'-
tion of the extract consists mainly of a glyceride called Fllixolin, from
which Luck obtained by saponification two acids, the one volatile, Filos-
mylic Acid, the other non-volatile, termed Filixolic Acid.
Malin (1867) showed that the tannic acid of male fern may be
decomposed by boiling dilute acids into sugar and a red substance,
Filix-red, C'-^H^^O^'^ analogous to Cinchona-red.
Schoonbroodt'' performed some interesting experiments with fresh
fern root, showing that it contains volatile acids of the fatty series,
among which is probably formic ; but also a fixed acid, accompanied by
an oil of disagreeable odour. The liquid distilled from the dried root
did not evolve a similar odour, nor did it contain any acid body.
A small quantity of essential oil was obtained by means of ether
from the alcoholic extract of the fresh but not of the dried root-
stock. The rhizome of male fern yields 2 to 3 per cent, of ash, con-
^ The chemical nature of this body re-
mains to be ascertained. The crystals are
probably Filicic Acid, accompanied by
chlorophyl and essential oil.
- Journal de Medecine de Bruxelles, 1867
and 1868 — also in the JahreshericM of
Wiggers and Husemann, 1869. 21.
736
FILICES.
sisting mainly of phosphates, carbonates, and sulphates of calcium and
potassium, together with silica.
Uses — The ethereal extract has been prescx'ibed for all kinds of
intestinal worms ; but recent experience goes to prove that its effects
are chiefl}'' exhibited in cases of tapeworm. It is equally and thoroughly
efhcacious in the three kinds respectively termed Tcenia solium, T.
medio -cannellata and Bothnocephalus latus.
Substitution — -The rhizomes of AspleniiLm Filix fcemina Bernh.,
Aspidium montanum Vogl. (A. Oreopteris Sw.) and A. spinulosum
Sw. may scarcely be mistaken for that of A. Filix mas. The best
means of distinguishing them is afforded by transverse sections of
the leaf-bases. In Filix mas, the section exhibits 8 vascular bundles, —
in the other ferns named, only 2, — a difference easily ascertained by
examination under a lens. Practically, no other indigenous fern than
A. Filix mas affords a rhizome of sufficient bulk so as to be
remunerative. We are not acquainted with that of the American
Asjndium marginale Swartz, the section of which shows 6 vascular
bundles ; its extract is stated by Cressler (1878) to be perfectly active.
LICHEN ISLANDICUS.
737
LICHENES.
LICHEN ISLANDICUS.
Iceland Moss ; F. Lichen ou Mousse d'Islande ; G. Isldndisches Moos.
Botanical Origin — Cetraria islandica Acharius.^ — It is abundant
in high northern latitudes, as Greenland, Spitzbergen, Siberia, Scandi-
navia and Iceland, where it grows even in the plains. It is found in
the mountainous parts of Great Britain, France, Ital} , and Spain, in
Switzerland (in elevations of nearly 10,000 feet), and in the Southern
Danubian countries. It also occurs in North America and in the
Antarctic regions.
History — In the North of Europe, this lichen has long been used
under the general name of Mosi, Mossa or Mus,^ as an article of food.
It is the Muscus crispce Lactucce similis of Valerius Cordus,^ and was
also mentioned by Ole Borrich, of Copenhagen (1671), who called it
Muscus catharticus, under the notion that in early spring it possesses
purgative properties.* The pharmaceutical tariff of the same city, of
the year 1672, likewise quotes Muscus catharticus islandicusJ' Its
medicinal employment in pulmonary disorders was favourably spoken
of by Hjarne in 1683,** but it is only since 1757 that it has come into
general use as a medicine, chiefly on the recommendation of Linnteus
and Scopoli.
Description" — The plant consists of an erect, foliaceous, branching
thallus, about -i inches high, curled, channelled or rolled into tubes,
terminating in spreading truncate, flattened lobes, the edges of which
are fringed with short thick prominences. The thallus is smooth, grey,
or of a light olive-brown ; the under surface is paler and irregularly
beset with depressed white spots. The apothecia (fruits), which are not
very common, appear at the apices of the thallus, as rounded boss-like
bodies, -^-^ to of an inch across, of a dark, rusty colour. The colour
1 Ce^mr/n from crfra, an ancient shield of ^Bergius, Materia Medica, Stockholm,
hide, in allusion to the circular apothecia. ii. (1778) 856.
2 These names are generally applied in ^ Fliickiger, Documente, quoted at page
Scandinavia and Iceland to the smaller 404.
cryptogams, as lichens, true mosses, ^ Murray, Apparatus Medica mlnum, v.
lycopodium, etc. (1790) 510.
5 Hist. stirpium, quoted in the For an exhaustive account and figures
Appendix. see Luerssen (quoted at p. 734) p. 176.
3 A
738
LICHENES.
and mode of division of the thallus vary greatly, so that many varieties
of the plant have been distinguished.
In the dry state, Iceland moss is light, harsh and springy ; it absorbs
water in which it is placed to the extent of a third of its weight, be-
coming soft and cartilaginous; it ordinarily contains about 10 per cent,
of hygroscopic water. It is inodorous, but when wetted has a slight
seaweed-like smell ; its taste is slightly bitter.
Microscopic Structure — A transverse section exhibits, when
strongly magnified, a broad loose central layer of long, thick-walled
branching walls of hyphcB, containing air, and enclosing wide hollow
spaces. This middle layer encloses a certain number of larger cells
called gonidia, coloured with chlorophyll. The gonidia are not destroyed
either by strong sulphuric acid, or by boiling them with potash. They
assume however a deep violet colour when treated with caustic potash
and then left for 24 hours in a solution of iodine in potassium iodide.
The tissues on either side of this central layer consists of very
thickly felted hyphre, without intervening spaces, and does not appear
to contain any particular substance. This compact and tenacious
tissue passes into a thin cortical layer consisting of cells very closely
bound together. Under the influence of reagents this layer becomes
very evident: thus when moistened with strong sulphuric or hydrochloric
acid, it separates from the rest of the tissue as a coherent membrane,
and I'olls itself backward. On boiling with water the inner tissue swells
up, the cell-walls being partly dissolved. Thin slices of the lichen are
coloured reddish or pale blue by iodine water, — more distinctly blue, if
previously treated with sulphuric acid. The colour spreads uniformly
over the inner tissue, but no starch granules can be detected ; the cortical
layer is merely coloured brown by iodine. The white spots on the outer
surface of the thallus are resolved by pressure under a plate of glass
into minute round transparent granules, not coloured by iodine, and
thick branched cells like those of the central layer.
The shoi-t thick prominences on the edge of the thallus, frequently
terminate in one or more sac-like cavities (spermogonia) containing a
large number of simple bar-shaped cells (spermatia), only 6 mkm. long ;
they are enveloped in transparent mucus, and may be expelled by
pressure under glass. It has been shown by Stahl (1874) that they repre-
sent the fertilizing corpuscles or seaweeds of the class Floridecv.
The observations of De Bary (1866) and Schwendener (1867-70)
confirmed and much extended by the researches of Bornet^ (1873-74),
have shown that the gonidia of lichens are referable to some
species of Alga, and are capable of an independent existence; that the
relations of the hyphte to the gonidia are of such a nature as to exclude
the possibility of either of those bodies being produced by the other ;
and further that the theory of parasitism is the only one capable of
explaining these relations in a satisfactory manner. Under this singular
theory, lichens are compound organisms, formed of an alga, and of a
fungus living upon it as a parasite.
Chemical Composition — Boiling water extracts from Iceland
1 Recherclies sur les gonidies des Lichens. —
Ann. den Sciences nat. Bot. xvii. (1873)
45-110; 11 plates ; alsoxix. (1874) 314-320.
— For a complete abstract of these and all
the more recent investigations on this sub-
ject, see Luerssen {I.e.) 186 et seq.
LICHEN ISLANDICUS.
739
moss as much as 70 per cent, of the so-called Lichenin or Lichen-starch,
a body which is perfectly devoid of structure. The decoction (1 : 20)
gelatinizes on cooling, and assumes a reddish or bluish tint by solution
of iodine. This property of lichenin is plainly seen, when the drug is
first exhausted hy boiling spirit of wine containing some carbonate of
potassium ; and then boiled with 50 to 100 parts of water, and the decoc-
tion precipitated by means of alcohol. The lichenin thus obtained in a
purer state, must be deprived of alcohol by cautiously washing it with
water. Powdered iodine will now immediately impart to it while still
moist an intense blue. Its composition, C^^ff^O", agrees with that of
starch and cellulose ; and it must be regarded as a modification of the
latter, being likewise soluble in water and in amraoniacal solution of
copper. Lichenin is not a kind of mucilage, because it yields but
insignificant traces of mucic acid, if treated with concentrated nitric
acid ; and also because it contains no inorganic constituents.^ The very
trifling proportion of mucic acid it furnishes may depend upon the
presence, in small amount, of an independent mucilaginous body.
According to Th. Berg (1873), lichenin consists of what he continues
to call so, and another constituent, the latter only being coloured by
iodine, possessing (dextrogyre) rotatory power, and also being insoluble
in ammoniacal sokition of copper. Berg's lichenin is not soluble in cold
water, but readily dissolves in hot water, and again separates on cooling.
The other constituent on the contrary is abundantly soluble in cold,
and very sparingly in hot water. The drug yielded to Berg 20 per cent,
of "true" lichenin and 10 per cent, of the other substance.
The chlorophyll of the gonidia is not soluble in hydrochloric acid,
and hence is distinguished by Knop and Schnedermann as Thallochlor ;
its quantity is extremely small.
The bitter piinciple of Cetraria, called Cetraric Acid or Cetrari/rit
QisijifiQs^ crystallizes in microscopic needles, is nearly insoluble in cold
water, and forms with alkalis, yellow, easily soluble, bitter salts. The
lichen also contains a little sugar, and about 1 per cent, of a peculiar
body, Licheno-stearic Acid, C'''H'*0^ the crystals of which melt at
120° C. The Lichenic Acid found by Pfafi" in 1826 in Iceland moss, and
formerly regarded as a peculiar compound, has been proved identical
with fumaric acid.
In common with many lichens, cetraria contains Oxalic A del and is
said to yield also some tartaric acid. The ash, which amounts to 1-2
per cent., consists to the extent of two-fifths of silicic acid combined
chiefiy with potash and lime.
Collection and Commerce — Iceland moss is collected in many
districts where the plant abounds at least for local use, as in Sweden,
whence some is shipped to other countries. It is also gathered in
Switzerland, especially on the mountains of the Canton of Lucerne, and
in Spain.^ None is exported from Iceland.
Uses — It is given in decoction as a mild tonic, combined with more
active medicines. It is very little employed in Iceland, and only in
seasons of scarcity, when it is sometimes ground and mixed with the
^ The various mucilages and gums yield ^ Cat. of Spanish Productio7is,~London
from 4 to 20 per cent, of ash, but lichenin Exhibition, 1851.
yields ?ione.
740
FUNGI.
flour used in making the grout or grain soup. Occasionally it is taken
boiled in milk. It is not given, as has been asserted, to domestic
animals.
An interesting application of Iceland moss has recently been tried
in Sweden. Sten-Stenberg treats it with sulphuric or hydrochloi'ic acid,
when 72 per cent, of grape sugar are formed, which may be converted
into alcohol.'
FUNGI.
SECALE CORNUTUM.
Ergota; Ergot of Rye^ Spurred Rye; F. Seigle ergot<^; G. MutterJcorn.
Botanical Origin — Claviceps purpurea Tulasne, a fungus of the
order Pyrenomycetes, of which ergot is an immature form, it being the
sclerotium (termed in the British Pharmacopceia compact myceliurii
or spaivn) developed within the palefe of numerous plants of the order
Graminea;.
Ergot is obtained almost exclusively from rye, Secede cerecde L. ;
but the same fungus is pi-oduced on gi'asses belonging to many other
genera, as Agropyrum, Alopecurus, AmmopMla, Anthoxemthum,
Arrhenatherum, Avena, Brachypodium, Calamagrostis, Dactylis,
Glyceria, Hordeum, Lolium, Poa, and Triticum. Other organisms of
diverse form, but of doubtful specific distinctness, are developed in
Molinia, Oryza, Phragmites, and other grasses. In the order Cypercccece
(e.g., Scirpus), peculiar ergots are known.
History — Although it is hardly possible that so singular a produc-
tion as ergot should be unnoticed in the writings of the classical authors,
we believe no undoubted reference to it has been discovered.^ The
earliest date under which we find ergot mentioned on account of its
obstetric virtues is towards the middle of the ICth century, by Adam
Lonicer of Frankfort, who describes its appearance in the ears of rye,
and adds that it is regarded by women to be of remarkable and certain
efficacy.* It is also very clearly described in the writings of Johannes
Thalius, who speaks of it as used " ad sistendum sanguinerii." ^ In
the next century it was noticed by Ca.spar Bauhin, who termed it
Secale hixurians,^ and by the English botanist Ray,'' with allusion to
its medicinal properties.
Rathlaw, a Dutch accoucheur, employed ergot in 1747. Thirty
years later Desgranges of Lyons prescribed it with success ; but its
peculiar and important properties were hardly allowed until the com-
mencement of the present century, when Dr. Stearns of New York
succeeded in gaining for them fuller recognition.' Ergot of rye was
not, however, admitted into the London Pharmacopoeia until 1836.^
1 Dingler's PolytecJinixches Journal, 197
(1870) 177 ; also Chemisc/ies Centralblatf,
1870. 607.
2 From the French eraof, anciently argot,
a cock's spur.
Consult Pliny's Nat. Hist, book 18. ch. 44.
* Kreuterbuch, ed. 1582. 285 (not in the
edition of 1560).
^ Sylva Hercynia, Francof. 1588. 47.
^Pinax Theairi Bofanici, Basil. 1623. 2.S.
"Hist. Plant, ii. (1693) 1241.
8 Stille, Tlierapmtics and Mat. Med. ii.
(1868) 609.
" From 1825 to 1828 the wholesale price
of ergot of i-ye in London was from 36«. to
50s. per lb., that is to say, from twelve to
fifteen times its present value.
SECALE CORNUTUM.
741
The use of flour containing a considerable proportion of ergot, gives
rise to a veiy formidable disease, distinguished in modern medicine as
Ergotism, but known in early times by a variety of names, as Morbus
spasmodicus, convulsivus, malignus, epidemicus vel cerealis, Raplmnia,
Gonvidsio raplmnia ^ or Ignis sancti Antonii.
Some of the malignant epidemics which visited Europe after seasons
of rain and scarcity during the middle ages have been referred with
more or less of probability to ergot-disease.^ The chronicles of the
6th and 8th centuries note the occurrence of maladies wjiich may be
suspected as due to ergotized grain. There is less of doubt regarding
the epidemics that prevailed from the lOth century and were frequent
in France, and in the 12th in Spain. In the year 1596 Hessen (Hessia)
and the adjoining regions were ravaged by a frightful pestilence, which
the Medical Faculty of Marburg attributed to the presence of ergot in
the cereals consumed by the population. The same disease appeared in
France in 1630, in Voigtland (Saxony) in the years 1648, 1649, and
1675 ; again in various parts of France, as Aquitaine and Sologne, in
1650, 1670, and 1674. Freiburg and the neighbouring region were
visited by the same malady in 1702; other parts of Switzerland in
1715-16 ; Saxony and Lusatia in 1716 ; many other districts of Germany
in 1717, 1722, 1736, and 1741-2.^ The last epidemic in Europe occa-
sioned by ergot appears to be that which, after the rainy season of
1816, visited Lorraine and Burgundy, and proved fatal to many people
of the poorer class. Ergot disease is sometimes observed in Abyssinia
at the present day,'* and a few cases of it have even been lately recorded
in Bavaria.^
Formation — The true nature of ergot has long been the source of
a great diversity of opinion, not set at rest by the admirable researches
of L. R. Tulasne, from whose Memoire s itr V Ergot des Glumacees,'^ the
following account is for the most part extracted.
The formation of ergot often affects only a few caryopsides in a
single ear ; sometimes, however, more than twenty. In the former
case, the healthy development of the other caryopsides is not prevented,
but if too many are attacked, the entire ear decays. The more isolated
ergots generally grow larger, and attain their greatest size on rye which
springs up here and there among other cereals.
The first symptoms of ergot-formation is the so-called honey-dew of
rye, a yellowish mucus, having an intensely sweet taste, and the peculiar
disagreeable odour frequently belonging to fungi. Drops of this mucus
show themselves here and there on the ears in the neighbourhood of
diseased grains, and attract ants and beetles of various kinds, especially
iPereira, Elem. of Mat. Med. ii. (1850)
1007.
2 Consult Hiiser, Lehrbuch de.' Geschkhte
der Medicin und der Vollcslcrankhelten, 1845.
i. 256. 830, ii. 94 ; C. F. Heusinger, Re-
ckerches de Pathologie comparie, Cassel, i.
U853) 543-554; Merat et De Lens, Diet.
Mat. Med. iii. 131, vii. 268.
^ Tissot of Lausanne, Phil. Tram. Iv.
(1766) 106.— See also Dodart, MAvi. de
VAcad. R. des Sciences, x., ann^es 1666-1699
(Paris, 1730) 561 ; Hi.'it. de la Soc. Roy. de
Mid., anu^e 1776. 345 ; and Mem. de Mid.
et de Phys. vied. ann(5e 1776. 260-311.
417.
Th. von Heuglin, Reise nach Abessinien
etc. Jena, 1868. 180.
' Wiggers and Husemaun, Jahresbericht
for 1870. 582.
^ Ann. des Sciences nat., Bot. , xx. (1853)
1-56 and 4 plates. — More recent observa-
tions will be found in St. Wilson's paper.
Trans, of the Bot. Society of Edinburgh,
xii. (1876) 418-434 with figures ; and espe-
cially in Luerssen (quoted at p. 735) 156,
et seqq.
742
FUNGI.
I
the yellowish-red RhagonycJia melanura Fabr., but not bees. On this
account the beetle in question has been supposed to be instrumental
in the development of ergot, and it may possibly be so, but only by
transporting the saccharine mucus from one plant to another.
The honey-dew of rye contains neither oil-drops nor starch. After
dilution with water, it produces a rapid and abundant separation of
cuprous oxide from an alkaline solution of cupric tartrate. Dried over
sulphuric acid, it solidifies into a crystalline mass. After a few days
the drops of honey-dew dry up and disappear from the ear. The grain
at this period becomes completely disintegrated, and devoid of starch.
The ergotized soft ovaries are covered with, and penetrated by a
white, spongy, felted tissue, the mycelium of the young fungus. It is
made up of slender, threadlike cells, the Ityphoi, the outer layer of which
consists of radially-diverging cells, the basidia. The whole mycelium
forms by its crevices and folds a number of cavities opening externally ;
from its outer layer, which is also called the hymenium or spermato-
phorum, an immense number of agglutinated, elongated granules, the
conidia, are separated. These cells, the products of the basidia, are not
more than four mkm. in length, and give the floral organs the appear-
ance of being covered with a whitish dust. The honey-dew likewise
contains an abundance of conidia, but it is only on dilution that they
are precipitated and become easily perceptible ; the formation of the
honey-dew is intimately connected with that of the conidia themselves.
Ergot in this primary or mycelium stage was regarded as an independent
fungus by L^veille (1827), who named it Sphacelia segetum. According
to Kuhn (1863), it may even be directly reproducd by germination of
the conidia within the ears of lye.
The mycelium penetrates and envelops the caryopsis, with the ex-
ception of the apex, and thereby prevents its further growth, destroying
especially the epicarp and the embryo. At the base of the caryopsis,
there is formed by tumefaction and gradual transverse separation of the
thread-cells of the mycelium, a more compact kernel-like body (the
future ergot) violet-black without, white within, which gradually but
largely increases in size, and ultimately separates from the mycelium as
the loose tissue of the latter dries and shrinks up after the completion
of its functions. By this growth, the remains of the caryopsis, still
recognizable by their hairs and by the rudiments of the style, as well as
by the surviving portions of the mycelium-tissue, become visible above
the palea3 on the apex of the mature ergot, now projecting prominently
from the ear. Very rarely the ergot is crowned by a fully developed
seed ; in the commercial drug, the apex is usually broken off.
It is evident that in the process of development just described, the
very tissue of the caryopsis of the rye does not undergo a transformation,
but that it is simply destroyed. Neither in external form, nor in anatomi-
cal structure does ergot exhibit any resemblance to a caryopsis or a seed,
although its development takes place between the flowering time and
that at which the rye begins to ripen. It has been regarded as a com-
plete fungus, and as such was named by De Candolle (181G) Sclerotium
Clavus and by Fries Spermoidia Clavus.
No further change in the ercjot occurs while it remains in the ear :
but laid on damp earth, interesting phenomena take ])lace. At certain
points, small orbicular patches of the rind fold themselves back, and
SECALE CORNUTUM.
743
gradually throw out little white heads. These increase in size, whilst
the outer layers of the neighbouring tissue gi-adually lose their firmness
and become soft and rather granular, at the same time that the cells, of
which they are made up, become empty and extended. In the interior
of the ergot, the cells retain their oil drops unaltered. The heads
assume a greyish-yellow colour, changing to purple, and finally after
some weeks stretch themselves towards the light on slender shining
stalks of a pale violet colour. The stalks often attain an inch in length,
with a thickness of about h a line. They consist of thin, parallel,
closely felted cell-threads, devoid of fat oil. Ergot is susceptible of this
further development only so long as it is fresh, that is to say, at most
until the next flowering time of rye. Within this period however, even
fragments are capable of development. There are sometimes also pro-
duced colourless threads of mould which belong to other fungi, as
VerticiUium cylindrosporum Corda, and which frequently overgrow
the Claviceps}
At the point where the stalk joins the spherical or somewhat flattened
head, the latter is depressed and surrounds the stalk with an annular
border. After a short time there appear on the sui-face of the head,
which is of an inch in diameter, a number of brownish warts, in
which are the openings of minute cavities, the conceptacula or
]ierithecia. On tran.sverse section, they appear ai'ranged radially round
the circumference of the head. In each cavity are a large number of
delicate sacs, only 3-5 mkm. thick, and about 100 mkm. long, the theccB
or asci, each containing, as is usual in fungi, 8 spores. These are simple
thread-shaped cells, filled with a homogeneous solid mass.
The thicker ends of the spore-sacs (asci) open while still within the
perithecium ; the spores issue united in a bundle, and are emitted from
the aperture of the perithecium. In consequence of their somewhat
glutinous consistence, they remain united even after their extrusion, and
form white silky flocks ; their number in the 20 or 30 heads sometimes
produced from a single ergot, often exceeds a million. The heads them-
selves die in two or three weeks after they have begun to make their
appearance. They represent the true fructification of the fungus. This
state of the plant appears to have been first noticed in 1801 by
Schumacher, who called it Sphmria; it was subsequently known as
Gordiceps, Gordyliceps, Kentrosporium, etc., until Tulasne proved it to
be the final stage of development of ergot.
The three different forms of this structure, namely, the mycelium,
the ergot, and the fruit-bearing heads, are therefore merely successive
states of one and the same biennial fungus, which have been appropri-
ately united by Tulasne under the name of Claviceps purpurea. The
middle stage forms the sclerotiur^i, which occurs in a large number of
the most various fungi, and is a special state of rest of these plants.
The direct proof that the mycelium is produced from spores of the fruit-
^ Ergot of rye collected by myself in
August, placed upon earth in a garden-pot
and left iu the open air unprotected through
the wintei', began to develoj) the Claviceps
on the 20th March, and on another occasion
on the 20th April, at which date some sowed
in February also began to start. Sharp
frost appears to retard the vegetation; thus,
after the cold winter of 1869-70, Clavicejis,
even in the greenhouse, did not make its
appearance before the 11th May. The
earliest instance of fully developed ergots
which I ever observed, occurred on the 1 1th
of June; more frequently they are seen only
in the beginning of July. — F. A. F.
744
FUNGI.
!
head sown on ears of rye, was supplied by Kiihn in 1863. It has
already been mentioned that the same organism is produced from
conidia ; whence it appears that a twofold formation of ergot is possible,
as is frequently the case in other fungi.
Description — Spurred rye, as found in commerce, consists of fusi-
form grains, which it is convenient to term ergots. They are from J to
1^ inch in length, and ^ to 4 lines in diameter; their form is subcylin-
drical or obtusely prismatic, tapering towards the ends, generally arched,
with a longitudinal furrow on each side. At the apex of each ergot,
there is often a small whitish easily detached appendage, while the
opposite extremity is somewhat rounded. The ergots are firm, horny,
somewhat elastic, have a close fracture, are brittle when dry, yet difficult
to pulverize. The whitish interior is frequently laid bare by deep
transverse cracks. The tissue is but imperfectly penetrated by water,
even the thinnest sections swelling but slightly in that fluid.
Ergot of rye has a peculiar offensive odour, and a mawkish, rancid
taste. It is apt to become deteriorated by keeping, especially when
pulverized, partly from oxidation of the oil, and partly from the attacks
of a mite of the genus Trombidium. To assist its preservation, it should
be thoroughly dried, and kept in closed bottles.
Microscopic Structure — In fully developed ergot, no organs can
be distinguished. It consists of uniform, densely felted tissue of short,
thread-like, somewhat thick-walled cells, which are irregularly packed,
and so intimately matted together that it is only by prolonged boiling
of thin slices with potash, and alternate treatment with acids and
ether, that the individual cells can be made evident. Without such
treatment, the cells even in the thinnest sections, show a somewhat
rounded, nearly isodiametric outline. This pseudo-parenchyrae of ergot
exhibits therefore an aspect somewhat different from that of the loosely
felted cells {liyinlim) of other fungi. Ergot nevertheless is not made up
of cells differing from those of fungi generally. If thin longitudinal
slices of the innermost tissue are allowed to remain in a solution of
chromic acid containing about 1 per cent., they will distinctly show the
kyphoi, which are however considerably shorter than those of other
fungi. They contain numerous drops of fat oil, but neither starch nor
crystals. It is remarkable that this nearly empty and not much
thickened parenchyme should form so compact and solid a tissue.
The cell-walls of the tissue of ergot are not coloured blue, even
after prolonged treatment with iodine in solution of potassium iodide ;
or when the tissue has been previously treated with sulphuric acid, or
kept for days in contact with potash and absolute alcohol at 100° C.
In this respect the cellulose of fungi differs from that of phanerogamic
plants.
Of the outermost rows of cells in ergot, a few only are of a violet
colour, but they are not otherwise distinguishable from the colourless
tissue, — or at most by the somewhat greater thickness of their walls.
Chemical Composition — The composition of ergot has been
elaborately investigated by Wiggers as early as 1830. The drug
contains about 30 per cent, of a non-drying, yellowish oil,
chiefly consisting of olein, palmitin, and small proportions of
volatile fatty acids, especially acetic and butyric, combined with
SECALE CORNUTUM.
745
glycerin. The large amount of oil is remarkable; the fungi, dried
at 100°, usually contain not more than 5 per cent, of fat, mostly
much less ; they ar-e on the other hand much richer in albumin than
ergot of rye. The oil of the latter, as extracted by bisulphide of carbon,
is accompanied by small quantities of resin and cholesterin (see p. 420).
It is erroneous to attribute to this oil the poisonous properties of ergot,
although it has been shown by Ganser^ to display irritating properties
when taken in doses of about 6 grammes. But the effects observed
appear dependent on the presence in it of resin.
According to Wenzell (1864), ergot of rye contains two peculiar
alkaloids, which he designated Ecboline and Ergotine^ and claimed to
be the active principles of the drug. They were, however, got merely
as brownish amorphous substances.
The two bases of ergot are, according to Wenzell, combined with
Eiyotic Acid, the existence of which has been further admitted by
Ganser. It is said to be a volatile body yielding crystallizable salts.
A crystallized colourless alkaloid, Ergotinine, C^^H^^N^O", has been
isolated (1877-1878) by Tanret, a pharmacien of Troyes. He obtained
it to the amount of about 0'04 per cent., some amorphous ergotinine
moreover being present. Tanret exhausts the powdered drug with
boiling alcohol, which by evaporation aftbrds a fluid resin and an
aqueous solution, besides a fatty layer. Some ergotinine is removed
from the resin by shaking it with ether, and mixed with the main
liquid. This is acidulated and purified by means of ether. Lastly, the
ergotinine is extracted by adding a slight excess of carbonate of potas-
sium and shaking with ether, and recrystallizing from alcohol. The
solutions of ergotinine turn very soon greenish and red ; they are
fluorescent. Sulphuric acid imparts to it a red, violet, and finally
blue hue.
Dragendorff and several of his pupils, since 1875, have isolated the
following amorphous principles of the drug under notice : — (1) Sclerotic
acid (doubtful formula C"ff ^NO"), said to be a very active substance,
chiefly in subcutaneous injections. About 4 per cent of colourless acid
may be obtained from good ergot of rye. (2) Scleroniucin, a mucila-
ginous matter, which may be precipitated by alcohol from aqueous
extracts of the drug. Scleromucin when dried is no longer soluble in
water. (3) Sclererythrin, the red colouring matter, probably allied to
anthrachinon and the colouring substances of madder, chiefly to pur-
purin. (4) Sclerojodin, a bluish black powder, soluble in alkalis. (5)
Fuscosclerotinic acid. (6) Picrosclerotine, apparently a highly poison-
ous alkaloid. Lastly (7) Scleroxanthin, G'WQi^ -\- OH" ; and (8) Sclero-
crystallin, C'^H^O^ have been obtained in crystals ; their alcoholic
solution is but little coloured, yet assumes a violet hue on addition of
ferric chloride.
Tanret also observed in ergot of rye a volatile camplioraceous
substance.
Ergot, in common^with other fungi,^ contains a sugar termed Mycose,
^Archiv der Pharm. cxliv. (1870) 200.
2 The name Ergotine has also been given
to a medicinal extract of ergot, prepared
after a method devised by Bonjean, a phar-
macien of Chambery, vide /owrn. de Pharm.
iv. (1843) 107; Pereira, Ekm. of Mat. Med.
ii. (1850) 1012.
^ See Muutz in Comptes Rendus, Ixxvi.
(1873) 649.
74G
FUNGI.
closely allied to cane sugar, and probably identical with Trehalose (see
p. 417). My cose crystallizes in rhombic octohedra, having the com-
position C'H'^'O" + 2H^0. Mitscherlich obtained of it about one-tenth
per cent. It appears that the sugar exuded in the first stage of growth
of the fungus, — the so-called rye honey-deiv, — is in its principal charac-
ters different from mycose. Instead of the latter, Mitscherlich, as well
as Fiedler and Ludwig, sometimes obtained from ergot Mannite.
Schoonbroodt also found in ergot Lactic Acid. Several other
chemists have further proved the presence of acetic and formic acids.
Starch is entirely wanting in ergot at all times. The drug yields
about 3 per cent, of nitrogen, corresponding probably to a large amount
of albuminoid matter. Ganser, however, obtained only 3" 2 per cent, of
albumin soluble in ivater.
When ergot or its alcoholic extract is treated v/ith an alkali it
yields, as products of the decomposition of the albuminoid matters,
ammonia or ammonia-bases, — according to Ludwig and Stahl, Methy-
lamine, — according to others, Trimethylamine. Manassewitz, as well
as Wenzell, state that phosphate of trimethylamine is present in an
aqueous extract of ergot, but Ganser ascertained that no such base
pre-exists in ergot. We have found that the crystals which abound in
the extract, after it has been kept for some time, are an acid phosphate
of sodium and ammonium with a small proportion of sulphate.^
Production and Commerce — Ergot of rye is to be met with in
all the countries producing cereals ; we have seen it in the high valleys
of the Alps, and Schiibeler states that it gx'ows in Norway, as far north
as 60° N. lat.
The drug is chiefly imported into London from Vigo in Spain and
from Teneriffe ; it is also shipped from Hamburg and France. Dr. de
Lanessan, writing to one of us from Vigo in 1872, remarks that vast
quantities of rye are grown in Galicia, and that owing to the humidity
of the climate the grain is extensively ergotized, — in fact the parasite
is present in one ear out of every three. At the time of harvest the
ergots ai-e picked out, and the rye is thus rendered fit for food.
Southern and Central Russia furnish considerable supplies of the
drug. In the central pai'ts of Europe, ergot does not everywhere occur
in sufficient abundance to be collected, and it greatly diminishes as the
state of agriculture improves. We have noticed that ergot from
Odessa was of a slaty hue and in much smaller grains than that from
Spain.
Uses — Ergot is principally used on account of its specific action on
the uterus in parturition.
Other Varieties of Ergot — Ergot of Wheat (Triticum vulgare),
which is in shorter and thicker ergots than that of rye, is picked out
by hand in some parts of Italy and France, from grain intended to be
used for the manufacture of vermicelli and other pastes ; and such ergot
is sold to druggists. Carbonneaux Le Perdriel has endeavoured to show
1 The red colour of an alcoholic solution
may serve for the detection of small quan-
tities of ergot in flour. The reaction with
potash, and evolution of the characteristic
odour of herring brine may assist in the
same object. Extraction of the fatty oil
with carbon bisulphide may also be recom-
mended as a test, inasmuch as good cereal
grains contain but a very small percentage
of fat.
^ De I'Er-got de Froment et de ses prop7-i6t6s
mM. (these) Montpellier, 1862.
CHONDRUS CRISPUS.
747
that it is less proue to become deteriorated by age than that of rye, and
that it never produces the deleterious effects sometimes occasioned by
the latter.
The same writer asserts that Ergot of Oat is sometimes collected and
sold either per se, or mixed with that of rye. It differs from the latter
in the ergots being considerably more slender.
Ergot of the North African grass Arundo Ampelodesmos Cirillo,
known as Diss, has been collected for use, and according to Lallemant^
is twice as active as that of rj^e. It is from 1 to 3 inches long by only
about ^ of an inch broad, generally arched, or in the large ergots twisted
spirally. We find it to share the structural character of the ergot of
rye ; it is in all probability the same formation, yet remarkably
modified.
ALG^ (FLORIDE^).
CHONDRUS CRISPUS.
Fucus Hibernicus; Carrageen,^ Irish Moss; F. Mousse d'lrlande,
Mousse perlee ; G. Knorpeltang, Irldndisches Moos, Perlmoos.
Botanical Origin — Chondrus crisjms Lyngbye (Fucus crisjms L.),
a sea weed of the class Floridecu, abundant on rocky sea-shores of Europe
from the North Cape to Gibraltar ; not frequent however in the Baltic,
and altogether wanting in the Mediterranean, but largely met with on
the eastern coasts of North America.
History — Chondrus crispus was figured in 1699 by Morison,^ yet
only Todhunter at Dublin introduced it to the notice of the medical
profession in England in 1831, and shortly afterwards it attracted some
attention in Germany. It was never admitted to the London or British
pharmacopoeia, and is but little esteemed in medicine.
Description — The entire plant is collected : in the fresh state it is
soft and cartilaginous, varying in colour from yellowish-green to livid
purple or purplish-brown, but becoming, after washing and exposure
to the sun, white or yellowish, and when dry, shrunken, horny and
translucent.
The base is a small flattened disc, from which springs a frond or
thallus 4 to 6 inches or more in length, having a slender subcyliudrical
stem, expanding fan-like into wedge-shaped segments, of very variable
breadth, flat or curled, and truncate, emarginate or bifid at the
summit.
The fructification'* consists of tetraspores or cystocarps, I'ising but
slightly from the substa,nce of the thallus, and appearing as little wart-
like pi'otuberances.
In cold water, carrageen swells up to its oi-iginal bulk, and acquires
a distinct seaweed-like smell. A quantity of water equal to 20 or 30
''•Elude sur V Ergot die Diss, Alger et
Paris, 1863 ; Journ. de Pharm. i. (1865)
444.
2 Carrageen in Irish signifies moss of the
rock. We learn from an Irish scholar that
it would be more correctly written carrai-
geen.
^ Plantar, hist, universal. Oxon. iii. tab. 11.
*See Luerssen (quoted at p. 734) i. 124
et seq.
748
ALGiE.
times its weight, boiled with it for ten minutes, solidifies on cooling to
a pale mawkish jelly.
Microscopic Structure — The tissue of Ghondm crispus is made
up of globular or elongated, thick-walled cells. The superficial layers
on both sides of the lobes constitute a kind of peel, easily separable in
microscopic sections. The interior or medullary part exhibits a much
less densely packed tissue formed of larger cells. The larger cavities of
this tissue contain a granular mucilaginous matter, assuming a slight
violet tinge on addition of iodine. In water however, the cell-walls
swell up so as to form a gelatinous mass, in which separate cells can at
last be scarcely distinguished.^ In the fresh state, its cells also contain
granules of chlorophyll imbued with a red matter, termed Phyco-
erythrin. But by washing and exposure to the air, these colouring
substances are removed or greatly altered, and are no longer visible in
the commercial drug.
Chemical Composition — The constituents of carrageen are those
generally found in marine algse, especially as regards the mucilage.
This latter is insoluble in an ammoniacal solution of copper (Schweizer's
test) ; by the action of fuming nitric acid, it yields, in common with
gum, an abundance of mucic acid. The mucilage of carrageen, like
many similar bodies, obstinately retains inorganic matter ; after it had
three times been dissolved in water, and as many times precipitated
with alcohol, we found it still to yield the same quantity of ash as the
raw drug itself, that is to say, more than 15 per cent. The mucilage,
perfectly dried, is a tough horn}'' substance, of a greyish colour; it
quickly swells up in water, forming a jelly which is precipi table by
neutral acetate of lead.
By boiling carrageen for a week with water containing 5 per cent,
of sulphuric acid, Bente (1876) obtained crystals of Icevulinic acid,
C^H.^O'\ and an amorphous sugar. The former is also afforded by
cellulose of pine wood and by paper.
According to Blondeau,^ the mucilage of carrageen contains 21 per
cent, of niti'ogen and 2'5 of sulphur, a statement which we are able to
point out as erroneous. We find in it no sulphur, and only 0"88 per
cent, of nitrogen. The drug itself yielded us not more than 1'012 per
cent, of nitrogen.
When thin slices of the plant are treated with alcoholic potash, and
then after washing left for 24 hours in contact with a solution of iodine
in potassium iodide, they acquire a deep blue ; yet, starch granules are
not found in this seaweed. Lastly in connexion with carrageen may
be mentioned Fucusol, an oily liquid isomeric with furfurol, obtained by
boiling seaweeds with dilute sulphuric acid.
Commerce — The plant is collected on the west and north-west
coast of Ireland : Sligo is said to be a great depot for it. Carrageen
of superior quality is sometimes imported from Hamburg.
The largest quantities of carrageen, sometimes half a million pounds
a year, are gathered near Minot Ledge lighthouse, Scituate, Plymouth
1 Alcohol, glycerin or a fatty oil are the - Journ. de Pharm. ii. (1865) 159.
liquids most suited for the microscopic
examination of this drug.
FUCUS AMYLACEUS.
749
county, on the coast of Massachusetts, where a systematic process of
preparing it for the market is adopted.^
Uses — The mucilaginous decoction and jelly which carrageen
affords are popular remedies in pulmonary and other complaints ; but
as nutriment such preparations are much over-estimated.-
Carrageen is sometimes used for feeding cows and calves ; and under
the name of Alga marina, for stuffing mattresses. It is largely used for
industrial purposes, like other mucilaginous matter. Its mucilage serves
for thickening the colours employed in calico-printing, and as size for
paper and for cotton goods. In America it is used for fining beer.
Substitutes — Gigartina mammillosa^ J. Agardh (Chondrus mam-
millosus Grev.) is collected indiscriminately with Ch. crispus. It is dis-
tinguished from the latter chiefly by having the flat portion of the
thallus beset with elevated or stalked tubercles, bearing the cystocarps ;
but it has the same properties. G. acicularis Lamouroux, a species
common on the coasts of France and Spain, and having slender cylin-
drical branches, is occasionally collected along with Chondrus C7'isj)us.
Dalmon (1874) who has examined it, asserts it to be less soluble in
boiling water than true carrageen. Small quantities of other seaweeds
are often present through the negligence of the collectors.
FUCUS AMYLACEUS.
Alga Zeylanica; Ceylon Moss,^ Jaffna Moss.
Botanical Origin — Si^hcerococcus lichenoides Agardh. (Gracillaria
lichenoides Grev., Flocaria Candida, Nees), a light purple or greenish
sea- weed, belonging to the class Floridea;, occurring on the coasts of
Ceylon, Burma, and the Malay islands.'
History — Ceylon moss has long been in use among the inhabitants
of the Indian Archipelago and the Chinese. It is probably one of the
plants described by Rumphias ^ as Alga coralloides. In recent times it
was brought to the notice of European physicians by O'Shaughnessy.''
Description — The plant, which as found in commerce is opaque
and white, having been deprived of colour by drying in the sim and
air, consists of cylindrical ramifying stems or filaments, yV of an inch
in diameter and from 1 to 6 or more inches in length. The main stems
bear numerous branches, simpk or giving oflT slender secondary or
tertiary ramifications, ending in a short point. When moistened, the
plant increases a little in volume, becomes rather translucent, and
^ Bates in Amer. Journ. of Pharm. 1868.
417; also Pharm. Journ. xi. (1869) and
viii. (1877) 304.
- A person must eat a pound of stiff jelly
made of the powdered sea-weed before he
would have swallowed half an ounce of dry
solid matter.
3 Fig. in Luerssen (quoted at p. 734) 120.
For convenience we accept the popular
name of moss, though it is no longer in
accordance with the signification of the
word in modem science (see p. 737, note
' The Pharmacopma of India (1868)
names Sphcerococcus confervoides Ag. (Gra-
cillaria Grev.), a plant of the Atlantic
Ocean and Mediterranean, not uncommon
on the shores of Britain, as furnishing a
portion of the drug under notice. Speci-
mens which we have examined are widely
difl'erent in structure from S. lichenoide.%
and are apparentl}' devoid of starch.
^ Her-b. Amboin. vi. lib. xi. c. 56.
Indian Journ. of Med. Science, Calcutta,
March, 1834; Bengal Dispensatory, 1841.
668.
7-50
frequently exhibits whitish globular or mammiform fruits (cystocarps).
It is somewhat friable, and after drying at 100° C. may easily be pow-
dered. It is devoid of taste and smell, in this respect differing from
most sea weeds.
Microscopic Structure — The transverse section shows a loose
tissue made up of large empty cells, enclosed by a cortical zone 30 to
70 mkm. thick. This zone consists of small cells, loaded with globular
starch-granules, from less than 1 up to 3 mkm. in diameter, so densely
packed as to form what seems at first sight a single mass in each cell.
In the larger cells the granules are attached to the walls ; they do not
display in polarized light the usual cross. The thick walls of the cells
show a stratified structure, especially after having been moistened with
chromic acid ; on addition of a solution of iodine in an alkaline iodide,
they assume a deep brown, but the starch-granules, which also abound
in the cystocarps, display the usual blue tint.
Chemical Composition — The drug, as examined by O'Shaugh-
nessy, yielded in 100 parts of vegetable jelly 54'5, starch 15'0, ligneous
fibre (cellulose ?) 18'0, mucilage 4 0, inorganic salts 7'5.
Cold water removes the mucilage, which, after due concentration,
may be precipitated by neutral acetate of lead. This mucilage, when
boiled for some time with nitric acid, produces oxalic acid and micro-
scopic crystals of mucic acid (beautifully seen by polarized light), soluble
in boiling water and precipitating on cooling. With one part of the
drug and 100 parts of boiling water a thick liquid is obtained which
affords transparent, precipitates with neutral acetate of lead or alcohol,
in the same way as carrageen. With 50 parts of water, a transparent
tasteless jelly, devoid of viscosity, is produced ; in common with the
mucilage, it furnishes mucic acid, if treated with nitric acid. Micro-
chemical tests do not manifest albuminous matter in this plant.
Some chemists have regarded the jelly extracted by boiling water
as identical with pectin, but the fact requires proof Payen ' called it
Gelose, and found it composed of carbon 4277, hydrogen 577, and
oxygen 51"45 per cent. Gum Arabic contains carbon 4212, hydrogen
6'41, and oxygen 51 '47 = C^^ff *'0'\ Payen's gelose imparts a gelatinous
consistence to 500 parts of water ; it is extracted by boiling water from
the plant previously exhausted by cold water slightly acidulated.^
The inorganic salts of Ceylon moss consist, according to O'Shaugh-
nessy, of sulphates, phosphates, and chlorides of sodium and calcium,
with neither iodide nor bromide. Dried at 100° C, it yielded us 9"15
per cent of ash.
Uses. — A decoction of Ceylon moss made palatable by sugar and
aromatics, has been recommended as a demulcent, and a light article of
food for invalids. In the Indian Archipelago and in China, immense
quantities of this and of some other species of seaweed ^ are used for
making jelly and for other purposes.
^Comjyfes Rendus, xlix. (1859) 521;
Pharm. Journ. i. (1860) 470. 508.
" Gelose even in the moist state is but
little prone to change, and the jelly made
by the Chinese as a sweetmeat which con-
sists mainly of it, will keep good for years.
^ Consult Martius, NeuesJah.rh.f. Pharm.
Bd. ix. Marz 1858 ; Cooke, Pharm. Journ.
i. (1860) 504; Holmes, Pharm. Journ. ix.
(1878) 45.
APPENDIX.
SHORT BIOGRAPHIC AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTES,
Relating to Authors and Books quoted in the Pharmacographia. They may-
be completed by consulting especially the following works : —
Choulant, GeschichteundLiteratur der alteren Medicin, Part I., Biicher-
kunde fiir die altere Medicin. 184-1.
Kopp, Geschichte derChemie, 4 vols., 1843-1847.
Meyer, Geschichte der Botanik, 4 vols., 1854-1857.
Pereira, Tabular view of the history and literature of the Materia
Medica, in the "Elements of Materia Medica," vol. ii. part ii. (1857)
836-869.
Pritzel, Thesaurus literaturse botaniciB. 1872.
7p2
APPENDIX.
Acosta, Christ6bal, physician at Burgos ; he travelled in the east and
visited Mosambique and Cochin; died A.D. 1580. — ;Z'mc<afZo de las Drogas y
medicinas de las Indias Orientales con sus Plantas debuxadas al biuvo por
Christoual Acosta medico y cirujano que las vio ocularmente. Burgos, 1578.
Small 4°, 448 pages (and 38 pages indices). There are translations in Latin
by Clusius, 1582 ; in Italian, 1585 ; in French by Antoine Colin, 1619, etc.
See pages 154. 423. 462. 503. 565.
Actuarius, Johannes, a physician to the court of Constantinople,
towards the end of the 13th century, author of Methodus medendi," smd
" De medicamentorum coni2)osUione." Both these works were repeatedly
printed during the 16th century ; we are not aware of any recent editions.
See pages 222. 263.
i^^gineta — See Paulos.
Aetius of Amida, now Diarbekir, on the upper Tigris. He wrote, pro-
bably about A.D. 540-550, Aetii medici graeci ex veteribus medicinse Tetra-
hiblos. Basilese, 1542.
See pages 35. 175. 271. 511. 559.
Albertus Magnus (Count Albert von Bollstiidt), 1193-1280, a Domini-
can monk. Bishop of Regensburg (Ratisbon). — Alberti Magni ex ordine Prte-
dicatorum De vegetabilibiis libri vii., historise naturalis pars xviii. Edit. E.
Meyer and C. Jessen. 1867.
See pages 543. 568. 678.
Alexander Trallianus, of Tralles, now Aidin-Gtisilhissar, south-east of
Smyrna, an eminent physician who wi'ote about the middle of the 6th century
of our era, possibly at Rome. — Alexandri Tralliani medici libri xii. Edit.
Joanne Guintero. Basilese, 1556. 8vo. — An admirable German translation,
together with the Greek original, has been published at Vienna, 2 vols.,
1878-1879, by Puschmann.
See pages 6. 222. 281. 325. 388. 493. 529. 595. 680.
Alexandria, the Roman custom-house of.
In the Pandects of Justinian there is to be found a curious list of eastern
drugs and other articles liable to duty at the Roman custom-house in Alex-
andria, from the time of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, about A.D. 176-180.
The complete list is reprinted in Vincent, Commerce of the Ancients, ii.
(1807) 698 ; also in Meyer, Geschichte der Botanik, ii. (1855) 167.
See pages 222. 315. 321. 493. 577. 635. 644.
Alhervi. Abu Mansur Movafik ben Ali Alherui, a Persian physician of
the 10th century. He compiled a work on medicines and food from Greek,
Arabic, and Indian sources, which was published and partly translated by
Seligmann : Liber fundmnentorum pharmacologice . . . epitome codicis
manuscripti persici bibl. caes. reg. Vienn. Vindobonae, 1830-1833.
See pages 12. 225. 325. 490.
Alkindi. Abu Jusuf Jakub ben Ishak ben Alsabah Alkindi. He
wrote about A.D. 813-841 at Basra and Bagdad, about various subjects of
natural philosophy, mathematics, medicine, music.
See page 642.
Alphita, a curious list of drugs and pharmaceutical preparations, pro-
bably compiled in the 13th century, and originally written in French (accord-
ing to Haser, Geschichte der Medicin, i. 1875, 648 sqq.). Daremberg, La
m6decine, histoire et doctrine, 1865, attributes the Alphita to Maranchus.
APPENDIX.
753
The Alphita is contained in Salvatore de Renzi's Colleclio Salernitana ;
ossia document! inediti .... alia scuola medica Salernitana, iii. (Napoli,
1854) 270-322.
See page 377.
Alpinus, Prosper, 1553-1617, Professor of Botany and "Ostensore dei
Semplici," i.e. teacher of drugs, in the University of Padua. He visited
Esyi^t in 1580-1583. Be Flauiis ^gypti liher etc. Venetiis, 1592.
" See pages 44. 94. 222. 425. 500.
Alrasis or Arrasi — See Rhazes.
Angelus a Sancto Josepho, originally Joseph Labrousse, of Toulouse, born
1636, died in 1697. He was at Ispahan as a Carmelite monk in 1664, and
published in 1681 at Paris a Latin translation of what he called a Pharma-
copoea Persica. Consult Lucien Leclerc, Histoire de la medecine arabe, ii.
(Paris, 1876) 84.
See pages 12. 415. 548.
Anguillara, Luigi (born at Anguillara, died in 1570 at Ferrara), " Os-
tensor simplicium," i.e. professor of materia medica, in the University of
Padova ; author of Semplici, liquali in piu Pareri a diversi nobili huomini
scritti apparono. Vinegia, 1561.
See page 303.
Arrianos Alexandrinos — See Periplus.
Avicenna. Abu Ali Alhosain Ben Sina AlbochM (of Bokhara), 980-
1037. A learned philosopher, mathematician, student of medicine, minister,
etc., the most celebrated among Arab physicians, their " doctor princeps."
His " CanoM medicince" was admired until the end of the 15th century as the
most complete system of medicine, of which there are numerous editions,
chiefly translations. We have particularly referred to " Avicennse libri in re
medica omnes, lat. redditi a J. P. Mongio et J. Costceo," 2 vols. Venetiis,
ap. Vine. Valgrisium, 1564.
See pages 12. 31. 125. 161. 225. 393. 429. 490. 642. 716.
Ayurvedas — See Susrutas.
Baitar. Abu Mohammad Abdallah Ben Ahmad Almaliqi (of Malaga),
called Ibii Baitar. He travelled from Spain to the east, lived about 1238-
1248 as a physician to the court in Egypt, and died in 1248 at Damascus.
His great work on Materia Medica — Liber magnte collectionis simplicium
alimentorura et medicamentorum — has been (very unsatisfactorily) translated
into German by Joseph von Sontheimer, 2 vols. Stuttgart, 1840-1842.
See pages 4. 31. 115. 211. 305. 383. 415. 425. 462. 488. 490. 675.
Barbosa, Odoardo (Duarte Balbosa), a Portuguese who visited Malacca
before 1511, and accompanied Magalhaes in his famous circumnavigation ;
killed in 1522 by the natives of the Philippines. Barbosa wrote in 1516 an
excellent account of India, published in Ramusio's collection, Delle navigationi
et viaggi, &c. Venetia, 1854. Libro di Odoardo Barbosa Portoghese, fol.
41-3-417. Also in "Coasts of East Africa and Malabar," published for the
Hakluyt Society, London, 1866, — Barbosa quotes the prices of many drugs
found in 1511-1516 at Calicut. An abstract of this interesting list will be
found in Fliickiger, Documente zur Geschichte der Pharmacie. Halle, 187 6, 15.
See pages 43. 241. 405. 521. 595. 600. 644. 672. 675. 717.
Batutah. Abu Abdallah Mohammed .... AUawati Aththangi, called
Ibn Batuta, of Tangier, in Morocco. 1303-1377. The greatest of the Arabic
travellers ; he visited the east as far as the Caspian regions, Delhi, Java,
and Pekin, and also Northern Africa as far as Timbuktu, — Voyages dTbn
3 B
754
APPENDIX.
Batonta, texte arabe accompagne d'une traduction par C. Defreraerie et B. R.
Sanguinetti. 2 vols. Paris. 1853-1854.
See pages 404. 511. 521. 577. 669. 672.
Bauhin, Caspar, 1560-1624, professor of anatomy and botany in the
University of Basel. See Hess, J. W. Kaspar Bauhin's Leben und Cha-
rakter. Basel, 1860. 72 pages. — Finax theatri botanici. Basilese, 1623.
See pages 31. 86. 388. 429. 439. 731. 740.
Belon, Pierre, 1517-1564, called Belon " du Mans," with reference to his
native country near Le Mans, in the ancient province of Maine, France. He
travelled in the Levant from 1546 to 1549, and wrote Les observations de
plvsievrs sirujvlaritez et choses memorables, trouuees en Grece, Asie, ludee,
Egypte, Arabic, et autres pays estranges. Paris, 1553.
See pages 175. 222. 254. 598. 615.
Benedictus Crispus (Benedetto Cresp.o), a.d. 681, Archbishop of
Milan, died in 725 or 735. — Commentarmm medicinale, ed. by Ullrich,
1835, a small pamphlet consisting of 241 verses, in which a few drugs are
alluded to.
See pages 282. 463. 493.
Bock — See Tragus.
Brunfels, Otto, 1488-1534, originally a Carthusian friar, then a school-
master at Strassburg, author of several pamphlets against Catholicism ;
doctor of medicine, and lastly physician to the republic of Bern. His great
work — Herbarum vivae eicones, etc., 3 vol., Strassburg, 1530, 1531, 1536, con-
taining 229 partly excellent woodcuts of plants occui'ring near Strassburg — is
the earliest instance of good botanical figures. — See Fliickiger, Otto Brunfds,
in the Archiv der Pharmacie, vol. 212 (1878) 493-514.
See pages 170. 388. 439. 694.
Brunschwyg, Hieronymus, a surgeon living at Strassburg apparently
towards the end of the 15th century. His " Liher de arte distillandi de sim-
plicibus. Das buch der rechten kunst zu distilieren . . . ." Strassburg,
1500, with figures, was subsequently brought out in numerous editions and
translations. In English: The noble handy work of surgery and of destination.
Southwark, 1525, fol., and The vertuose boke of distillacyon of the waters of
all manner of herbes, translate out of duyche. London, 1527, fol. — See
Choulant, Graphische Incunabeln fiir Naturgeschichte und Medicin, 1858-75.
See pages 170. 456.
Camellus or Camelli — See Kamel.
Camerarius, Joachim, 1534-1598, physician at JSTumberg. Ilortus medi-
cus et philosophiciis. Francofurti, 1588. See /rwmc/i, Uber einige Botaniker
des 16*™ Jahrhunderts. Sondershausen, 1862, 4°. p. 39.
See pages 384. 390. 474.
Cato, Marcus Porcius Cato Censorius, 234-149 B.C. In the book Be re
rustica, the earliest agricultural work in Roman literature, Cato treats of many
useful plants, the complete list of which will be found in Meyer's Geschichte
der Botanik, i. 342. We have usually referred to Nism-d's edition in " Les
Agronomes latins," Paris, 1877.
See pages 172. 245. 269. 289. 329. 627.
Celsus, Aulus Cornelius ; about 25 B.C. to A.D. 50. — A. Cornelii Celsi de
medicina libri octo, ed. C. Daremberg.. Lipsise, 1859. The list of useful
plants mentioned by him will be found in Meyer's Geschichte der Botanik,
ii. 17.— See pages 35. 43. 179. 234. 291. 439. 493. 677. 680.
APPENDIX.
7o5
Charaka, i.e. book of health. An old Sanskrit work, analogous to
Susruta's Ayurvedas (see Susruta), yet reputed in India to be older than the
latter. Charaka is now being published, since 1868, at Calcutta, and also at
Bombay, but is not yet translated in any modern idiom. There are Arabic
versions of the end of the 8th century, as stated by Albirtini in the 11th cen-
tury, and by Ibn Baitar (see B.) For further particulars consult Roth,
Zeitschrift der Dmtsclten Morgenldndischen G esellschaft, xxvi. (1872) 441 sqq.
Charlemagne, the great Emperor, 768-814. He ordered, in 812, by the
" Cajntulare de villis et cortis imperialibus," a considerable number of useful
plants to be cultivated in the imperial farms. Several other plants are also
mentioned, for similar purpose, in the Emperor's " Breviarium rerum fiscal-
ium." A full account of both these remarkable documents will be found in
Meyer's Geschichte der Botanik, iii. 401-412. See also B. Gu6rard,
Explication du Capitulaire de Villis; Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des Chartes, IV.
(1853) 201-247. 313-350. and 346-572.
See pages 92. 98. 172. 179. 245. 269, 308. 329. 488. 542. 545. 627.
Chordadbeh — See Khurdadbah.
Circa instans — See Platearius.
Clusius, Charles de I'EscIuse, born at Arras, in the north of France, A.D.
1526 ; died A.D. 1609. He lived at Marburg, "Wittenberg, Frankfurt, Strassburg,
Lyons, Montpellier; travelled in Spain and Portugal; paid, in 1571, a visit to
London, and again in a later year. Clusius was, from 1573 to 1587, the direc-
tor of the imperial gardens at Vienna, and from 1593 to 1609 professor of
botany in the University of Leiden. Among the works of this eminent man
the most important, from a pharmaceutical point of view, are : 1. Aliquot
notce in GarcijB aromatum historiam. Antverpiae, 1582. 2. Rariorum plan-
tarum historia. Antv., 1601. 3. Exoticorum libri decern. Antv., 1605. — See
Morren, Charles de I'Ecluse, sa vie et ses oeuvres. Liege, Boverie, No. 1,
1875, 59 pp.
See pages 17. 21. 73. 83. 96. 202. 211. 254. 272. 287. 390, 401. 426. 429.
453. 521, 589. 648. 657.
CoUectio Salernitana — See Alphita.
Columella, Lucius Junius Moderatus. Born at Cadiz; he wrote be-
tween A.D. 35 and 65 the most valuable agricultural work of the Roman
literature : " De re rusiica libri xii." It has been translated by Nisard,
together with Columella's book, " De arboribus," for Firmin Didot's " Agro-
nomes latins." Paris, 1877. The list of the numerous plants mentioned by
Columella will be found in Meyer's Geschichte der Botanik ii., 68.
See pages 97. 245. 664.
Constantinus Africanus. Boi.'n at Carthage in the second half of the
10th century. A physician who spent his life in travels in the east and in
studies in the medical school at Salerno (see S.), and in the famous Benedic-
tine Abbey of Monte Cassino; died A.D. 1106. He transmitted the medical
knowledge of the Arabs to the school of Salerno, of which he may be called
the most distinguished fellow. See Steinschneider in Virchows Archiv fur
patholog. Anatomie und Physiologic, 37 (1866) 351 ; and in RohljV Archiv
iiir Geschichte der Medicin, 1879, 1-22. Steinschneider shows that Constan-
tin's work, De Gradibus, is chiefly based on that of Ibn-al-Djazzdr, who died
about A.D. 1004.
See pages 130. 211. 377. 494. 573. 584. 600.
Conti, Niccol6 dei. A Venetian merchant, who spent 25 years (from
1419 to 1444 1) in India. His interesting accounts are by far the most valu-
able of that period. They have been published for the Hakluyt Society (ed.
756
APPENDIX.
by Major) : India in the 15th century, Lond., 1857, 39 pp. A still more
valuable edition and translation is due to Kunstmann : Kenntniss Indiens im
15*^° Jahrhunderte. Miinchen, 1863. 66 pp.
See pages 282. 521. 577. 582, 636.
Cordus, Valerius. Born A.D. 1515 at Erfurt, professor of materia medica
in the University of Wittenberg, then the most eminent man in that science.
After his premature death, at Rome, in 1544, his works were published by
Conrad Gesner, in a large volume printed in 1561 at Strassburg. It con-
tains : (1) Valerii Cordi Annotaiiones in Dioscoridem; (2) HistoricB stirpium
libri iv. ; (3) De artificiosis Extractionibus, and several other papers of V.
Cordus, besides the most remarkable book, De Eortis Germanice, by Conrad
Gesner himself. A very careful biographic notice on Cordus is due to Irmisch,
Einige Botaniker des 16 Jahrhunderts . . . Sondershausen, 1862. 4°. pp. 1-34.
See pages 31. 148. 170. 248. 260. 429. 526. 580. 644. 648. 650. 661. 713,
733. 737.
Cosmas — See Kosmas.
Crescenzi, Piero de', 1235-1320. He wrote, about A.D. 1304-1306, at
Bologna, an esteemed book on agriculture, which was repeatedly printed
towards the end of the 15th century, for instance, Opus ruralium commo-
dorum Petri de Crescentiis, Argentine, 1486. There are numerous later
translations and editions.
See pages 6. 157. 180. 661.
Dale, Samuel, a physician in London, 1659-1739. Pharmacologia seu
manuductio ad Materiam medicam. Lond., 1693, 12mo.
See pages 592. 615. 616. 648. 681. 731.
Dioscorides, Pedanios, of Anazarba, in Cilicia, Asia Minor. He wrote,
about A.D. 77 or 78, his great work on materia medica, the most valuable
source of information on the botany of the ancients.
See pages 6. 35. 43. 92. 97. 147. 161. 166. 172. 175. 179. 183. 234. 262.
276. 291. 292. 305. 310. 321. 325. 328. 331. 377. 384. 388. 434. 439. 464. 486.
493. 503. 519. 529. 556. 558. 567. 568. 581. 594. 609. 627. 638. 644. 655. 661.
664. 672. 675. 677. 680. 690. 699. 715. 723. 728. 729. 733.
Dodonseus, Rembert Dodoens, 1517-1585, physician at Malines, Bel-
gium.
See pages 303. 388. 439. 699. 729. 731.
Edrisi, or Alidrisi, an Arab nobleman, born about A.D. 1099 in Spain,
living at King Roger's court, Palermo, where he compiled, in 1153, his re-
markable geographical work. It summarizes all the earlier geographic litera-
ture of the Arabs, adding much valuable information gathered by the author
from merchants and other travellers. — Giograplde d'Edrisi, traduite en fran-
gais, par P. Amedee Jaubert, 2 vols. Paris, 1836-1840. Description de
I'Afrique et de I'Espagne, trad, par Dozy. Leyde, 1866.
See pages 115. 305. 316. 494. 503. 577. 584. 642. 644. 680.
Fernandez, latinized Ferrandus. Born at Madrid 1478. From 1514
to 1525 he was "veedor de las fundiciones do oro de Tierra-firma in America,"
i.e. superintendent of the foiandries of gold in the American continent; died 1537
in Valladolid. Historia general y natural de las Indian islas y tierra firme del mar
oceano por el Capitan Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdds, primer chronista
del nuevo mundo. Publ. dal codice orig. y illustr. p. J. Amador de los Hios.
This complete edition has been published in 4 vols., from 1853 to 1855, by
the Academy of Madrid. We have not seen the earlier partial editions, viz.
Su7nmario de la natural y general Historia de las Indias," Toledo, 1526,
fol., " Frimera parte de la Historia natural y general de las Indias," Sevilla,
APPENDIX.
757
por Cromherger, 1535, fol.; nor " Cronica de las Indias," 1547. See
also Colmeiro, La Botanica y los BotAnicos de la peninsula Hispauo-Lusi-
tana, Madrid, 1858, 2G, No. 220 {Fernandez) and 149; also Haller,
Bibl. botanica, i. 272, who calls him Gandisalvus or Gonsalvus Hernandez.
He is also quoted by others as Oviedo.
See pages 95. 101. 186. 213. 453, 466. 534.
Fuchs, Leonhard, 1501-1566, Professor of medicine in the University of
Tubingen from 1535 to 1566, author of De historia sth-pium commentarii
insignes .... Basilete, 1542, fol., a work equally remarkable for the
excellent woodcuts and the careful descriptions.
See pages 170. 429. 453. 456. 469. 652.
Galenos, Claudius Galenus Perganienus, A.D. 131-200, a most distinguished
medical writer, imperial physician at Rome. Many drugs and officinal plants
are mentioned in his numerous works, which were held in the highest reputa-
tion during the middle ages.
See pages 35. 222. 268. 503. 519. 559. 609.
Garcia — See Orta.
Gerarde, John, 1545-1607, London, surgeon. — The Herhall, or generall
historie of plantes, 1597.
See pages 31. 71. 170. 218. 254. 268. 453. 459. 480. 486. 487. 537. 552.
568. 589. 611. 655. 661. 694. 700. 729.
Gesner, Conrad, 1516-1565, Zurich, the most learned naturalist of his
time (See also Cordus).
See pages 299. 384. 390. 439, 456.
Helvetius, Jean-Claude-Adrien, 1661-1727, physician at Paris.
See pages 26. 371.
Hernandez, Francisco, physician to King Philip II. of Spain ; he lived
about the years 1561-1577 in Mexico. — Quatro libros de la naturaleza y virtu-
tes de las plantas y animales que estan recevidos en el uso de medicina en la
Nueva Espaiia .... Mexico, 1615. — We have only referred to Antonio
Reecho's translation : Nova plantarum, animalium et mineralium Mexican-
orum Historia, rerum medicarum Novse Hispanise Thesaurus. Romse, 1651,
fol. (first edition, 1628). Hernandez must not be confounded with G. Fer-
nandez de Oviedo (See Fernandez).
See pages 202. 206. 657.
Hildegardis, 1099-1179, the abbess of the Benedictine monastery St.
Ruprechtsberg, near Bingen ("Pinguia") on the Rhine. Her " Physica" one
of the most interesting mediasval works of its kind, is contained in tom.
cxcvii. (1855) 1117-1352 of J. P. Aiignes Patrologim cursus completus, under
the name " Subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum .... Liber i.
De Plantis.
See pages 305. 378. 476. 512. 551. 584.
Ibn Baitar — See Baitar.
Ibn Batuta — See Batuta.
Ibn Khordadbah — See Khurdadbah.
Idrisi- — See Edrisi.
Isaac Judeeus, or Abu Jaqub Ishaq . . . . , an Egyptian Jew, living at
Kairowan, in Northern Africa, as a physician to the prince of the Aglabites ;
died about A.D. 932-941. See Choulant, Biicherkunde fur die dltere Medicin,
1841, 347 ; also Meyer, Ceschichte der Botanik, iii. 170.
Seepages 217. 225. 325. 377.
758
APPENDIX.
Isidorus, Hispalensis, Bishop of Sevilla, about a.d. 595-636, author of a
great cyclopoedia, Etymologiarum libri xx. We have referred to it in " Sancti
Isidori Opera ouiuia," in the voL Ixxxii. (1859) of J. P. Migne's Patrologise
cursus completus.
See pages 305. 380. 493. 529. 664.
Istachri, Abu Ishaq Alfarsi Alistachri {i.e. of Istachr, the ancient Perse-
poHs, in the Persian province Pars). His geograpliical work has been trans-
lated (in the Transactions of the Academy of Ham) by Mordtmann : Das
Buck der Lmder von Schech Ebn Ishak el Farsi el Isztachri. Hamburg, 1845.
See pages 316. 414. 716.
Kamel (or Camellus), George Joseph, born at Briinn, Moravia, a.d.
1661, a member of the company of Jesus a.d. 1682. By permission of his
superiors, he left in 1688 for the Marianne islands and the Philippines. After
having acquired a certain knowledge of botany and pharmacy, he established,
at Manila, a pharmaceutical shop with the view of supplying medicaments
gratis to the poor; he died there in 1706. Kamel communicated his botani-
cal investigations to Ray and Petiver (see R.) ; consult also A. de Backer,
Bibliotheque des Ecrivains de la compagnie de Jesus, iv. (Liege, 1858) 89.
See pages 148. 432.
Kampfer, Engelbert. Born in 1651 atLemgo, Westphalia; travelled as a
physician in Persia (1683-1685), India, Java, Siam (1690), Japan (1690-1692) ;
graduated in 1694 at Leiden, and died in 1716 at Lemgo. His work, Amoeni-
tatum exoticarum fasciculi v., Lemgo, 1712, was intended as a specimen of
more elaborate accounts of the various observations of the well-informed and
zealous author. But only a History and description of Japan was published in
German in 1777, by Dohm at Lemgo. Kampfer's unpublished manuscripts
and collections were purchased, in 1753, by Sir Hans Sloane, for the British
Museum.
See pages 20. 44. 167. 263. 272. 315. 512. 513. 527.
Kazwini, an Arabic geographer of the 13th century. — Eth^, Kazwini's
Kosmographie. Leipzig, 1869.
See pages 503. 521. 573.
Khurdadbah or Ibn-Chordadbeh, engaged, towards the end of the 9th
century, in the police and postal administration of Mesopotamia, and collect-
ing informations about the products and tributes of the empire of the Khalifes.
They are translated by Barbier du Meynard : Le livre des routes et des pro-
vinces, par Ibn Khordadbeh. Journal asiatique, v. (1865) 227-296 and 446-527.
See pages 282. 512. 518. 573. 577. 642.
Kosmas Alexandrines Indikopleustes, a Greek merchant, a friend
of Alexander Trallianus (p. 752), living in Egypt, travelling in India, and
lastly, towards the middle of the 6th century, a monk. His monstrous work,
Christiana topogra]}hia, contains, nevertheless, a small amount of valuable
information. We referred to it as contained in Migne's Patrologise cursus
completus, series gr«ca, t. Ixxxviii. (1850) 374.
See pages 281. 577. 599.
Lefebvre or Le Febre, Nicolas, 16.. -1674, Paris (partly also London),
" Apoticaire ordinaire du Roy, distillateur chymique de sa Majeste" — Traite
de la Chymie, Paris, i. (1660) 375-377.
See pages 65. 381.
Liber pontificalis seu de gestis Romanorum pontificum. Romse, 1724
(edition of Vignolius). A new edition will be brought out in the Monumenta
Germanise.
See pages 137. 142. 281.
APPENDIX.
759
Macer Floridus, wrote, A.D. 1140, the book De virihus herharum. The
editio princeps was printed A.D. 1487 in Naples; the best edition is that of
Choulant, Leipzig, 1832 (140 pages). Nothing exact is known about that
author himself.
See pages 627. 642. 684.
Marcellus Empiricus, a high functionary of the two emperors
Theodosius, towards the end of the 4th and in the beginning of the 5th
centuries. — De medicamentis empiricis, physicis ac rationalibus liber. Basilese,
1536.
See pages 183. 729.
Marcgraf, Georg, 1610-1644, astronomer and geographer to Count
Johann Moriz von Nassau. See Piso.
See pages 187. 211. 228. 371.
Masudi, or Almasudi, Ma9oudi. A.D. 900-958. Born at Bagdad, travelled
in Arabia, India, and in the East of Africa. One of the distinguished
geographic writers of the Arabs. His works are being published by the Societe
asiatique of Paris : Les Prairies d'Or, texte et traduction par Barbier de
Meynard et Pavet de Courteille, 8 vols., 1869-1873 (in continuation).
See pages 503. 573. 584. 600. 680.
Mattioli, Pierandrea. Born in 1501 at Siena; living as a physician at
Trento, GiJrz, Prag ; died A.D. 1577. There are many editions of his chief
work, Commentarii in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei de medica
materia. The first, in Italian, was published in 1544 at Venice.
See pages 32. 147. 183. 390. 439. 456. 609. 650.
Meddygon Myddvai — See Physicians.
Mesue, the younger. Jahja ben Masaweih ben Ahmed. . . . Born at
Maredin, Kurdistan, physician to the Khalif Alhakem at Cairo; died A.D. 1015.
See pages 40. 225. 493.
Monardes, Nicolds, 1493-1588, physician at Sevilla. — Historia medicinal
de las cosas que se traen de nuestras ludias occidentales, que sirven en medi-
cina. Sevilla, 1569. Latin edition by Clusius, De simplicibus medicamentis
ex occidentali India delatis, quorum in medicina usus est. Antverp. 1574.
See Hanbury's appreciation of the book : Pharm. Journ. i. (1870) 298.
See pages 148. 202. 206. 443. 466. 534. 537. 697. 705.
Mutis, Jose Celestino, 1732-1808; 1760, physician to the viceroy of
New Granada; 1782, in charge of an " expedicion real botanica" of that
country. See Triana's work, quoted at page 369. Triana much reduces,
apparently with good reason, the merits of Mutis, which would appear to have
been overrated by Humboldt.
See pages 106. 345.
Nikandros Kolophonios, of Klaros, near Kolophon in Ionia, in the
2nd century B.C. Physician and poet.
See page 6.
Nostredame, Michel de. Born 1503 at Saint-Remi, Provence. Physi-
cian and astrologer at Aix and Lyons; died A.D. 1566 at Salon, Provence.
See page 405.
Oribasios Pergamenos, a friend and physician to the emperor Julianus
Apostata, 4th century. AVe referred chiefly to Busse7naker et Daremhery,
Oeuvres completes d'Oribasius, 6 vols., 1851-1876.
See pages 35. 129. 175. 183. 222. 559. 729.
Orta, Garcia de, or Garcia ab Horto. (Years of birth and death unknown.)
760
APPEl^DIX.
He was a student of medicine and natural sciences in the Universities of Sala-
manca and Alcala, and a teacher and physician in the University of Coimbra
(or Lissabon 1). In 1534 Garcia accompanied Martim Alfonso de Souza, grand
admiral of the Indian fleet, to Goa, and lived there as a royal physician
(Physico d'El Eey) to the hospital. Garcia appears to have been still living
there in 1562, when he obtained the vice-regal privilege for his book
" Coloquios dos simples e drogas he cousas mediginais da India, e assi dalguas
frutas achadas nella ande se tratam. . . . Impresso em Goa, por Joannes de
endem as x de Abril de 1563," 436 pp., 4°. (British Museum). — F. A. von
Varnhagen has caused the Coloquios to be reprinted in 1872 at Lisbon.
Garcia de Orta's Coloquios are, notwithstanding the utterly difliused style of
the work, a precious source of information on eastern drugs. They had the
good chance to be translated, as early as the year 1567, by Clusius, who
omitted the insignificant parts of the book, re-arranged it conveniently, and
added valuable notes. See Fliickiger in Buchner's Repertorium fiir Pharmacie,
XXV. (1876) 63-69.
See pages 43. 86. 130. 154. 200. 225. 241. 272. 405. 415. 429. 462. 512.
521. 627. 547. 585. 638. 644. 712.
Oviedo, Capitan Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Vald6s — See Fer-
nandez.
Palladius, Eutilius Taurus Aemilianus, an agricultural author of the
4th or 5th century of our era, living probably in northern Italy. We have
chiefly referred to Nisard's edition of the fourteen books of Palladius " De re
rustica," which is contained in Firmin Didot's " Les Agronomes latins," Paris,
1877.
See page 328.
Parkinson, John, 1567-1629 C?), an apothecary of London, and direc-
tor of the Royal Gardens at Hampton Court. Theatrum hotanicuni, or an
herball of large extent London, 1640. fol.
See pages 84. 189. 287. 429. 469. 470. 500. 656. 589. 616. 623. 648.
698. 731.
Paulus ^Egineta (Paulos Aiginetes), a physician of the first half oi
the 7th century of our era, who appears to have lived for some time at Alex-
andria. Author of "seven books" on medicine, which have been first pub-
lished, in Greek, in 1528 at Venice, and, in Latin, in 1532 at Paris, translated
by Winter (Guinterus) of Andernach : Co7nj)endii medici libri septem. We
have also referred to the translation of Adams.
• See pages 3. 35. 175. 183. 271. 281. 559. 563.
Pavon, Jos6, a Spanish botanist, who explored in common with Ruiz the
flora of Peru. Biographic particulars about Pavon are wanting even in Col-
meiro's La botdnica y los botanicos de la peninsula Hispano-Lusitana,
Madrid, 1858. 181.
See pages 345. 590.
Paxi or Pasi, Bartolomeo di ; the author of a curious book giving
practical information about the weights and measures in use in various coun-
tries. There are many editions, the first of which, as examined in 1876 by one
of us (F.A.F.) in the library of San Marco, Venice, is found to bear the
following title: — " Qui comincia la utilissima opera chiamata Taripha, la qvol
tracta de ogni sorte de pexi e misure conrispondenti per tuto il mondo fata e
composta per lo excelente e eximio Miser Bartholomeo di Paxi da Venezia.
Stampado in uenezia per Albei'tin da lisona uercellese regnante 1 inclyto prin-
cipe miser Leonardo Loredano. Anno domini 1503, A di 26 del mese de
luio.'"
See pages 235. 609.
APPENDIX.
761
Peres — See Pires.
Periplus Maris Erythraei, a survey of the Red Sea and the Indian
Ocean as far as tlie coast of Malabar. In his interesting account, written about
between A.D. 54 and 68, the author, commonly called Arrian of Alexandria,
gives a list of imports and exports of the various places which he had visited
or of which he had good informations. See Vincent, Commerce and Naviga-
tion of the Ancients, etc. London, vol. i. (1800), ii. (1805); also C. Midler,
Geographi grseci minores, i. (Paris, 1855) 257-305. Anonymi {Arriani ut
fertur) Periplus maris erythraei.
See pages 35. 142. 272. 493. 520. 529. 577. 599. 664. 675. 680. 715.
Physicians of Myddvai (Meddygon Myddfai). Rhys Gryg {i.e. the
Hoarse), prince of South Wales (died in 1233 at Llandeilo Vawr), had his
domestic physician, namely Rhiwallon, who was assisted by his three sons
Cadwgan, Gruftydd, Einion, from a place called Myddvai, in the present county
of Caermarthen. They made a collection of recipes, the original manuscript of
which is in the British Museum. Another collection has been compiled, from
the original sources, by Howel the Physician, son of Rhys, son of Llewelyn,
son of Philip the Physician, a lineal descendant of Einion, the son of
Rhiwallon. Both these compilations have been published at Llandovery in
1861, together with a translation, by John Pughe, under the above title
(470 pp.)
See pages 6. 40. 65. 71. 141. 157. 161. 170. 180. 299. 305. 310. 316. 334.
380. 383. 393. 401. 450. 464. 469. 476. 488. 556. 625. 635. 642. 652.
Pires, Tom6 (or Pyres, Pirez, as he also writes his name himself), a
Portuguese apothecary. He was the first ambassador sent, probably in 1511,
from Europe, or at least from Portugal, to China. Pires addressed, in 1512-
151G, several letters from Cochin and Malacca to the Admiral Alfonso d Albu-
querque and to King Manuel of Portugal. One of them, written January 27,
1516, from Cochin to the King, enumerates many drugs which were to be met
with in that place — " dando 1-lhe noticias das drogas da India," says the
writer. This letter, still existing in the Real y Nacional Archivo da Torre
do Tombo (corpo chronologico, part i. fasc. 19, No. 102), was communicated
in 1838 by Bishop Condo Don Francisco de San Luiz to the Portuguese
Pharmaceutical Society, and published in their "Jornal de Socied. Pharm.
Lusit. ii. (1838) 36." It will also be found in the pamphlet^ " Elogio historico
e noticia completa de Thom6 Pires, pharmaceutico e primeiro natu'-alista da
India ; e o primeiro embaixador europeo a China. Memoria publicada na
Gazeta de Pharmacia por Pedro Jos6 da Silva." . . . Lisboa, 1866. 47 pp.
(" y 22 fac simile de sua signatura"). We had, moreover, before us an
authentic copy of the letter under notice, obligingly written 1st December,
1869, for one of us by Senhor Joaquim Urbano de Veiga, the Secretary of the
Sociedad Pharmaceutica Lusitana. According to Colmeiro, La Botdnica y los
Botdnicos de la Peninsula Hispano-Lusitana, Madrid, 1858. 148, Peres was
attached to the factory of Malacca as a " scribano " (secretary]) and " por
tener conocimientos farmaceuticos," and was sent to China, with the character
of an ambassador, in order to examine more freely the plants. He was im-
prisoned, says Colmeiro, at Pekin, and there died soon after 1521 in prison.
Yet Abel Remusat, in the 34th volume of the " Biographic universelle " (1823),
p. 498, and also in his " Nouveaux melanges asiatiques" ii. (1828) 203, states
that Pires proceeded first to Canton, and reached Pekin in 1521. From this
place he was sent to Canton and imprisoned for many years from political
causes. He was still living in 1543.
See pages 43. 255. 681.
^ Library of tlie Pharm. Soc. of Great Britain, Loudon, among the "Pamphlets, No.
30 " (Sept. 1878).
762
APPENDIX.
I
Piso, Willem. The Dutch, having conquered in 1630 from the Spanish
the north-eastern part of the Brazilian coast, between Natal and Porto Calvo,
Count Johann Moriz von Nassau-Siegen was appointed, in 1636, Governor-
General of these possessions. He left them in 1644; the history of his reign
is contained in the work of Barlceus, Rerum per Octoennium . . . gestarum
. . . historia, Amstelodami, 1647. The Count had also instituted a scientific
exploration of the environs of Pernambuco (or Recife), his residence, by his
physician Piso and Marcyraf, the friend of the latter (see M.), who lived also
at the Count's court. They devoted several years (from 1638 to 1641)
zealously to their task. The results of their investigations are found in — ^(1)
Historia naturalis Brasilise, published by Joh. de Laet, Lugd. Bat., 1643. (2)
Pisonis de medicina brasiliensi libri iv., et G. Marcgravii historice rerum na-
turalimn Brasilice libri viii. Lugd. Bat., 1648. (3) Pisonis de utriusque
Indice historia naturali et medica libri xiv. Amstelodami, 1658.
See pages 27. 113. 114. 130. 152. 211. 228. 371. 591.
Platearius, Matthaeus, one of the most distinguished writers of the
famous medical school of Salerno, about the middle of the 1 2th century. He
compiled the remarkable dictionary of drugs, " Liber de simplici medicina,"
which was extremely appreciated during the next centuries, and even reprinted
as late as the beginning of the 17th century. The work begins with a defini-
tion of the signification of the term Simplex medicina ; it is in these words :
Circa instans negotium de simplicibus medicinis nostrum versatur propositum.
Simplex autem medicina est, quae talis est, qualis a natura producitur: ut
gariofilus, nux muscata et similia The work of Platearius is therefore
usually quoted under the name Circa instans. The list of the 273 drugs
enumerated in "Circa instans " will be found in Choulant {I.e. at p. 751), p. 298.
We have referred to " Circa instans" as contained in the volumes — Disj^en-
sarium magistri Nicolai prsepositi ad aromatarios, Lugduni, 1517, or Practica
Jo. Serapionis, Lugd. 1525.
See pages 225. 316. 581.
Plinius (Cajus Plinius Secundus), A.B. 23-79, the well-known author of
the " Naturalis historioi libri xxxvii." We have particularly used Littrd'.s
translation, " Histoire naturelle de Pline," published in 2 vols, by Firmin
Didot, Paris, 1877.
See pages 6. 35. 43. 97. 147. 161. 179. 234. 276. 281. 291. 305. 310. 325.
329. 333. 377. 434. 439. 474. 486. 488. 493. 503. 519. 529. 543. 556. 558. 576.
595. 609. 627. 644. 661. 664. 672. 677. 680. 729. 733.
Plukenet, Leonard, 1642-1706, physician, director of the Royal gardens,
London ; collector of a large herbarium still existing in the British Museum.
See page 16.
Polo, Marco, a noble Venetian, the most famous among mediaeval
travellers. He spent 25 years, from 1271 to 1295, in Asia, chiefly in China.
The account of his travels was written, in French, in 1298, hy Rusticiano of
Pisa, and published since in numerous translations and abstracts. We have
chiefly referred to the two following excellent works : (1) Puuthier. Le
livre de Marco Polo, publie pour la premiere fois d'apr^s trois manuscrits
in^dits de la Biblioth^que imperiale de Paris, 1865. (2) Ytde. The book of
Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, concerning the kingdom and marvels of the
East, with notes and illustrations. 2 vols. London, 1871, second edition
1874.
See pages 200. 282. 494. 510. 512. 520. 584. 636. 717.
Pomet, Pierre, " marchand Spicier et droguiste k Paris, rue des Lom-
bards, k la Barbe d'Or."— Histoire g^nerale des drogues, 1694, fol. 528 pages,
400 engravings. There are later editions in 2 vols., 4°; that of 1735 by the
APPENDIX.
763
author's son, an " apotiquaire " at St. Denis. See Hanhurys appreciation of
the book, Pharm. Journ. i. (1870) 298.
See pages 21. 26. 73. 118. 126. 148. 260. 263. 479. 617. 623. 648. 657.
Porta, Giovanni Battista, 1539('?)-1615, a distinguished Napolitan noble-
man. Of his remarkable works we have before us — De distillatione, lib. ix.
RomjB 1608, 154 pp. It is partly contained also in Porta's Magise naturalis
libri XX, 1589, yet not in the earlier editions of the Magia, the first of which
appeared in 1558. Another work of the same author, the Phytognoniica,
Naples, 1583, may be mentioned as one of the chief works treating on the
"Doctrine of Signatures." There are several editions of it, usually containinf
the curious figures of the tubers of orchids as especially connected with that
superstitious doctrine.
See pages 118. 263. 385. 479. 526. 580. 653. 655.
Praepositus, Nicolaus, one of the eminent physicians of the school of
Salerno (see S.) living in the first half of the 12th century. He gives in his
Antidotarium, first edition, Venetiis 1471, the composition of about 150
medicines, which were much used, under his name, during the following
centuries. They are enumerated in Choulant's book, mentioned p. 751 before.
Pun-tsao, a great Chinese herbal, written by Le-she-chin, in the middle
of the 16th century. It consists of 40 thin octavo volumes, the first three of
which contain about 1,100 woodcuts. For more exact information consult
Uanhury, Science Papers, 212 et seq.
See pages 4. 76. 83. 167. 510. 520.
Ramusio, Giovanni Battista.- — Terza editione delle navigationi e viaggi
raccolti gik da G. B. Ramusio, 3 vol. fol. Venetia, 1554. A valuable collection
of accounts of medieval travellers, chiefly Italian.
See page 4.
Ray (Wray, or Eajus) John, 1628-1705, a clergyman and distinguished
botanist. His Herbarium is preserved in the British Museum. Historia
plantarum, 3 vols., folio, London, 1686-1704.
See pages 254. 277. 481. 482. 615. 731. 740.
Redi, Francesco, a physician of Arezzo, who lived at Florence.
Usjjerienze intorno a diverse cose naturali e particularmente a quelle che ci son
portate dell' India. Firenze, 1671.
See pages 24. 111. 287.
Rhazes (Abu Bekr Muhammad ben Zakhariah Alrazi) from Raj, in the
Persian province Chorassan, where he was a physician to the hospital and
subsequently at Bagdad ; died A.D. 923 or 932.
See pages 3. 271. 393. 642. 716.
Rheede tot Draakestein, Hendrik Adriaan van, 1636-1691, Dutch
governor of Malabar. He ordered the most conspicuous plants of India to be
figured and to be described, mostly by Jan Commelin, professor of botany at
Amsterdam. This great and valuable work is the Hortus indicus malabaricus,
12 vols, folio, Amstelodami 1678-1703, with 794 plates.
See pages 130. 189. 211. 297. 403. 421. 425. 547. 565. 580. 644. 677. 726.
Ricettario Fiorentino ; one of the earliest, if not the very first, printed
Pharmacopoeia published by authority. It bears title : Ricettario di dottori
deir arte, e di medicina del collegio Fiorentino all' instantia delli Signori
Consoli della universita delli sjieciali. Firenze, 1498. Folio. We have
referred to the edition of 1567, printed at " Fiorenza, Nella Stamperia dei
Giunti 1574." There are other editions of that Florentine Pharmacopcsia
down to the year 1696.
See pages 40. 410. 706.
764
APPENDIX.
I
Roteiro. The account of the famous expedition of Vasco da Gama to the
Cape (22nd November, 1497), due to one of his companions, Alvaro Velho.
The author enumerates in liis remarkable pamphlet (see title at page 496)
several spices and drugs of India, stating their prices there and in Alexandria.
See also Heyd, Geschichte des Levantehandels, ii. (1879) 507.
See pages 404. 496.
Ruel, or Ruellius, also de la Rouelle, Jean. 1474-1537. Physician
atj Soissons, lastly canon at Paris. De natura stirpium libri iii. Parisiis,
1536. Folio. (See also Scribonius Largus.)
See pages 31. 388.
Ruiz, Hipolito. 1754-1816. A Spanish botanist, in 1777 appointed
director of the celebrated exploration of Peru and Chile. (See also Pavon.)
See pages 79. 345. 590.
Rumphius (Rumpf), Georg Eberhard, 1627-1702. Dutch governor of
Amboina. He figured and described 715 plants of that island in the Her-
barium amboinense, 7 vols., Amstelodami, 1741-1755, folio, 696 plates.
See pages 130. 189. 211. 278. 297. 336. 421. 565, 600. 673. 726. 749.
Saladinus, of Ascoli (probably Ascoli di Satiano in the Capitanata,
Apulia), physician to one of the Princes of Tarentum (and apparently also to
the grand constable of Naples, Prince Giovanni Antonio de Balzo Ursino).
He is the author of the " Compendi/mi ai'oinatariorum Saladini, principis tarenti
dignissimi medici, diligenter correctum et emendatum. Impressum in almo
studio Bononiensi, 1488 ;" 4°. 58 pages. Further on, the author calls himself
Dominus Saladinus de Esculo, Serenitatis Principis Tarenti phisicus princi-
palis. At the end of his pamphlet he gives the list of drugs " communiter
necessariis et usitatis in cpialibet aromataria vel apotheca." .... This book
intended for the druggists, aromatarii, was written between A.D. 1442 and
1458, as shown by Hanbury, Science Papers, 358.
See pages 148. 183. 225. 377. 388. 456. 582. 585. 600.
Salerno, the school of medicine. During the middle ages, from about
the 9 th century, there were flourishing in the said Italian town a large number
of distinguished medical practitioners and teachers. It is one of their merits
to have transmitted the medical art and knowledge of the Arabs to mediaeval
Europe. — See also Alphita, Conslantinus Africcmus, Platearius, Nicolaus Froepo-
sihis. That once famous institution continued an obscure existence even down
to the year 1811, when it was suppressed, November 29th, by order of
Napoleon.— See pages 31. 225. 321. 334. 377. 690.
Sanudo, Marino, a well informed Venetian writer, author of (1) Vite
de duchi di Venezia, in Muratori, Scriptores rerum italicarum xxii. (Mediolani,
1733) 954 et seq. (2) Marinus Sanutus dictus Torsellus Patricius Venetus,
Liber Secretorum fidelium crucis super terrte sanctte recuperatione et conserva-
tione, in Orientalis Historia5, tom ii. (Hanovife, 1611) 22; lib. i. part i.
cap. 1. The latter work contains, at page 23, a classified list of eastern drugs ;
among the most valuable spices, Sanudo mentions cloves, cubebs, mace, nut-
megs, spikenard ; among those less costly, cinnamon, ginger, olibanum, pepper.
See pages 245. 636.
Scribonius Largus, a Roman physician of the first century of our era.
He accompanied, in A.D. 43, the emperor Claudius when he attempted the
definite conquest of the island of Britain. Scribonius is the author of the
valuable book, Compositiones Medicamentorum seu Compositiones medicse, the
earliest edition of which is due to Ruel, Paris, 1529.
See pages 6. 35. 42. 147. 179. 219. 245. 331. 493. 503.
APPENDIX.
765
Simon Januensis — See pages G. 44. 582. 652.
Sloane, Sir Hans, 1660-1753. In 1687 physician to the governor of
Barbados and Jamaica. His library and large collections of natural history
formed the nucleus of the British Museum. He wrote (1) Catalogus plantarum
qu£e in insula Jamaica sponte proveniunt vel vulgo coluntur adjectis
aliis quibusdam, quae in insulis MaderiB, Barbados, Nieves et St. Christophori
nascuntur, Londini, 1696. (2) A..voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados,
Nieves, St. Christophers and Jamaica. London, 1707-1725, fol.
See pages 18. 73. 188. 203. 288. 591. 615. 629. 710.
Susruta. The author of Ayurvedas " i.e. the book of health, an old
Sanskrit medical work in which a large number of eastern drugs are mentioned.
It was first printed in the original language at Calcutta, 2 vols., 1835-1836, and
afterwards translated under the name Susrutas Ayurvedas, id est medicinse
systema a venerabili Uhanvantare demonstratum, a Susruta discipulo composi-
tum. Nunc primum ex Sanskrita in Latinum sermonem vertit .... Fr.
Hessler, Erlangse, 3 vols., 1844-1850. And by the same translator, Com-
mentarii et annotationes in Susrutse ayurvedam, 1852-1855. Susruta was once
supposed to have written centuries before Christ, but chiefly the researches of
Prof. Haas, London, in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesell-
schaft, XXX. (1876) 617 sqq. and xxxi. (1877) 647, make it not improbable that
the Sanskrit " Susruta " might have been generated from the Greek Hip-
pokrates by way of the intermediate form "Bukrat." The oldest testimony
as to the time of Susruta (and Charaka, see before) is the statement of Ibn
Abu Oseibiah, in the 13th century, that Susruta had been translated into
Arabic about the end of the 8th century.
See pages 154. 188. 211. 225. 295. 315. 421. 425. 436. 503. 547. 572. 644.
Tabernaemontanus, Jacob Theodor, physician at Heidelberg; died
A.D. 1590. A pupil of Tragus. — Neuw Kreuterbuch, Frankfurt, 1588, folio ;
second part, 1591, both with fig. Later editions, also in German, by Caspar
Bauhin and Hieronymus Bauhin. Latin translation, Eicones plantarum sen
stirpium . . . Francofurti, 1590, with 2225 engravings.
See pages 308. 390. 731.
Talbor, or also Tabor, Eobert, 1642-1681. This singular personage
having been apprenticed to Dear, an apothecary of Cambridge, settled in
Essex, where he practised medicine with much success. He afterwards came
to London, and in 1672 published a small book called TlvperoXoyla, a rational
accovMt of the cause and cure of agues (London, 12°). As stated at page 344,
he was appointed physician to the king, and on 27th July of the same year,
received the honour of knighthood at Whitehall. But he was not a member of
the College of Physicians ; and to save him from attack, Charles II. caused
a letter to be written restraining that body from interfering with him in his
medical practice. (Baker, I.e. at page 344, note 1). The appointment as royal
physician, made in consideration of " good and acceptable services performed,"
led to the issuing of a patent under the Privy Seal, dated 7th August, 1678,
granting to Sir Robert Talbor an annuity of £100 per annum, together with
the profits and privileges appertaining to a physician in ordinary to the sove-
reign. In 1679 Talbor visited France and Spain, as recorded in the liecue'd
des nouvelles etc. pendant I'annee 1679 (Paris, 1780) 466 (this includes the
Gazette de France, 23rd Sept., 1679). The journey to Spain he made in the
suite of the young queen of Spain, Louise d'Orleans, niece of Louis XIV., of
whom he is described as premier mddecin. During Talbor's absence, his prac-
tice in London was carried on by his brother. Dr. John Talbor, as is proved by
an advertisement in the True News or Mercurius Anglicus, January 7-10, 1679.
766
APPENDIX.
In France Talbor liad the good fortune to cure the Dauphin of an attack of
fever, and also treated Avith success other eminent persons. (See Lettres de
Madame de Sevign^e, nouv. ed. tome v., 1862, .5.59 ; also tome vi., letters of 15th
and 29th Sept. and 6th Oct. 1679.) The physicians both in England and
France were exceedingly jealous of the successes of an irregular practitioner
like Talbor, and averse to admit the merits of his practice. Yet D'Aquin,
first physician to Louis XIV., prescribed Vin de Quinquina, as well as pow-
dered bark, for the king in 1686. — See J. A. Le Roi, 3. Journal de la sante du roi
Louis XIV., Paris, 1862. 171. 431. But Talbor's happy results brought
liim into favour with Louis XIV., who induced him, in consideration of a sum
of 2,000 louis d'or and an annual pension of 2,000 livres, to explain his mode
of treatment, which proved to consist in the administration of considerable
doses of cinchona bark infused in wine, as will be seen in the pamphlet : Les
admirahles qualitez du Kinkina, confirmees par jjlusieurs exjKriences, Paris, 1689.
12°. Talbor did not long enjoy his prosperity, for he died in 1681, aged about
40 years. He was buried in Trinity Church, Cambridge, where a monumen-
tal inscription describes him as — " Febrium 7nalleus " and physician to Charles
II., Louis XIV., and the Dauphin of France. In Talbor's will, proved by his
widow. Dame Elizabeth Talbor, alias Tabor, relict and executrix, 18th Nov.
1861, and preserved at Doctors' Commons, mention is made of an only son,
Philip Louis.
See page 344.
Theophrastos Eresios, of Eresos, in the island of Lesbos, about 370-
285 B.C. The earliest botanical author in Europe, having consigned in his
works, written about the year 314 B.C. or later, an admirable amount of excel-
lent observations, either of his own, or, as many suggest, originated from
Aristotle. Among the numerous editions of Theophrast's works (printed as
early as A.D. 1483) we may point out Wimmer's Latin translations, tom. i.
Historia flantarum, tom. ii. De Causis playitarum. Leipzig, 1854 ; or the
French edition of the same translator, Th6ophraste, CEuvres completes.
Paris, 1866, Firmin Didot.
See pages 42. 97. 136. 142. 146. 147. 161. 166. 175. 179. 234. 259. 292.
310. 321. 393. 418. 439. 519. 529. 567. 576. 595. 598. 620. 644. 661. 664.
677. 690. 715. 723. 733.
Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de, 1656-1708. Important as are his attempts
to establish a scientific classification of plants, his merits as a careful observer
(1700-1702) of eastern plants are of still more weight from a pharmaceutical
standpoint. The latter is evidenced by his Relations cl'un voyage du Levant.
.... Paris, 1717, 2 vols.
See pages 163. 175.
Tragus (Bock), Hieronymus, 1498-1554. A friend and pupil of Brunfels
(see B.), protestant clergyman at Hornbach, near Zweibriicken, Bavarian
Palatinate. He gave remarkably good descriptions of the indigenous plants,
with figures, in his " Kreuterbuch," the best edition of which was published in
German at Strassburg, A.D. 1551, and a translation in 1552 : Hieronymi
Tragi, de stirpium, maxime earum quae in Germania nostra nascuntur usitatis
nomenclaturis, etc. libri tres.
See pages 170. 295. 384. 388. 434. 450. 456. 469. 540. 665. 676. 694.
699. 731. 734.
Turner, William, born at Morpeth, Northumberland (date not known),
died 1568. In 1538 he was a student of theology and medicine in
Pembroke College, Cambridge. Turner lived many years in Germany, and
was an intimate friend of Conrad Gesner. The " New Herball, wherein are
APPENDIX.
767
contayned the names of herbes in Greeke, Latin, .... and in the potecaries
and herbaries .... with the properties etc., by William Turner, London,
1551; the seconde parte, Collen (Cologne), 156:^; the third parte, London,
1568," is the earliest scientific work on botany in the English literature. To
its author is also due the foundation of the Kew Gardens.
See pages 292. 378. 480. 556. 568. 571. 729.
Vasco da Gama — See Roteiro.
Vegetius Renatus. A treatise on veterinary medicine, written appar-
ently about the beginning of the 5th century of our era, is attributed to an
author of the above name. See Citoulant, p. 223 of the work quoted before
(p. 751).
See pages 175. 380.
Vignolius — See Liber pontificalis.
Vindicianus, physician to the Emperor Valentinianus I., about A.D-
364-375. For further information see Ghoulants work (quoted at p. 751),
p. 215; also Haller, Bibl. bot. i. 151.
See page 559.
INDEX.
Natural Orders are printed in small capitals, as Acanthace^ : headings of articles
in thick type, as Ammoniacum.
Aaqarqarha, 383
Abelmoschus esculentus Guill. et Per-
rottet, 94
Abies balsamea Marshall, 612
„ canadensis Michaux, 612
„ excelsa DC, 616
„ pectinata DC, 615
Abietic acid, 607. 608
Abietite, 615
Abilo, 147
Abrus precatorius, 4.^188
Abuta rufescens Aublet, 30
Abutiia, 26. 30
Acacia abyssinica Hochst., 234
„ Adansonii Guill. et Perr., 234
„ arabica Willd., 234
,, capensis Burch., 237
„ Catechu Willd., 240
„ dealbata Link, 237
„ decurrens Willd., 237
,, fistula Schweinfurth, 234
„ glaucophylla Steudel, 234
„ homalophylla Cuuningh., 237
„ horrida Willd., 237
„ Karroo Hayne, 237
„ lophantha Willd., 67
,, mollissima Willd., 237
„ nilotica Desfont., 234
„ pycnantha Benth., 237
,, Senegal Willdeuow, 233
„ Seyal Delile, 234. 237
„ stenocarpa Hochstetter, 234
,, Suma Kurz, 241
„ Verek Guill. et Perrott., 232
Acacieu-Gummi, 23
AcanthacejE, 472
Acer, sugar-yielding species, 721
Aceite del palo, 229
„ de Sassafras, 540
Aconella, 11
Aconine, 9
Aconite, Japanese, 10
„ indian, 12
„ leaves, 11
„ Nepal, 12
„ root, 8
Acouitic acid, 11. 718
Aconitine, 9
Aconitura Anthora L., 10
,, Cammarura Jacq., 10
„ ferox Wall., 12
„ heterophyllum Wall., 14
„ japonicum Thunberg, 10
„ luridum Hkr. et Thorns., 12
„ Lycoctonum L., 10
„ Napellus L., 8
,, palmatum Don, 12
,, paniculatum Lam., 10
„ Storckeanum Eeichenb., 10
„ uncinatum L., 12
„ variegatum L., 10
Acore odorant, 676
Acoriu, 678
Acorus Calamus L., 676
Acrinyl sulpho-cyanate, 70
Actsea racemosa L., 15
„ spicata L., 3. 15
Adragante, 174
Adraganthin, 174. 178
[ ^gle Marmelos Correa, 129
3 c
770
INDEX.
I
^sculin, 541
^thusa Cynapium L., 302
Affium, 49
Afyun, 43
Agaricus Oreades Bolt., 251
Agave ainericana L., 680
Agi, 452
Agropyi-nm aciitum E. et S., 73!")
„ juiiceum P. de Beauv., 730
„ pungeus R. et S., 730
,, repeus P. de Beanv., 729
Ajowan or Ajvan, 302. 333
Akulkara, 383
Alautcamphor, 381
Alantic acid, 381
Alautol, 381
Alantwurzel, 380
Albizzia lophautha Benth., 67
Aleurites cordata Miiiler Arg., 91
Aleurou, 565
Alga mariua, 749
Alga zeylauica, 749
AhoM, 747
Alhagi Camelorum Fischer, 414
Allspice, 287
Allyl cyanide, 66
„ sulphocyanide, 66
Almond, bitter, 247
„ „ ess. oil of, 248
,, -legumin, 247
oil, 246
„ sweet, 244
Aloe, 679
„ species yielding the drug, 679
Aloes wood, 281
Aloeresic acid, 689
Aloeretic acid, 689
Aloeretin, 689
Aloes, 679
„ Barbados, 685
„ bitter of, 689
„ Bombay, 684
„ Cape, 685
„ Cura9ao, 685
„ East Indian, 684
„ hepatic, 684
„ Moka, 685
„ Natal, 686
,, resin of, 686
„ Socotrine, 684
„ „ liquid, 685
Aloes, Zanzibar, 684
Aloetic acid, 689
Aloetin, 689
Aloin, 687
Aloisol, 689
Alorcinic acid, 689
Alpinia Cardamomum Boxb., 643
„ Galanga Willd., 643
„ officinarum Hance, 641
Alstonia scholaris R. Brown, 421
Althffia oiBcinalis L., 92
Altingia excelsa Noronha, 272. 277
Amandes ameres, 247
„ douces, 244
Amantilla, 377
Ammi copticum L., 302
„ majus L., 304
Amomis acris Berg, 289
Ammoniacum, 324
„ African, 327
Ammoniak-Gummiharz, 324
Ammoniaque, gomme-rusiue, 324
Amomum aromaticum Roxb., 650
„ Cardamomum L., 648
„ genuinum, 648
,, Korarima, 650
,, maximum Roxb., 650
„ Melegueta Roscoe, 651
„ rotundum, 648
„ subulatum Roxb., 649
„ verum, 648
,, xanthioides Wallich, 649
„ Zingiber L., 635
AMPELIDE.ffi, 159
Amygdalae amarae, 247
,, dulces, 244
Araygdalin, 248
Amygdalus communis, 244. 247
Amylum Marantae, 629
Amyrin, 150
Amyris elemifera Royle, 152
Anacardiace^e, 161
Anacyclus officiuarura Hayue, 384
„ Pyrethrum DC, 383
Anamirta Cocculus Wight et Arnott,
31
., paniculata Colebr., 31
Anamirtic acid,
Ananto-mul, 42
Andrographis paniculata Wall, 438.
472
INDEX.
771
Andropogon Calamus aromaticns Royle,
725
„ citratus DC, 725
„ laniger Desf., 728
„ Martini Roxb., 725
„ muricatus Retzius, 728
„ Nardus L., 725
„ pachnodes Triniiis, 725
„ Schoenanthiis L., 267. 725.
728
Anethol, 22. 309
Anethum Fcenicnliim L., 308
„ graveolens L., 327
„ segetiira L., 328
Sowa Roxb., 328
Angelic acid, 313. 386. 389. 391
Angelic acid in Siimbul, 313
Angelin, 81
Angostura Bark, 106
Angosturine, 107
Anguzeh, 318
Animi, 148. 152. 153
Anis etoile, 20
Anise de Siberie, 21
Anise or Aniseed, 310
„ -camphor, 22. 309
„ Star-, 20
Autamul, 427
Anthemis nobilis L., 384
„ Pyrethrum L., 383
Anthophylli, 286
Anthriscus vulgaris Persoon, 302 .
Aphis chinensis, 168
„ Pistacise, 598
Aplotaxis auriculata DC, 382
„ Lappa Decaisne, 382
Apocodeine, 59
Apoctne^, 421
Apomorphine, 59
Aporetin, 499
Aqua Aiu-antii florum, 126. 127
„ Naphse, 126. 127
Aquilaria Agallocha Roxb., 681
Arabic acid, 238
Arabin, 238
Arabisches Gummi, 233
Arachic acid, 97. 187. 420
Arachide, 186
Arachis hypogsea L., 186
„ oil, 186
Arbol-a-brea, 147. 150
Arbutin, 401
Arbutus Uva-ursi, 401
Arctostaphylos glauca Swindley, 402
„ officinalis Wimmer et
Grab., 401
„ Uva-ursi Sprengel, 401
Areca C!atechu L., 669
„ nut, 211. 512.;^669
Arekanlisse, 211. 512
Arenga saccharifera Mart., 721
Argel plant, 220
Aricine, 359
Arka, 425
Aristolochia reticulata Nuttal, 593
„ Serpentaria L., 592
Aristolochiace^, 591
Armon, 71
Arraoracia, 71
Arnica angustifolia Vahl, 390
„ flowers, 392
„ montana L., 390
„ root, 390
Arnicin, 391
Arnicine, 391
Aroide^>, 697
Arrack, 721
Arrowroot, 629
„ East Indian, 634
Artanthe aduuca Miq., 591
„ elongata Miq., 589
„ lanceasfolia Miq., 591
,, mollicoma Miq., 114
Artanthic acid, 590
Artemisia Cina Berg, 388
„ LercheanaKarel. etKirilow,
387
,, maritima Ledebour, 387
Artocarpace^, 542
Arundo Ampelodesmos Cirillo, 747
Asa dulcis, 405
AsafcEtida, 314
Asagrgea officinalis Lindley, 697
Asant, 314
ASCLBPIADE^, 423
Asclepias asthmatica Roxb., 427
„ gigantea Willd., 424
„ Pseudo-sarsa Roxb., 423
,, Vincetoxicum L. 79
Ashantee pepper, 589
Asparagin, 93
„ in Belladonna, 459
„ in liquorice, 182
Asparagus sarmentosus L., 15
772
INDEX.
Aspartate of ammonium, 93
Aspic, 479
Aspidine, 735
Aspidium Filix-mas Swartz, 733
,, Goldieanum Hooker, 733
„ Oreopteris Sw., 735. 736
,, spimilosum Sw., 735. 736
„ margiuale Sw., 733. 736
Asplenium Filix-fcemiua Bernhard,
735. 736
Assafcetida, 314
Astragalus adscendens Boissier et
Haiissknecht, 174. 415
,, bracliy calyx Fischer, 174
,, cylleueusBoiss. etHeldr.,175
,, eriostylus B. et Hausskn., 177
florulentus B. et Hkn., 415
„ gummifer Labill., 174. 176
,, kurdicus Boiss., 174
„ leioclados Boiss., 174
„ microcephalus Willd., 174
„ pycnocladus B. et H., 174
„ stromatodes Bunge, 174
„ varus Olivier, 175
„ yielding manna, 174
Astaphis agria, 6
Ati's or Atees, 14
Atraphaxis spinosa L., 415
Atropa Belladonna L., 455
Atropic acid, 457
Atropine, 457
Atrosin, 458
Attar of rose, 262
„ adulteration of, 237
Aucklandia Costus Falconer, 382
Atherosperma moschatum Labill., 539
Atisine, 15
Ativisha, 12
Aubletia trifolia Rich., 114
Aunee, 380
AURANTIACE*, 114
Azadirachta iudica Jussieu, 154
Babul or Babur, 234
Babunah, 386
Baccse Spinse cervinse, 157
BaccEe, see Fructus
Bactyrilobium Fistula Willd., 221
Badiaue, 20
Badiyane-khatai, 22
Bael Fruit, 125
Baisabole, 141
Bakam, 216. 521
Baldrianwurzel, 377
Baliospermum montanum Mitller Arg.,
567
Balisier, 633
Balm of Gilead, 613
Balsam, Canada, 612
„ Capivi, 227
„ Copaiba, 227
„ Gurjun, 88
„ of Peru, 205
„ of Tolu, 202
Balsamo bianco, 210
„ catolico, 210
negro, 207
Balsamodendron africanum Arnott, 140
„ Ehrenbergianum Berg,
140
„ Myrrha Nees, 140
,, Opobalsamum Kunth,
140
Balsam um canadense, 612
„ Copaiba, 227
„ Dipterocarpi, 88
,, Gurjunffi, 88
,, indicum, 205
„ nucistee, 507
,, peruvianum, 205
,, Styracis, 271
,, tolutanum, 202
Barbaloin, 687
Barberry, indian, 34
Barbotine, 387
Bareutraubenblatter, 401
Barlappsamen, 731
Barley, pearl, 722
Baros camphor, 516
Barosma betulina Bartl., 108
„ Camphor, 109
„ crenata Kuuze, 108
,, crenulata Hkr., 108
,, Eckloniana Berg, 1 10
„ serratifolia Willd., 108
Barras or Galijjot, 608
Barwood, 202
Bassia tree, 728
Bassora gum, 178
Bassorin, 178
Bastaroni, 286
Batatas Jalapa Clioisy, 444
Baume de Canada, 612
„ Chio, 165
INDEX.
773
Baume de Chypre, 165
„ Copahu, 227
„ Perou, 205
„ S. Salvador, 205
„ Tolu, 202
Baumol, 417
Bay-berry tree, 289
Bay leaves (Pimeuta acris), 284
Bazghanj, 598
Bdellium, 35
Bearberry Leaves, 401
Bebeeru or Bibiru Bark, 535
Bebiriue or Bibiriue, 536
Behenic acid, 68. 70
Bela, 129
Beli, 130
Belladonna Leaves, 458
,, Eoot, 455
Belladonnine, 457
Bendi-kai, 94
Benic acid, 68. 70
Benjoin, 403
Benne Oil, 473
Benzoeharz, 403
Benzoic acid, 408
„ in Balsam. Peruv., 208
„ in Dragon's Blood, 674
Benzoin, 403
„ Penang, 407
,, Siam, 406
„ Sumatra, 407
Benzylic alcohol, 274
,, cinnamate, 209
Berberide^, 34
Berberine in Berberis, 36
„ in Calumba, 25
„ in Coptis, 5
„ in Podophyllum, 38
Berberis aristata DC, 34
„ asiatica Eoxb., 35
„ chinensis Desf., 36
,, Lycium Eoyle, 34
„ vulgaris L., 36
Bergamot Camphor, ] 23
„ essence of, 121
Bergaptene, 123
Berti'amwurzel, 383
Besenginster, 170
Beta maritima L., 720
„ -(][uinine, 358. 360
Betel Nuts, 669
B^teluUsse, 669
Betula alba, tar of, 623
Beurre de Cacao, 95
„ Muscade, 507
Bevilacqua, 297
Beyo, 135
Beyu, 135
Bhang, 547. 548
Bibiric acid, 536
Bibirine, 28. 536
„ sulphate, 536
Bibiru Bark, 535
Bigaradier, 124. 128
Bikh, 12
Bilack, 130
Bilsenkraut, 463
Bilva, 129
Bisabol, 141. 145
Bish, 12.
Bishop's "Weed, 302.
Bissa Bol, 145.
Bitter Apple, 295.
„ Wood, 131
„ „ Surinam, 133
Bitter Orange Peel, 124
Bittersiiss, 450
Bitter-sweet, 450
BlXINE.E, 75
Blauholz, 212
BlockvFood, 213
Bloodwood, 199
Blumea balsamifera DC, 518
Bockshorusamen, 172
Boi (Bombay Sumbul), 313
Boido, 135
Boigue, 18
Bois amer, 133
„ de Camp&che, 213
„ „ gaiac, 100
„ gentil, 540
„ d'Tnde, 213
„ de quassia, 133
„ „ santal, 599
„ „ „ rouge, 199
Bola, 142
Bonduc Seeds, 211
Bonplandia trifoliata Willdenow, 106
Borassus flabelliformis L., 721
Borneol, 517
„ in Valerian, 379
Boswellia Bhau-Dajiaua Bird wood, 134
„ Carterii Birdwood, 134
„ Frereana Birdwood, 135
774
Boswellia glabra Roxb., 135
„ neglecta Le Moore, 135
„ papyrifera Richard, 135
„ sacra Fluckiger, 134
,, serrata Eoxb.. 135
„ thurifera Colebr., 135
Botryopsis platyphylla Miers, 25
Brasilin, 216
Brassic acid, 67
Brassica alba Hook, et Thorns., 68
„ juncea Hook, et Thorns., 68
„ nigra Koch, 64
Bray era anthelmiuthica Kuuth, 256
Brazil wood, 216. 635
Brechniisse, 428
Brechwurzel, 370
Breidine, 150
Broine, 150
Brindoues, 86
Brindouia indica Dupetit Thenars, 86
Bromalom, 687
Broom Tops, 170
Brucea autidysenterica Mill., 430
„ ferrugiuea Heritier, 430
Brucine, 430
Bryoidiu, 150
Bubon Galbauum L. 320
Buchu or Biicco Leaves, 108
Bulbus Colchici, 699
Buckthorn Berries, 157
Buena hexandra Pohl, 358
„ maguifolia Weddell, 364
Biigbane, 15
Buka Leaves, 108
Bukublatter, 108
Bulbus Scillae, 690
Burgundy pitch, 616
BURSERACE.E, 133
Busserole, 401
Butea frondosa Boxb., 197
„ Kino, 197
„ parviflora Roxb., 198
„ superba Roxb., 198
Butua, 26
Butyrum Cacao, 95
Buxine in Bibiru, 536
„ in Pareira, 28
Buxus sempervirens L., 536
Caapeba, 27
Cabbage Rose, 261
Cabriuva preta, 2 1 1
I
Cabueriba, 211
Cacao Buttex", 95
Cachou, 240
„ jaune ou Gambir, 335
Cacumina Scoparii, 170
Cade, huile de, 623
Caesalpinia Bonduc Roxb., 211
„ Bonducella Roxb., 211
„ Sapan L., 521
Cajuput Oil, 277
Cajuputene or Cajuputol, 279
Calabar Bean, 191
Calabarine, 193
Calamus aromaticus, 677
„ Draco Willd., 672
Caliaturholz, 199
Calisaya Bark, 353
Calotropis gigantea R. Brown, 424
„ Hamiltouii Wight, 424
„ procera R. Brown, 424
Calumba Root, 23
Cambogia, 83
Camomille romaine, 384
Campecheholz, 213
Camphor, Barus, 516
„ Blumea, 518
,, Borneo, 516
China, 515
„ common, 510
„ Dryobalanops, 516
„ Formosa, 515
„ Japan, 515
„ laurel, 511
„ Malayan, 516
„ Ngai, 518
„ oils, 516
Camphora, 510
,, ofBcinarum Bauhin, 510
Camphoric acid, 515
Camphre, 510
Camphretic acid, 139
Canada-balsam, 612
Canarium, 147
Candy, 715
Cane Sugar, 714
„ varieties of, 720
Cane, sweet, 715
Canefice, 221
Cauella alba Murray, 19. 20, 73. 635
Canellace.e, 73
Canellin, 75
Canna edulis Ker, 634
INDEX.
775
Caniia indica Ruiz et Pavon, 634
Cauna Starch, 633
("anuabeue, 549
Cannabine^e, 546
Cannabis indica Lamarck, 546
„ sativa L., 546
Cannace^, 629
Cannelle blanche, 73
„ de Ceylan, 519
Capivi, 229
Caprifoliace^e, 333
Capsaicin, 455
Capsicin, 454
Capsicum annuum L., 452
„ fastigiatum Blume, 452
„ grossum Willd., 452
„ longum DC, 452
„ minimum Roxb., 452
Capsulae Papaveris, 40
Caqueta Bark, 353
Caramania gum, 178
Caraway, 304
Cardamom, 643
„ bastard, 649
„ ' Bengal, 649
„ Ceylon, 647
„ cluster, 648
„ Java, 650
„ Korarima, 650
„ Malabar, 643
,, Nepal, 649
„ round, 648
„ Siam, 649
,, xanthioid, 649
Cardamoms, Aleppi, 646
Cardamomum majus, 650. 651
„ siberiense, 21
Carex arenaria L., 730
Caricse, 542
Carmufellic acid, 285
Carobbe di' Giudea, 598
Carolina Pink Root, 433
Carony Bark, 106
Carrageen, 747
Carthagena Baik, 353
Carum Ajowau Bentham et Hooker,
302
Carum Carvi L., 304
„ Ridolfia Benth., 328
Carvene, 306
Carvi, 304
Carvol, 306. 329. 640
Caryophylli, 280
„ festuciB vel stipites, 286
Caryopliylliu, 285
Caryopliylliuic acid, 285
Caryojjhyllum regium, 287
Caryophyllus aromaticus Lamarck,
280
Caryota urens L., 721
Cascarilla Bark, 561
Cascarilla del Angostura, 106
Cascarillin, 563
Casse ou canefice, 221
Casia, 222
Cassia acutifolia Delile, 216
„ alba, 73
„ angustifolia Vahl, 217
„ Bark, 137. 527. 715
„ brasiliaua Lamarck, 224
„ buds, 533
„ Fistula L., 221
„ grandis L. iil., 224
„ lignea, 527. 530
„ lignea jamaicensis, 75
„ moschata Humb. B. et K., 224
„ obovata CoUadon, 118
„ oil of, 2
„ twigs, 533
„ vera Bark, 530
„ wood, 533
Castor Oil, 569
„ „ Seeds, 567
Catechin, 243. 337.
„ in Kino, 196. 199.
Catechu, 240
,, Areca-nut, 669
„ black, 240
„ Gambler, 335
., pale, 335
,, ijallidum, 335
„ Pegu, 240
Catechu-tannic acid, 243
Cathartic acid, 243
Cathartocarpus Fistula Persoon, 221
Cathai'togeuic acid, 219
Catharto-mannite, 220
Caulis Dulcamarse, 450
„ Tinosporai, 31
Cayenne Pepper, 452
Cebadilla, 697
Cedar oil,''red, 628
Cedi-at, essence of, 128
Ceudal, 200
77G
INDEX.
Ceutifolieurosen, 261
Cephaiilis Ipecacuanha EicharJ, 370
Cerasiis serotina DC, 253
Cerealin, 724
Cetraria islandica Achar., 737
Cetraric acid, 73!J
Cetrarin, 739
Cevadic acid, 699
Cevadilla,_697
Cevadilliae, 699
Cevadine, 699
Ceylon moss, 749
Chajrophyllum Aiithrisciis L., 302
Chamomile, common, 384. 385
„ flowers, 384
„ german, 336
,, roman, 384
Chaiivre indien, 546
Charas, 550
Chardinia xerauthemoides Desfont., 250
Chasmauthera Columba Baiil., 23
Chaulmugra Seed, 75
Cliavica officinarum Miquel, 582
„ Roxburghii Miq., 582
Chelbenah, 321
Chelidonium majus L., 3
Chene, ucorce de, 593
Cherry-laurel Leaves, 254
Chesteb, 234
Chiendeut, 729
gros, 730
Chillies, 452
China bicolorata, 359
„ nova, 364. 561
China Root, 7 1 2
Chiuarinde, 338
Chinasanre, 336
Chinawurzel, 712
Chinoidin, 359
Chiuovic acid, 335
Chinovin, 336
Chiratiu, 438
Chiratogenin, 438
Chiretta or Chirayta, 436
Cholesterin, 420
„ in barley, 725
„ in ergot, 745
Choudodendrou tomentosum Ruiz et
Pavon, 25
„ tomentosum, stems of,
30
Chondrus crispus, 747
Chondrus manmiillosus Grev., 749
Chop-nut, 179
Chren, 71
Christmas Rose, 1
Clirysammic acid, 6S9
Chrysanthemum Partheuium Persoou,
386. 518
Chrysophau, 499
„ in Senna, 220
Chrysophanic acid, 499
Chrysoretin, 220
Chrysorhamnine, 158
Chuen-lien, 4
Churrus, 550
Chusalonga, 591
Cicuta virosa L., 299. 332. 333
Cigue, feuilles de, 301
„ fruits de, 299
Cimicifuga racemosa Elliott, 15
Cimicifugin, 16
Cinchona, acid principles of, 363
„ alkaloids, 359
„ „ estimation of, 364
„ „ proportion in bark,
361
„ Bark, 338
„ „ chemical composition
of, 57
„ „ commerce iu, 347
„ „ pale, 352
„ „ red, 353. 364
„ „ structure, 354
„ „ yellow, 353
,, Calisaya Weddell, 340
„ conspectus of, 355
„ cultivation of, 348
„ history of, 341
„ lancifolia Mutis, 353
„ magnifolia Pavon, 364
„ officinalis Hooker, 340
„ pitayensis Mutis, 353
„ -red, 353
„ succirubra Pavon, 341
,, works relating to, 367
Cinchonicine, 359
Cinchouidine, 361
Cinchonine, 361
Cincho-tannic acid, 363
Ciuchovatine, 358
Ciuene or Cyueue, 389
Cinnamein, 203
Ciunamic acid, 526
INDEX.
Cinuamic acid in Bals. Peruv., 208
„ „ Tolut., 204
„ in benzoin, 408
„ „ aldehyde, 526
Cinnamodendron corticosum Miers, 19
Cinnamomum, Burraanni Blume, 528
,, Camphora Nees, 510
,, Cassia, 528
,, inersReinwardt,528.533
„ obtusifolium Nees, 528
„ pauciflorum Nees, 528
,, Tamala Nees, 528
„ zeylauicum Breyne, 519
Cinnamon, 519
„ Chinese, 530
„ chips, 524
„ leaf, oil of, 529
„ oil of, 526
„ root, oil of, 529
Cinnamon Bark (Bahamas), 73
Cinnamylic cinnamate, 274
Cipo de cobras, 27
Cirifole, 130
Cissampelos Pareiiu, 29
Cistus creticus L., 141
Cistus ladaniferus L., 41 G
Citric acid, 116
Citridic acid, 1 1
Citron, 114
Citrouella Oil, 726
Citronellol, 727
CitruUus Colocynthis Schrader, 295
Citrus Aurantium L., 124
„ Bergamia Risso et Poiteau, 121
,, Bigaradia Duhamel, 124
„ decumana L., 117
,, Limouum Risso, 114. 118
„ niedica L., 114. 128
„ vulgaris Risso, 124. 126
Claviceps purpurea Tulasne, 740
Clematis Vitalba L., 29
Clous de girofles, 280
Clove bark, 285
Clove Leaves, 286
„ Stalks, 286
Cloves, 280
„ Mother, 286
,, oil of, 284
„ Royal, 287
Cuiquier, 211
Cocca gnidia, 540
Cocculus Cliondodendrou DC, 25
Cocculus cordifolius DC, 33
„ indicus, 31
„ pahnatus DC, 23
Cochlearia Armoracia L., 71
Cocos nucifera L., 721
Codamine, 59
Codagam, 297
Codeine, 42. 58. 59. 62
Cohosh, 15
Going, semences de, 269
Col, 329
Colchicein, 702
Colchicin, 702
Colchicum autumnale L., 699
„ other species, 701
„ Seed, 702
Colchique, bulbe de, 699
„ semence de, 702
Colocynth, 295
Colocynthein, 296
Colocynthin, 296
Colocynthitin, 296
Colombo Root, 23
Colophonia mauritiana DC, 152
Colophony, 607
Coloquinte, 295
Coloquintida, 295
Columba-Bitter, 25
Columbian Bark, 353
Columbic acid, 25
Columbia, 25
Colutea aborescens L., 221
Comenic acid, 58
Composite, 380
Concombre purgatif ou sauvage, 292
Conglutin 247
Conhydrine, 300
Conia or Conine, 300
Conifers, 604
Coniferin, 659
Conine, 300
Conium maculatum L., 299. 301
Couquinine, 360
CONVOLVULACEJE, 438
Convolvulic acid, 445
Convolvulin, 445
Couvolvulinol, 445
Convolvulinolic acid, 446
Convolvulus Nil L., 448
„ Purga Wenderoth, 443
„ Scammonia L., 438
Conyleue, 300
778
INDEX.
Copahu, 227
Copaiba or Copaiva, 227
Copaifera bijuga Hayne, 228
,, cordifolia Hayoe, 228
„ coriacea Martins, 228
glabra Vogel, 228
„ guianensis Desfont., 227
„ Jacquini Desfout., 227
,, J ussieui Hayue, 228
,, Langsdoi-ffii Desfont., 228
„ laxa Hayne, 228
„ multijuga Hayue, 228
,, nitida Hayne, 22S
„ officinalis L., 227
„ Sellowii Hayne, 228
Copaivic acid, 231
Copalchi Bark, 564
Coptis Root, 3
„ Teeta Wall., 3
,, trifolia Salisb., 5
Coque du Levant, 31
Coqnelicot, 39
Cordiceps, 743
Cordyliceps, 743
Corail des jardius, 452
Coriander, 329
Coriandrum sativum L., 329
Coriaria myrtifolia L., 221
Cormus Colchici, 699
Cortex Alstonise, 421
„ Angosturas, 106
„ Aurantii, 124
„ Azadirachtiift, 154
„ Berberidis, 34
Bibiru, 535
„ Canellae albs, 73
„ Cascarillae, 561
„ Cassiae ligncce, 527
„ Chime, .338
„ Cinchonae, 338
,, Cinnamomi, 519
„ Ciisparite, 106
„ Eleutheriae, 561
,, Granati fructus, 289
„ Granati radicis, 290
„ Laricis, 611
,, Limonis, 1 16
,, Magellanicus, 17
„ MargosEE, 154
„ Mezerei, 540
„ Mudar, 424
,, Nectandrffi, 535
Cortex Olibaui, 273
,, Peruvianus, 338
„ Pruni serotinae, 253
,, Quercus, 593
„ Sassafras, 538
„ Soymidae, 156
„ Swietenice, 156
„ TLyraiamatis, 273. 276
,, Ulmi, 556
„ „ fulvae, 557
„ Winteranus, 17
Costus, 35. 382. 503. 520. 523
„ corticosus, 73
„ dulcis, 73
„ root, 383
Cotarnine, 58
Cotoneaster nummularia Fischer et
Meyer, 415
Couch Grass, 729
Cowberry, 402
Cowhage, 189
Cow-itch, 190
Crau de Bretagne, 71
Cratajva Marmelos L., 129
Creyat or Kariyat, 472
Crinum asiaticum Herbert, 693
„ toxicarium Roxb., 693
Crocetiu, 667
Crocin, 667
Crocus, 663
„ sativus L., 663
Croton Cascarilla Bennett, 562
,, Draco Schleclitendal, 676
„ Eluteria Bennett, 561
„ lucidus L., 564
„ niveus Jacquiu, 564
„ oblongifolius Roxb., 567
„ Oil, 566
„ Pavanse Hamilton, 567
„ philippensis Lamarck, 572
,. polyandrus Roxb., 567
„ Pseudo-China Schl., 564
,, Seeds, 565
„ Tigliuni L., 565
Crotonic acid, 566
Crotouol, 566
Crown Bark, 352
Crucifer.*;, 64
Cryptopine, 59. 63
Cubeba canina Miq., 588
„ Clusii Miq., 589
„ crassipes Miq., 588
INDEX.
779
Cubeba Lowoug, Miq., 588
„ officinalis Miq., 587
Wallichii Miq., 588
Cubebae, 584
Cubebic acid, 587
Cubebin, 587
Cubebs, 582. 635
„ african, 589
„ camphor, 587
Cucumber, squirting or wild, 292
Cucumis Colocynthis L., 295
„ Hardwickii Eoyle, 297
„ Prophetarum L., 294
„ Pseudo-colocyutliis Eoyle, 297
„ trigonus Roxb., 297
CuCURBlTACEiE, 292
Cumic acid, 332
Cumin, 305. 331
„ armenian, 305
„ roman, 331
Cuminaldehyde, 332
Cuminol, 332
Cuminum Cyniinum L., 331
Cummiu seeds, 331. 635
CUPULIFER^, 593
Curcuma augustifolia Roxb., 634
,, leucorrhiza Roxb., 634
„ longa L., 638
„ starch, 634
Curcumin, 640
Cuscouine, 359
Cuscus Grass, 728
Cusparia Bark, 106
„ trifoliata Engler, 106
Cusparin, 107
Cusso or Koso, 256
Cutch, 240
Cydonia vulgaris Persoon, 269
Cymene or Cymol from ajowan, 304
„ from alantcamphor, 381
,, „ camphor, 515
„ „ cumin, 333
„ „ santonica, 389
„ „ thyme, 488
Cynanchum Argel Hayne, 220
„ Vincetoxicum E. Brown, 97
Cynanchol, 398
Cyueue or Cinene, 389
Cyuips Gallffi tinctoriaj Oliv., 506
Cynodou Dactylon Pers., 729. 730
Cynorrhodou, 268
Cynosbata, 268
Cypripedium pubescens Willd., 79. 593
Cytisine, 172
, Cytisus Laburnum L., 172
,, scoparius Link, 170
Dsemonorhops Draco Martius, 672
Dalleiochine, 360
Dandelion Root, 392
Daphne Gnidium L., 542
„ Laureola L., 541
„ Mezereum L., 540
Daphnetin, 541
Daphnin, 541
Date, Indian, 225
Datura alba Nees, 462
„ fastuosa L., 459, 462
„ Stramonium L., 459
„ Tatula L., 460
Daturine, 461
Delphinine or Delphine, 7
Delphinium Staphisagria L., 5
Delphinoidine, 7
Delphisiue, 7
Dhak, 197
Dhak Tree, 107
Diagrydiou, 439
Dicypellium caiyophyllatum Nees, 285
Digitalein, 472
Digitaliu, 470
Digitalis purpurea L., 469
Digitoxin, 471
Dill, 327
Diospyros Embryopteris Persoon, 403
„ virginiana L., 403
Diplolepis Gallis tinctoriae Latreille, 596
Diplotaxis erucoides DC, 65
DlPTEROCARPE^, 88
Dipterocarpus alatus Roxb., 88
,, gracilis Blume, 88
„ hispid us Tliwaites, 88
„ incanus Roxb., 88
„ indicus Beddome, 88
„ Icevis Ham., 88
„ littoralis Bl., 88
„ retusus BL, 88
„ Spanogbei Bl., 88
„ trinervis Bl., 88
„ tuberculatus Roxb., 243
„ turbinatus Gartn., 88
,, zeylanicus Thw., 88
Diss, 747
Dita bark, 421
780
INDEX.
Ditaiue, 422
DitbiD, 140
Dog rose, 268
Dog's Grass, 729
Dolichos pruriens L., 189
Dorema Ammoniacum Don, 313. 324
Aucheri Boissier, 325
„ robustum Loftus, 325
Douce-amere, 450
Dracaena Draco L., 672
„ Ombet Kotschy, 675
„ schizantha Baker, 675
Drachenblut, 672
Draconyl, 674
Dracyl, 675
Dragon's Blood, 137
„ „ Canary Islands, 675
„ „ drop, 675
„ „ lump, 673
„ „ reed, 673
„ „ Socotra, 675
Drimia ciliaris Jacq., 693
Drimys Wiuteri Forster, 17
Droga amara, 472
Dryaudra cordata Thuub., 91
Dryobalauops aromatica Gartner, 229.
516
Dulcamara, 450
Dulcamaririe, 451
Earth-uut Oil, 186
Ebenace.«, 403
Ecballine,.294
Ecballium Elaterium Richard, 292
Ecboline, 745
Echicaoutchin, 422
Echicerin, 398. 422
Echinus philippinensis Bailloii, 572
Echites scholaris L., 421
Echitin, 422
Ecorce de Winter, 17
Eibischwurzel, 92
Eichenrinde, 593
Ein or Engben, 243
Eisenhut, 8
Eheis guineensis Jacquin, 194
Elteococca Vernicia Sprgl., 91
Elaidic acid, 187. 475
Elaphrium, 147
Elateric acid, 294
Elateride, 294
Elaterin, 294
Elaterium Fruit, 292
Elder Flowers, 333
Elecampane, 380
Eleme, 544
Elemi, 147
„ africau, 152
„ brazilian, 152
„ Mauritius, 152
„ mexican, 152
„ oriental, 135. 152
„ Vera Cruz, 152
Elemic acid, 151
Elettaria Cardamomum Matou, 643
„ major Smith, 644
Eleusine coracana Giirtner, 241
Eleuthera Bark, 561
Ellagic acid, 291
EUebore blanc, 693
„ noir, 1
Elm Bark, 556
„ slippery, 557
Embryopteris glutinifera Roxb., 403
Embelia Ribes Burmaun, 581
Emetine, 374
Emodin, 499
Empleui'ura serrulatum Ait., 110
Emulsin, 247
Encens, 133
Enckea reticulata Miq., 114
EnhfemoD, 147. 145
Entershah, 267
Enzianwurzel, 434
Eosin, 323
Epacris, 402
Equisetic acid, 11
Erdnussol, 186
Ergot of diss, 747
„ oat, 747
„ rye, 740
„ wheat, 746
Ergota, 740
Ergotine, 745
Ericace^, 401
Ericinol, 402
Ericoliu, 402
Erucic acid, 67. 160
Erucin, 70
Erythroretin, 499
Esenbeckia febrifuga Martius, 107
Esere Nut, 191
Eseriue, 193
Essigrosenblatter, 259
INDEX.
781
Eucalyptus citriodora Hooker, 199
„ corymbosa Smith, 199
„ gigautea Hooker, 199
globulus Labill., 280. 333
Kino, 199
„ Manna, 417
„ Oil, 280
„ obliqua L'Her., 199
„ oleosa F. Muller, 280
resinifera Smith, 195
,, rostrata Scblechtenr]., 193
,, viminalis Labill., 417
Eugenia caryophyllata Thuuberg, 280
„ Piraenta DC, 287
Eugenic acid, 284
„ ,, in Canella, 75
Eugeniu, 285
Eugeuol, 75. 284. 319. 527. 659
Eugetic acid, 319
Eulophia yielding Salep, 655
Enpatoriura glutinosum Lamck., 591
Euphorbia resinifera Berg, 558
Euphorbic acid, 560
EUPHORBIACE^, 558
Euphorbium, 558
Euphorbon, 398, 560
Euryangium Sumbul Kauffm., 312
Evodia febrifuga St. Hilaire, 107
Exacum, 438
Exogonium Purga Bentham, 4-13
Extractum Glycyrrhizje, 183
„ Uncarise, 335
Faba Calabar ica, 191
„ Physostigmatis, 191
„ Sancti Ignatii, 431
Fagns silvatica, tar of, G23
Farnwurzel, 733
Feigen, 542
Fenchel, 308
Fennel, 308
„ bitter, 309
„ germ an, 309
„ indian, 309
„ oils of, 310
„ roman, 309
„ saxon, 309
„ sweet, 308
„ wild, 309
Fenouil, 308
Fenugreek, 172
Fern Root, 733
Feronia Elephantura Correa, 131. 230
„ gum, 2,39
Ferreirea spectabilis Allemao, 81
Ferula alliacea Boissier, 320
„ Asafoetida Boissier et Buhse,
320
,, Asafretida L., 314
., erubescens Boiss., 321
„ galbaniflua Boiss. et Buhse, 321
,, Narthex Boiss., 314
,, rubricaulis Boiss., 321
„ Scorodosma Benth. et Hkr., 314
„ Sumbul Hooker, 312
,, teterrima Karelin et Kiril., 320
„ tingitana L., 327
Feriilago galbanifera Koch, 320
Ferulaic acid, 319
Festucffi Caryophylli, 286
F^ve de Calabar, 191
„ Saint Ignace, 431
Feverfew, 386
Fichtenharz, 616
Fichteutheer, 619
Ficus Carica L., 542
Figs, 542
FiLiCEs, 733
Filicic acid, 735
Filixolic acid, 735
Filixolin, 735
Filix-red, 735
Filosmylic acid, 735
Fingerhutblatter, 469
Fir, Balsam or balm of Gilead, 612
„ Norway Spruce, 616
„ Silver, 615
Flachssamen, 97
Flag, blue, 660
„ root, sweet, 676
„ yellow, 678
Flax Seed, 97
Fliederblumen, 333
Floras Anthemidis, 384
,, Arnicae, 390
,, Casssei, 533
,, Chamomillfe romance, 384
„ Cinse, 387
„ Koso, 256
„ Lavandulae, 476
,, Ehoeados, 39
Rosre incarnatje, 261
„ „ pallidse, 261
„ „ rubrce, 259
782
INDEX.
Flores Sambuci, 333
,, Stochados, 479
Floride^, 747. 749
Fcenicuhiin capillaceum Gilibert, 308
dulce DC, 308
„ Panmorium DC, 309
„ sinense, 22
„ vnlgare Gartner, 308
Foenurn Camelorum, 728
Fcenum grsecum, 172
Fofal, 669
Folia Aconiti, 1 1
„ Belladonnse, 458
,, Buchu, 108
„ Conii, 301
„ Daturse albae, 462
„ Digitalis, 469
„ Hyoscyami, 463
„ Indi, 533
,, Jaborandi, 113
„ Lauro-cerasi, 254
,, Malabathri, 533
„ Matico, 589
„ Pilocarpi, 113
„ Sennse, 216
„ Tabaci, 466
„ Tylophorae, 427
„ Uvae Ursi, 401
Fool's Parsley, 302
Fougere male, 733
Foxglove Leaves, 469
Frankincense, 133
,, common, 608
Fraxetin, 413
Fraxin, 413
Fraxinits Bungeana DC, 409
„ excelsior L., 40')
„ Ornus L., 409
Fruct'is Ajowan, 302
„ Anethi, 327
„ Anisi, 310
„ „ stellati, 20
„ Belae, 129
,, Capsici, 452
Cardamomi, 643
„ Caricje, 542
„ Carui, 304
„ Cassias fistulas, 221
,, Cocculi, 31
„ Colocynthidis, 295
Conii, 299
„ Coriandri, 329
Fructus
Cubebfe, 584
Cumini, 331
?)
Diospyri, 403
7)
Ecballii, 292
17
Elaterii, 292
FcEniculi, 308
J?
Hibisci, 94
Juniperi, 624
)»
Limonis, 114
j»
Mori, 544
) J
Papaveris, 40
))
Pimentae, 287
>•>
Piperis longi, 582
ii
„ nigri, 576
Pruni, 251
?7
Rhamni, 157
Ross caninae, 268
Fu, 377
Fucus amylaceus, 749
„ cri.spus L., 747
„ hibernicus, 747
Fucosol, 748
Fungi, 740
Fub-ling, 714
Fusanus spicatus Br., 599. 601
Fuscosclerotinic acid, 745
Fusti, 286
Gseidinic acid, 187
Gaiac, bois de, 100
„ resine, 103
Galanga major, 643
„ minor, 671
Galangal, 641
„ greater, 643
Galbanum, 320
Galbuli Juniperi, 624
Galgant, 651
Galipea Cnsparia St. Hil., 106
„ officinalis Hancock, 106
Galipot or Barras, 607
Gallae chinenses, 167
„ halepenses, 595
„ japonicae, 167
Gallapfel, 595
Galle d'Alep, 1. 595
Gallic acid from galls, 169. 597
Gallo-tanic acid, 169. 597
Galls, Aleppo, 595
,, blue, 596
„ Bokhara, 598
„ Chinese, 167
INDEX.
783
Galls, green, 596
„ Japanese, 167
„ oak, 595
„ Pistacia, 165. 598
„ Tamarisk, 598
„ turkey, 595
,, white, 596
Gambler, 335
Gamboge, 83
Ganja, 548
Garcinia indica Choisy, 86
„ Morel la Desi-., 83
„ pictoria Roxb., 83
purpurea Eoxb., 86
,, travaucoria Bedd., 86
Garou, 542
Gayac, bois de, 100
,, resine de, 103
Gaz Alefi, 415
„ -anjabin, 414
„ Khonsari, 415
Gaultheria prociimbens L., 402
Gelbwurzel, 638
Gelose, 750
Gelsemium_nitidum].Mich.,;541
„ sempervirens Ait, 541
Genet h balais, 170
Genievre, 624
Genista, 170
Gentian-bitter, 435
• „ Root, 434
Gentiana Catesbjei Walter, 436
„ Chirayita Roxb., 436
„ lutea L., 434
„ pannonica Scopoli, 436
„ punctata L., 436
„ purpurea L., 436
„ Saponaria L., 436
Gentiane^, 434
Gentianic acid, 435
Gentianiu, 435
Gentiogenin, 435
Gentiopicrin, 435
Geranium Oil, 267. 726. 728
Gergelim, 474
Germer, 693
Gerste, 722
Geum urbanum L., 390. 391
Gewiirznelken, 280
Ghittaiemou, 83
Giftlatticb, 395
Gigartina acicularis Lamouri, 749
Gigartina mammillosa J. Agardh, 749
Gigambo, 94
Giugeli Oil, 473
Gingembre, 636
Ginger, 635
„ grass oil, 726
Gingili Oil, 473
Giuseng, American, 79
Girofles, 280
„ griffes de, 286
Gizeis, Gizi, 222
Glandulae Humuli, 554
„ Rottleraj, 562
Glycyrretin, 181. 182
Glycyrrhiza echinata L., 179
„ glabra L., 179. 183
„ gland ulif era Waldst. et
Kit., 179
Glycyrrhizin, 181
Gnoscopine, 59
Gombo, 94
Gomme arabique 233
„ Gutte, 83
Goolwail, 33
Goudron vegetal, 619
Gracillaria confervoides Grev., 749
„ lichenoides Grev., 749
Grahe's test, 336
Grains, Guinea, 651
„ of Paradise, 651
Graines des Moluques, 565
„ de Tilly, 565
GraminejE, 714
Grana Paradisi, 651
GUANATE^, 289
Granatin, 565
Granatin, 291
Granatschalen, 289
Granatwurzelrinde, 290
Granulose, 631
Grass, Couch, 729
„ Dog's, 729
,, Lemon, 725
„ Oil, Indian, 725
„ Oil of Nimar, 726
,, Quitch, 729
Graswurzel, 729
Greenheart Bark, 535
Grenades ecorce de, 289
Grenadier, ecorce de racine de, 290
Grieswurzel, 25
Ground-nut Oil, 186
784
Guaiac Beta-resin, 103
Guaiac-yellow, 105
Guiacene, 105
Guaicic acid, 103
Guaiacol, 105
Guaiacouic acid, 104
Guaiaciim officinale L., 100. 103
„ Resin, 103
„ sanctum L., 100
„ Wood, 100
Guaiakharz, 103
Guaiakholz, 100
Guaiaretic acid, 10-1
Guaiol, 105
Gnaza, 548
Guilandina Bonducella L., 211
Guimauve, 92
Guinea Grains, 651
„ Pepper, 452
Gula, 715
Gulancha, 33
Gule-pistah, 598
Gum Arabic, 233
„ Australian, 237
„ Barbary, 237
„ Bassora, 239
„ Benjamin, 403
„ Cape, 237
„ Caramania, 178
„ East India, 237
„ Feronia, 239
„ flooded, 199
,, Gedda, 236
„ Hog, 178
„ Jiddah, 236
„ Mesquite, 239
„ Mogador, 237
„ Morocco, 237
„ Mosul, 178
„ red, 199
„ Senegal, 236
„ Suakin, 235. 237
„ Talca or Talha, 234
„ Thus, 608
„ Tragacanth, 174
„ Wattle, 237
„ white, 199
Gummi Acaciae, 233
„ arabicuni, 233
Gummigutt, 83
Gunimis acantliinuni, 234
„ Seunaar, 23G
INDEX.
I
Guragi, 650
Gurjuu Balsam, 88
Gurjunic acid, 90
Gutti, 83
guttifer/e, 83
Gtmnosperms, 604
Gynocardia odorata R. Brown, 75
Habaghadi, 140. 145
Heematein, 214
Hsematoxylin, 214
Hsematoxylon campecliianum L., 213
Hagebutten, 268
Hagenia abyssiuica Willd., 256
Hagenic acid, 258
Hamamelide.^, 271
Hanfkraut, 546
Hard wick ia pinnata Roxb., 232
Hartsthoru, 157
Hashab, 233. 235
Hashish, 548
Hawkbit, 394
Hedeoma pulegioides Pers., 486
Helenin, 381
Hellebore, black, 1
„ white, 693
„ american, 695
Heil, 650
Helleborein, 3
Helleboresin, 2
Helleboretiu, 3
Helleborin, 2
Helleborus foetidus L., 2
„ niger L., 1
„ orien talis Lam., 1
„ purpurascens Waldst. et
Kit., 2
„ viridis L., 2. 3. 695
Helonias frigida Lindley, 695
Homatine, 214
Heniidesmus indicus R. Brown, 423
Hemlock fruits, 299
„ leaves, 301
Hemlock Spruce, 612
Hemp, Indian, 546
Henbane leaves, 463
Herabol, 140. 146
Herapathite, 360
Herba Acouiti, 11
„ Andrographidis, 472
„ Anthos, 488
„ Cannabis, 546
INDEX.
785
Herba Chiracs, 436
„ Hydrocotyles, 297
„ Lactucae, 395
„ Lobelia, 399
Matico, 589
,, Menthas piperitae, 481
,, Menthae viridis, 479
„ Nicotiaiife, 466
„ pedicularia, 6
Pulegii, 486
„ Rosmarini, 488
,, Sabinae, 626
,, Schceaanthi s. Squiuanthi, 728
,, Scoparii, 170
,, Stramonii, 459
„ Thymi vulgaris, 487
llermodactylus, 701
Herva de Nossa Seuhora, 27
Hesperetic acid, 117
Hesperetiu, 116
Hesperidiu, 116. 126
Hexenmehl, 731
Hibiscus esculentus L., 94
Hill colocyntb, 297
Hiltit, 316
Hiug, 318
Hingra, 319
Hips, 268
Hodtbai, 146
Hog gum, 178
Holcus saccbai'atus L., 721
Hokmderbliitbe, 333
Holztheer, 619
Hopfeu, 551
Hopfeubittersaure, 555
Hopfeudriiseii, 554
Hopfenstaub, 554
Hops, 551
Hordeinic acid, 725
Hordeum decorticatum, 722
„ distiehum L., 722
„ perlatum, 722
Hornbast, 74. 157
Horse-radish, 71
Houblon, 551
Huile d'Arachides, 186
,, de Cade, 623
,, d'enfer, 419
„ fermentee, 419-
„ d'Olives, 417
„ tonrnaute, 4! 9
Hiilba, 173
Humulus Lupulus L., 551
Humulotanuic acid, 553
Hwang-lien, 4
Hydnocarpus iuebrians Vahl, 77
„ odorata Lindley, 75
,, venenata Gartner, 76
,, Wightiana Blume, 76
Hydrocotarnine, 59
Hydrocotyle asiatica L., 297
„ rotundifolia Eoxb., 298
„ vulgaris L., 298
Hydrocyanic acid, 249. 250. 255
Hydrokinone, 401
Hyoscine, 465
Hyoscinic acid, 465
Hyoscj^amine, 464
Hyoscyamus albus L., 463. 465
„ iusanus Stocks, 466
„ niger L., 204. 463
HypogEeic acid, 187
Hypopicrotoxic acid, 33
Ibischa, 92
Iceland Moss, 737
Icica Abilo Blanco, 147
,, altissima Aublet, 152
,, Caranna Humb. B. et K., 152
,, guianensis Aubl., 152
,, heptaphylla Aubl., 152
,, heterophylla DC, 152
,, Icicariba DC, 152
„ various species, 147
Idris yaghi, 267. 728
Igasuric acid, 433
Igasurine, 430
Ignatiana pbilippinica Loureiro, 431
Ignatius Beans, 431
Ilachi, 644
lUicium auisatum Loureiro, 20
„ religiosum Siebold, 20
Imperata Kouigii P. de B., 336
Imperatoria Ostruthium L., 10
Indian Bael, 129
„ Hemp, 546
,, Pink Root, 433
„ Poke, 695
ludravaruni, 295
Ingwer, 635
Inimboja, 211
luosite, 394. 472
Inula Helenium L., 380
Inulin, 382
3 D
786
INDEX.
Inulin, from Ar iica, 391
„ „ Taraxacum, .394
Inuloid, 382
lonidium, 375, 382
Ipeca sauvage, 427
Ipecacuanha, 370
„ Cartliagena, 373
,, Indian, 427
., New Granada, 373
„ striated, 376
,, undulated, 376
Ipecacuauhic acid, 374
Ipomoea dissecta Willd., 251
„ Jalapa Pursh, 441
,, orizabensis Ledanois, 446
„ Purga Hayne, 443
„ simulans Haubury, 447
Ipomoeic acid, 446
Iridace^, 660
Iris florentina L., 660
„ germanica L., 660
„ nepalensis Wall, 663
„ pallida Lamarck, 660
„ Pseudacorus L., 678
Irlandisches Moos, 747
Ishpingo, 533
Islandisches Moos, 737
Isuvitinic acid, 85
Isobutyx-ic acid, 391
Isolusin, 79
Ispaghul Seeds, 490
Jaborandi, 113. 114
Jadvar, 14
Jaffna moss, 749
Jaggery, 720
Jalap, 443
,, fusiform, light or male, 446
,, resin of, 445
,, stalks or tops, 446
„ Tampico, 447
„ Vera Cruz, 446
„ woody, 446
Jalapin, 445
„ of Mayer, 447
,, in scammony, 441
Jamaica pepper, 287
„ Winter's Bark, 75
Jateorhiza palmata Miers, 23
Jernang, 673
Jervic acid, 695
Jervine, 694. 696
Jeukbol, 672
Jinjili Oil, 473
Ju-siang, 137
Juckborsten, 189
Juncus odoratus, 728
Juniper Berries, 624
„ Tar, 523
Juniperus communis L., 624
„ nana Willd., 625
„ Oxycedriis L., 623
„ phcenicea L., 628
„ Sabina L., 626
„ virginiana L., 628
Jusquiame, 463
Justicia paniculata Burmann, 472
Kaddigbeeren, 624
Kakul, 234
Kaladana, 448
Kalmia latifolia L., 402
Kalmus, 676
Kalumb, 24
Kalumbawurzel, 23
Kamala or Kamela, 572
Kamaliu, 575
Kamanan, 403
Kami, 234
Kamillen, 386
Kaminan, 403
Kampferid, 643
Kanbil, 572
Kand, 715
Kandahari Hiug, 317
Kaneel, 519
Kapi-Kacbchu, 190
Kapila or Ka]5ila-podi, 572
Kai-awya, 305
Kariyat or Creyat, 472
Karroodooru, 237
Kasia, 222
Kat or Kut, 241. 242
Kayu-puti Oil, 277
Keersal, 244
Kentrosporium, 743
Kesso, 380
Khulakliudi, 297
Kikar, 234
Kinbil, 572. 573
Kinic acid, 363. 402. 595
Kinnah, 321
Kino, 194
INDEX.
Kino, African, 198
„ Australian, 198
„ Bengal, 197
„ Botany Bay, 198
„ Butea, 197
„ East Indian, 194
., Eucalyptus, 199
,, Gambia, 198
„ Pal as or Pulas, 197
Kinoin, 197. 199
Kiuone, 363. 402
Kino-red, 196
Kino-tannic Acid, 196
Kirata-tikta, 436
Kirschlorbeerblatter, 254
Kiwanch, 190
Klatschrosen, 39
Knorpeltang, 747
Kokkelskoruer, 31
Kokum Butter, 86
Korarima, 650
Kordofan-Gummi, 233
Koriander, 329
Kosala, 259
Kosin, 258
Koso, Kosso, Kousso, 256
Kostus, 383
Krameria argentea Martius, 81
,, cistoidea Hooker, 80
,, grandifolia Berg, 82
„ Ixina Triana, 82
„ secundiflora DC, 82
„ tomentosa St. Hilaire, 82
„ triandra Euiz et Par., 79
Krenai, 71 -
Kieuzdornbeeren, 157
Kreuzkiimmel, 331
Kiimmel, 304
,, langer oder i-omischer, 331
Kunkuma, 664
Kurkuma, 638
Kustumburu, 329
Kut or Kat, 241. 242
Kutakau, 297
Kyphi, 141. 172
Labiate, 476
Laburnine, 172
Lactuca altissima Bieberst., 396
„ capitata DC, 396
,, elongata Muhlenbk., 396
„ sativa L., 396
Lactuca Scariola, 395
„ virosa, 395. 396
Lactucarium, 396
Lactucerin, 398
Lactucic acid, 398
Lactucin, 398
Lactucone, 398
Lactucopicrin, 398
Ladanum, 141
Lsevuliuic acid, 748
Laitue vireuse, 395
Lakriz, 179. 183
Lakrizwurzel, 179
Lalang grass, 336
Lanthopine, 59
Larch Bark, 611
„ Turpentine, 609
Larix europtea DC, 609. 611
„ sibirica Ledebour, 619
Larixin, 611
Larixinic acid, 611
Laser, 315
Laudanine, 59
Laudanosine, 59
Ladrace^, 510
Laurel oil, 540
Laurel, common, 254
Laurier-cerise, 254
Laurocerasin, 255
Laurus Camphora L., 510
,, Cubeba Loureiro, 588
„ Sassafras L., 537
Liiusesamen, 5. 697
Lavandula lanata Boissier, 479
Lavandula Spica DC, 478
„ Stoechas L., 479
„ vera DC, 476
Lavanga, 281
Lavendelblumeu, 476
Lavender Flowers, 476
„ oil of, 478
Lawsonia alba Lam., 305
Ledebouria hyacinthina Roth, 693
Leguminos^., 170
Leinsamen, 97
Lemon, 114
,, essence of, 118
,, grass, 725
Leoatodon hispidus L., 394
„ Taraxacum L., 392
Leontodonium, 394
Lerp, 417
788
INDEX.
Lettuce, garden, 396
„ Opium, 399
„ prickly, 396
Leu-sung-kwo, 432
Lewa, 51
Liane a reglisse, 188
Lichen islandicus, 737
„ starch, 739
LlCHENES, 737
Lichenic acid, 739
LicliCDin, 739
Licheno-stearic acid, 739
Lignum Aloes, 681
„ Brasile, 216
„ campechiannm, 213
„ floridum, 537
„ Guaiaci, 100
„ Haematoxyli, 213
„ Pterocarpi, 199
,, Quassias, 131
,, sanctum, 100
„ Santali, 599
„ sautalinuui lubruni, 199
„ Sassafras, 537
„ Vit£e, 100
LiLiACE^, 679
Limbu,'115
Limon, 114
Lin, 97
LiNE^, 97
Linoleic acid, 99
Linoxyn, 98
Linseed, 97
Linum usitatissimum L., 97
Lippia citiiodora Humb. Bonpl. et Kth.,
726
Liquidambar Altingiaua Blume, 272.
277
,, formosana Hance, 277
„ imberbis Aiton, 271
,, orientalis Miller, 271
„ styraciflua L., 211. 271.
276
Liquiritise radix, 179
„ succus, 183
Liquorice, extract of, 183
„ indian, 188
„ paste, 184
„ root, 179
,, „ russian, 181
„ „ Spanish, 181
„ Solazzi,_184
Liquorice, Spanish, 183
Lobelacrin, 400
Lobelia inflata L., 399
LOBELIACE.E, 399
Lobelianin, 400
Lobelic acid, 400
Lobeliin, 400
Lobelina, 400
Loblolly Pine, 607
Lobus echinodes, 211
LOGANIACE^, 428
Logwood, 213
„ extract of, 215
Long Pepper, 582
Lopez Koot, 111
Lowenzahnwurzel, 392
Loxa Bark, 352
Luban, 133. 137
„ Bedovvi, 134. 135
„ Fasous, 138
„ Maheri, 138
„ Mascati, 138
„ Mati, 135
„ Meyeti, 135
„ Sheheri, 134
Lukrabo, 76
Lupulin, 554
Lupuline (alkaloid), 553
Lupulinic Grains, 554
Lupulite, 555
Lupulus, 551
Lycium, 35. 512
Lycopodiace^, 731
Lj'copodium clavatum T;.
Mace, 508
„ oil of, 507
Macene, 509
Macis, 508
Macrotin, 16
Magellanischer Zimmt, 1
Magican, 595
Magisterium Opii, 57
Magnoliace.*:, 17
Maha-tita, 473
Mahmira, 3
Mahwah tree, 728
Maniguette, 651
Makar tree, 135
Malabathri folia, 533
Malayan camphor, 516
INDEX.
789
Male Fern, 733
Malic acid in Euphorbiuni, 561
Mallotus philippinensis Mliller, 572
Malvace^, 92
Mambroni cliini, 4
Mamiran, 4
Mandajia, 425
Mandela, bittere, 247
„ susse, 244
Mandobi, 187
Mandragora microcarpa Bertoloui, 458
„ officinarum ,, 458
„ vernalis „ 458
Manduka-parni, 297
Mangosteen, oil of, 86
Mani, 187
Manihot utilissima Pohl, 250
Manna, 409
„ Alhagi, 414
,, Australian, 417
,, Brian 9on, 416
„ flake, 412
„ Lerp, 417
„ oak, 415
„ ' -sugar, 412
,, tamarisk, 414
Tolfa, 412
Manuite, 412. 730
„ in Aconite, 10
„ iu ergot, 746
,, in Taraxacum, 394
Mapouria Ipecacuanha Miill. Arg., 370
Maranta arundinacea L., 629
indica Tussac, 629
Margosa Bark, 154
Margosic acid, 155
Margosiue, 155
Marmelos, 130
Marshmallow Root, 92
Mastich, Alpha-resin, 164
„ Beta-resin, 164
„ Bombay, 165
„ East India, 165
Mastiche, 161
Masticin, 164
Maticin, 590
Matico, 589
Matricaria Chamomilla L., 358. 386
„ suaveolens L., 386
Maulbeeren, 544
May Apple, 36
Meadow Saffron, 699
Mechoacan, 444
Meconic acid, 40. 58. 63
Meconidine, 59
Meconine, 60
Meconium, 42
Meconoiosin, 60
Meen-ettig, 71
Meerzwiebel, 690
Melaleuca ericcefolia Smith, 280
„ Leucadendrou L., 277
„ linarioefolia Smith, 280
„ minor Smith, 278
Melanthace.e, 693
Melegueta Pepper, 651
Melezitose, 414. 416
Melia Azadirachta L., 154
„ Azedarach L., 154
„ indica Brandis, 154
Meliace^, 154
Melitose, 417
Memeren, 4
Menispermacea', 23
Meuispermine, 33
Menispermum Cocculus L., 31
Meuispermum palmatum Lam., 23
Mentha crispa, 481
„ piperita Hudson, 481
,, Pulegium L., 486
„ viridis L., 479
Menthe poivree, 481
,, pouliot, 486
Menthol, 483
Mespilodaphue Sassafras Meissuer, 539
Mesquite gum, 239
Meta-dioxybenzol, 323
Metacopaivic acid, 91. 231
Metastyrol, 274
Methylamine in ergot, 746
Mezereon Bark, 540
Mimosa Catechu L., fob, 240
„ Suma Kurz., 241
„ Senegal L., 233
„ Sundra Roxb., 240
Mint, black, 484
„ white, 484
Mishmi Bitter, 3
Mismalvas, 92
Mohnkapseln, 40
Mohr add, 135
Mohr meddu, 134
Mohrenkiimmel, 331
Molasses, 722
790
INDEX.
Momiri, 4. 5
Momordica Elaterium L., 292
Mouuiera trifolia L., 114
MORACE-E, 544
Morelle grimpaute, 450
Moriuga pterygosperma Gartuer, 73
Morphine or Morphia, 41. 57. 63
„ estimation, 63
Moras alba L., 545
„ nigra L., 544
Moschuswurzel, 312
Moss, Ceylon, 749
„ Irish, 747
„ Jaffna, 749
Mosul gum, 178
Mother Cloves, 286
Mousse d'Irlande, 747
„ d'Islande, 737
„ pei-lee, 743
Moutarde anglaise, 68
„ blanche, 68
„ grise, 64
„ noire, 64
Moutarde des Allemands, 71
Mucuna cylindrosperma Welwitsch,
191
„ pruriens DC, 189
„ prurita Hkr., 189
Mudar, 424
Mudarine, 425
Mulberries, 544
Mulmul, 140
Muudubi, 187
Munjit, 438
Mur, 140. 142
MCires, 544
Murlo, 135
Muscade, 502
„ beurre de, 507
Muskatbliithe, 508
Muskatbutter, 507
Muskatnuss, 502
Muskatnussol, 507
Mustard, black, brown red, 64
„ oil of, 66
„ white, 68
Mustard paper, 68
Mutterharz, 320
Mutterkorn, 740
Mutterkiimmel, 331
Mycose, 745
Myrcia acris DC, 289
AJyristic acid, 507. 508. 663
„ „ from kokum, 87
„ „ „ orris, 663
Myristica, 502
„ fatua Houtt., 502. 506
„ fragrans Houtt., 502
„ moschata Thunb., 502
„ officinalis L., 502
Mtristicej;:, 502
Myristicene, 506
Myristicin, 506
Myristicol, 506
Myristin, 508
Myrocarpus frondosus Allemao, 211
Myronate of potassium, 66
Myrosin, 66. 70
Myrospermum Pereirse Royle, 205
„ toluiferum A. Rich., 202
Myroxocarpin, 210
Myroxylon Pereine Klotzsch, 205
„ peruiferum'L., 210
„ punctatum Klotzsch, 202
Toluifera, H.B.K., 202
Myrrh, 140. 520
„ arabian, 143. 146
Myrrha, 140
Mtrtace^, 277
Myrtus Pimenta L., 287
Narceine, 59. 63
Narcotiue, 57. 59. 62
Nard, Indian, 312
Nardostachys, 312
Naringiu, 117
Narthex Asafoetida Falconer, 314
Nataloin, 687
Nauclea Gambir Hunter, 335
Nectandra ciunamomoides Meissuer, 534
„ Cymbarum'Ness, 540
„ Rodisei Schomburgk, 535
Nectandria, 536
Nelkenkopfe, 287
Nelkenpfeffer, 287
Nelkenstiele, 286
Nephelium lappaceum L., 187
Neroli Camphor, 127
„ oil of, 126
Nerprun, 157
Neugewiirz, 287
Ngai Camphor, 518
Ngan-si-hiang, 403
Nhandi, 591
INDEX.
791
Nicker seeds, 211
Nicotiana luultivalvis Lindley, 469
,, persica Liudley, 469
quadrivalvis Pursb, 469
„ repanda Willd., 469
„ Tabacum L., 466
Nicotianin, 468
Nicotiue, 467
Nieswnrzel, 1
„ weisse, 639
Nightshade, deadly, 458
„. woody, 450
Nim Bark, 154
Nimba, 154
Nimbuka, 115
Nipa fruticans Thunb., 72 L
Noix d'Arec, 669
„ de galle, 595
„ Igasur, 431
„ de muscade, 502
„ vomique, 428
Nuimari Root, 423
Nutgalls, 595
Nutmeg, 502
„ Butter, 507
Nutmeg, expressed oil of, 507
Nuts, Areca, 669
„ Betel, 669
Nux Areeve, 669
„ Betel, 669
,, indica, 502. 503. 670
„ Methel, 429
,, moschata, 502
Nux Vomica, 428
Oak bark, 593
„ galls, 595
„ manna, 415
Ognon marin, 690
Oil, citronella, 726
,, Geranium, 728
„ ginger grass, 726
,, lemon grass, 725
„ Melissa, 725
,. Namur or Nimar, 72b
„ palmarosa, 728
„ rusa, 728
„ Theobroma, 95
Verbena, 725
Okro, 94
Olea cuspidata Wallich, 417
„ europsea L., 417
Olea ferrugiuea Eoyle, 417
Oleace^, 409
Oleic acid in almonds, 246
„ in Arachis, 187
Oleii, 4
Oleum Andropogonis, 725
5)
Arachis, 186
"
Aurantii florum, 126
Bergamii, 121
Bergamottae, 121
Cacao, 95
cadinum, 623
Cajuputi, 277
Crotonis, 565
"
Garciniae, 86
Graminis indici, 725
Juniperi empyreumaticum, 623
"
Limonis, 118
Macidis, 507
"
Mangostanae, 86
»)
Mentha3 piperitag, 482
yj
Myristicse expressum, 507
)>
Neroli, 126
TJ
Nucistcie, 507
Olivae, 417
>J
Rosse, 262
7}
Sesami, 473
?T
Spicaj, 479
Theobromatis, 95
5J
Tiglii, 565
5?
Wittnebianum, 278
Olibanum, 133. 141. 520
Olive Oil, 417
Olivenol, 417
Omam, 302. 726
Ophelia angustifolia Don, 438
„ Cliirata Grisebach, 436
„ densifolia Griseb., 438
„ elegaus Wight, 438
„ multiflora Dalz., 438
Ophelic acid, 437
Ophioxylon serpentinum L., 4
Opianic acid, 58
Opianine, 58
Opianyl (Meconin), 60
Opium, 42
,, Abkari, 52
,, Americanum, 61. 63
,, of Asia Minor, 45. 60
„ Chinese, 53
,, Constantinople, 45
„ East Indian, 50. 61. 62
792
INDEX.
Opium, Egyptian, 47, 61
„ Europeau, 49. 60. 62
„ Malwa, 50. 62
„ Mosambik, 55
„ Patna, 50, 53, 61
Persian, 48. 61. 62
salt, 57
,, Smyrna, 45, 63
,, thebaicum, 44
„ Turkey, 45
,, wax, 56
„ Zambezi, 55
Opoidia galbanifera Lindley, 320
Opopanax, 327
Opopanax Chironium Kocb, 327
„ persicum Boiss., 327
Orange, Bigarade, 124
„ bitter, 124
„ Flower Water, 127
„ Peel, 124
„ „ oil of, 128
„ Seville, 124
Orchidace.e, 654
Orchis, species yielding Salep, 654
Ordeal Bean, 191
Oreodaphne opifera Nees, 540
Orge raonde ou perle, 722
Orizaba Root, 446
Orme, 556
Orinthogalum altissimum L., 693
Ornus europsea Pers., 409
Orris Camphor, 663
„ Root, 660
Otto of Rose, 262
Oxyacanthiue, 36
Oxycannabin, 549
Oxycopaivic acid, 231
Oxylinoleic acid, 99
Oxyphoenica, 225
Pachyma Oocos, 714
Palas, 197
Palas Tree, 197
Palma Christi Seeds, 567
Palm^, 669
Palmarosa Oil, 726
Palmitic acid, 419
„ „ in Arachis, 187
Palo del soldado, 590. 591 .
Panax quiuquefolium L., 79. 593
Papaver dubium L., 39
„ officinale Gmelin, 40
Papaver Rhoeas L., 39
„ setigeriim DC, 40
„ somniferum L., 39
Papaverace^, 39
Papaverin, 42
Papaverine, 42. 59
Papaverosine, 42. 58
Paracumaric acid, 689
Paradieskorner, 651
Paraffin, 266
Paramenispermine, 33
Para-oxybenzoic acid fi-om aloes, 689
„ ,, ,, benzoin, 408
„ „ „ dragon's
blood, 674
,, „ ,, Kamala,575
Pareira Brava, 25
„ „ false, 28
„ „ white, 30
„ „ yellow, 30
Paricine, 358
Parigenin, 711
Pariglina, 711
Parillin, 711
Pasewa, 51
Passulse majores, 159
Patrinia scabiosrefolia Link, 380
Pavot, 40
Paytine, 359
Peach wood, 213
Pe-fuh-ling, 714
Pea nut oil, 186
Pech, 619. 623
Pelargonium Radula Aiton, 726
Pelletierine, 291
Pellitory Root, 383
Pelosine in Bibiru, 536
„ in Pareira, 28. 29
Pennyroyal, 486
Pennywort, Indian, 297
Pepins de coings, 269
Pepita, 432
Pepper, black, 137. 576
,, „ African, 589
„ Cayenne, 452
,, Guinea, 452
,, Jamaica, 287
„ long, 582
,, pod or red, 452
,, white, 581
Peppei-miut, 481
Peppermint camphor, 483
INDEX.
793
Pe]5perinint oil, 482
,, „ Chinese, 483
Periploca indica Wilkl., 423
Perlmoos, 747
Persian bei'ries, 158
Perusse, 612
Perubalsam, 205
Peruvian Bark, 338
Peruvin, 209
Petala RhcEados, 39
„ Rossa centifoliae, 261
„ gallicse, 259
Petit Grain, essence, 126. 128
Peucedanum graveoleus Hiern, 327
Pfelfer, 576
„ lauger, 582
„ spanischer, 452
Pfeiferminze, 481
Pfriemenkraut, 170
Ph;ieoretin, 499. 500
Pharbitis hispida Clioisy, 448
Pliarbitis Nil Choisy, 448
Pharbitisin, 449
Phaseolus multiflorus Laru., 191
Phoenix silvestris Roxb., 721
Pholoroghicin from eatechin, 423
„ ,, dragon's blood, 675
„• „ gamboge, 85
„ „ hesperetin, 117
„ „ kino, 196
;, „ scoparin, 171
Phu, 377
Phyco-erythrin, 748
Phyllinic acid, 256
Physostigma venenosum Balfour, 191
Physostigmine, 193
Phytosterin, 193
Pichurim Beans, 540
Picra3na excelsa Lindley, 131
Picraconitine, 10
Picrasma excelsa Plauchon, 131
Picrosclerotin, 745
Picrotoxin, 32
Pignons'd'Inde, 565
Pilocarpine, 113
Pilocarpus pauciflorus St. Hilaire,
113
„ pennatifolius Lam., 113
„ SelloaDus Engler, 113
Pimaric acid, 607
Piment des Anglais, 287
„ „ jardins, 452
Pimenta acris Wight, 289
,, officinalis Lindley, 287
„ Pimento Grisebach, 289
Pimento, 287
Pimienta de Tabasco, 287. 289
Pimpinella^'Anisum L., 310
Pin-lang, 669
Pine, Loblolly, 604
,., Scotch, 604
„ swamp, 604
Pinic acid, 607
Pink Root, 433
Piuus Abies L., 615
„ australis Michaux, 604
,, balsamea L., 612
„ canadensis' L., 612
,, Cedrus L., 416
„ Fraseri Pursh, 612
„ Laricio Poiret, 604
„ Larix L., 416. 609. 611
„ Ledebourii^Eudl., 619
„ maritima Poiret, 604
,, palustris Miller, 604
„ PiceaL.,'615
., Pinaster Solander, 604
,, Pumilio Hiinke, 614
„ silvestris L., 604. 619
„ Taida L., 604
Piper aduncum L., 591
,, angustifoliumRuizetPavon,58y
,, Betle L., 583. 669
,, caninum A. Dietr., 588
,, citrifolium Lam., 114
„ Clusii DC, 589
,, crassipes Korthals, 588
„ Cubeba L. fil., 584
,, lancesefolium Humb. B. et K.,591
„ longum L., 582. 591
„ Lowong Bl, 588
,, nigrum L., 576
„ nodulosum Link, 114
„ officinarum C. DC., 582
„ ribesioides Wall., 588
„ reticulatum L., 114
PiPERACEiE, 576
Piperic acid, 580
Piperidine, 580
Piperin, 580
Pipli-mul, 583. 584
Pirus Cydonia L., 269
„ glabra Boissier,415
Pissenlit, 392
794
Pistache de terre, 186
Pistacia atlantica Desf., 165
„ cabulica Stocks, 163
„ galls, 165
„ Khinjuk Stocks, 165
„ Lentiscus L., 161. 598
„ pahiestina Boissier, 165
„ Terebinthus L., 165. 598
Pitayo Bark, 345
Pitch, black, 623
„ Burgundy, 616
Pitoya Bark, 359
Pitoyiae, 359
Pix abietina, 616
„ burgundica, 616
,, liquida, 619
„ navalis, 623
„ nigra, 623
„ sicca, 623
„ sf>lida, 623
Plantagine^, 490
Plantago Cynops L., 490
„ decumbeos Forsk., 490
,, Ispaghula Roxb., 490
„ Psyliium L., 490
Plaque minier, 403
Plocaria Candida Nees, 749
Plosslea floribunda Endl., 135
Poaya, 375
Pockholz, 100
Pod pepper, 452
Podisoma fuscum Duby, 628
Podophyllin, 38
Podophyllum peltatum L., 36
„ i-esiu, 37
Pois a gratter, 189
„ pouillieux, 189
„ queniques, 211
Poivre, 576
,, de Guinee, 452
„ d'Inde, 452
„ de la Jamaique, 287
„ long, 582
Poix de Bourgogne, 616
„ jaune, 616
,, liquide, 619
,, noire, 623
„ des Vosges, 616
Poke, Indian, 695
Polei, 486
Polychroit, 666
Polygala Senega 1. "1
INDEX.
POLTGALE^E, 77
Polygalic acid, 78
POLTGONACE^, 491
Pomegranate Peel, 289
Pomegranate- root Bark, 290
Pomeranzenschale, 124
Pontefi-act Cakes, 186
Poppy Capsules, 40
„ Heads, 40
„ red, 38
Portugal, oil of, 128
Potato Starch, 633
Potentilla Tormeutilla Sibthorp, 81.
364
Poudre des Capucins, 698
Pouliot vulgaire, 486
Prophetin, 294
Prosopis glandulosa Torrey, 239
Protium Icjcariba Marchand, 152
Protocatechuic acid, 171. 243. 637. 640
Protopine, 59
Provencer Oel, 417
Pruneaux a mcdecine, 251
Prunes, 251
Prunier de St. Julien, 251
Prunus Amygdalus Baill., 244. 247
,, domestica L., 251
,, Lauro-cerasus L., 254
ceconomica Borkh., 252
,, serotina Ehrh., 253
„ vii-giniaua Miller, 253
Prunus Padus L., 253
Pseudaconine, 9
Pseudaconitine, 9
Pseudomorphine, 59. G2
Psychotria emetica Mutis, 376
Pteritannic acid, 735
Pterocarpin, 201
Pterocarpus angolensis DC, 202
„ Draco L., 676
,, erinaceus Poiret, 198
indicus Willd., 194
,, Marsupiuni Roxb., 194
,, santalinus L., 199
Ptychotis Ajowan DC, 302
„ coptica DC, 302
Puchury Beans, 540
Pulas tree, 197
Punica Granatum L., 289. 290
Punicin, 291
Puuico-tannic acid, 291
Purging cassia, 221
INDEX.
Pnrga de Sierra Gorda, 447
Purgirkorner, 565
Purgo macho, 446
Puti-Karauja, 211
Pyrethre, 383
Pyrocatechiii from Areca nut, 671
„ ,, bearberry, 402
„ „ cutch, 244
„ „ kiuo, 196. 199
„ in tar, 620. 622
Pyroleuru Oxycedri, 623
Pyroligueous acid, 621
Qinbil, 572. 573
Qinnab, 548
Qirmaq, 548
Quassia amara L., 131. 133
„ excelsa Swartz, 131
„ Wood, 131
„ Surinam, 133
Quassiin, 132. 133
Queckenwnrzel, 729
Quercetin, 244
Quercite, 595
Quercitannic acid, 594
Quercitrin, 260
Quercus infectoria Olivier, 595
,, lusitauica Webb, 595
„ pedunculata Elirh., 593
,, persica Jaub. et Spach, 416
„ Eobur L., 593
„ sessiliflora Sm., 593
„ species yielding Manna, 416
„ Vallonea Kotschy, 416
Quetscheu or Zwetscheu, 252
Quina blanca, 564
„ Caroni, 106
Quinamine, 358
Quince, Bengal, 129
„ Seeds, 269
Quiuiciue, 359
Quiuidine, 358. 360
Quinine, 359
„ iodo-sulpbate, 360
Quinoidine, 359
Quinone or Kinone, 363
Quiuovic or Chinovic acid, 338. 364
Quinovin or Chiuovin, 364
Quinquina, 338
Quitch Grass, 729
Quittensamen, 269
Radix Abri, 188
„ Aconiti, 8
„ „ heterophylli, 14
„ „ indica, 12
,, Acori, 676
,, Actfese racemoste, 15
„ Althaeas, 92
Armoraciae, 71
Arnicae, 390
,, Belladonnae, 455
,, Calami aromatici, 676
„ Calumbae, 23
„ Chinae, 712
„ „ occiden talis, 714
„ Cimicifugae, 15
„ Colchici, 699
„ Columbo, 23
,, Coptidis, 3
,, dulcis, 179
,, Ellebori iiigri, 1
„ Enulfe, 380
„ Filicis, 733
„ Gentianae, 434
„ Glycyrrhizae, 179
„ Gramiuis, 729
„ Heleuii, 380
„ Hellebori albi, 693
„ Hellebori nigri, 1
„ Hemidesmi, 423
„ Inulae, 380
,, Ipecacuanhas, 370
„ Jalapae, 443
„ Krameriae, 79
„ Liquiritise, 179
„ Lopeziana, 111
„ Mechoacannse, 444
„ Melampodii, 1
,, Pareirse, 25
„ . Podopbylli, 36
„ Polygalse Senegse, 77
„ pretiosa amara, 4
„ Pyrethri, 383
„ Eatanhiee, 79
„ Rhei, 491
„ Sarsaparillas, 703
„ Sassafras, 537
„ Satyrii, 654
„ Scammonise, 438
„ Senegas, 77
„ Serpentariae, 591
,, Spigeliae, 433
,, Sumbul, 312
796
INDEX.
Radix, Taraxaci, 392
„ Toddaliae, 111
„ Tylopliorw, 428
,, Valerianae, 377
„ Verabri, 693
Eaifort, 71
Raisins, 159
Eanunculace.'e, 1
Raphanus rusticauus, 71
Rasamala, 272. 277
Rasot or Rusot, 35
Ratanhia des Antilles, 81
Ratanhia-red, 80
,, -tannic acid, 80
Ratanhiawuizel, 79
Ratanhin, 81
Red-Cole, 71
Red Poppy Petals, 39
„ Sanders Wood, 199
Reglisse, 179
„ d'Amerique, 188
„ sue de, 183
Reseda lutea L., 67
„ luteola L., 67
Resina Benzoe, 403
„ Dracouis, 672
„ Guaiaci, 103
,, Jalapse, 445
„ Podophylli, 38
„ Scammoniaj, 442
Resorcin, 323. 326
Retti, 188
Rhabarber, 491
Rhabarberin, 499
Rhabarbic acid, 499
Rhamnace^, 157
Rhamnegioe, 159
Rhamnetin, 159
Rhamnetine, 158
Rhamnine, 158
Rhamnocathartin, 158
Rharnnus cathartica L., 157
Rbatany Ceari, 81
Rhatania Root, 79
Rliatany, Brazilian, 81
„ New Granada, 82
„ Tari, 81
„ Payta, 79
., Peruvian, 79
„ Savanilla, 82
Rhein, 499
Rheo-tannic acid, 499
Rheum australe L., 502
,, compactum Don, 502
„ Emodi Wallich, 502
,, officinale Baillon, 492
„ palmatum L., 492
„ Rhaponticuni L., 500
„ undulatum L., 502
Rheuniic acid, 499
Rheumin, 499
Rbizoma Arnicee, 390
Rhizoma Calami aromatici, 676
„ Coptidis, 3
„ Curcumas, 638
„ Filicis, 733
Galangse, 641
„ Graminis, 729
„ Iridis, 660
„ Podophylli, 36
„ Veratri albi, 693
„ „ viridis, 695
„ Zingiberis, 635
Rhceadine, 40. 42. 59. 63
Rhceagenine, 59
Rhubarb, 491
,, Austrian, 502
„ Canton, 496
„ China, 496
„ crown, 496
,, East India, 496
„ English, 500
„ French, 501
,, Muscovitic, 496
„ Russian, 499
„ Turkey, 496
Rhubarb-bitter, 409
Rhubarb-yellow, 409
Rhus Bucki-araela Roxb., 167
„ coriaria L., 169. 597
„ semialata Murray, 167
Richardsonia scabra Saint Hilaire, 376
Ricinelaidic acid, 570
Ricinelaidin, 570
Riciuiue, 570
Riciuoleic acid, 570
Ricinus communis L., 567
Rohrencassie, 221
Rohrzucker, 714
Rohuu Bark, 156
Romarin, 488
Rosa acicularis Lindley, 268
„ bifera Redoute, 261
„ canina L., 265. 268
INDEX.
797
Rosa centifolia L., 261
„ ciiinamomea L., 268
„ damascena Miller, 262
„ gallica L., 259
Rosacea,, 244
Rose, Attar of, 262
„ Cabbage, 261
„ Damask, 262
„ Dog, 268
„ leaves, 259
„ Malloes, 272
„ oil, 262
„ pAle, 261
„ petals, red, 259
,, Provence, 261
„ Proviiis, 259
,, de Puteaux, 261
„ rouge, 259
Roseau aromatique, 676
Rosemary, 488
Roseuol, 262
Rosiu, black, 607
„ transparent, 607
„ yellow, 607
Rosiuen, 159
Rosmarinus officinalis L., 488
Roestelia cancellata Rebent., 626
Rotang, 672
Rottlera tinctoria Roxb., 572
Rottlerin, 575
Rubia cordifolia L., 438
RuBiACE^, 335
Ruby Wood, 199
Rusa ka tel, 726
Rusot or Rasot, 35
RUsterrinde, 556
RUTACE^, 106
Rye, spurred, 740
Sabadilla officinarum Brandt, 697
Sabadillic acid, 699
Sabadilline, 698
Sabatrine, 699
Sabine, 626
Sabzi, 548
Saccharum, 714
„ chinense Roxb., 715
„ officinarum L., 714
„ violaceum Tussac, 715
Saffron, 137. 663
„ meadow, 699
Safran, 663
Safrene, 538
Safrol, 538
Sagapennm, 324
Salai tree, 135
Salep, 654
Salib misri, 655
Salicylic acid, 285
Salix fragilis L., 416
Salsepareille, 703
Salseparin, 711
Samadera indica Gartner, 133
Samara Ribes, 581
Sambola, 312
Sanibucus canadensis L., 334
„ Ebuhis L., 334
„ nigra L., 333
Sandal Wood, 599
„ „ red, 199
Sandelholz, 599
„ rothes, 199
Sanders Wood, red, 199
Sang-dragon, 672 675
Sanguis Draconis, 672. 675
Saukira, 712
Sant, 234
Santal, 599
Santal citrin, bois de, 599
Santalace^, 599
Santalic acid, 201
Santalin, 201
Santalum album L., 599. 602
„ austro-caledonieum Vieill ,
599
„ cygnorum Miq., 599
,, Freycinetianum Gaud., 599
„ lanceolatum Br., 599
„ pyrnlarium A. Gray, 599
„ rubrum, 199
,, spicatum DC., 599. 601
,, Yasi Seemann, 599
Santonica, 387
Santonin, 389
Santoninic acid, 389
Sap green, 159
Sapau wood, 216. 521
Sapin, 615
Sapogenin, 78
Saponin, 38
Saptachhada, 421
Saptaparna, 421
Sariva, 423
Sarothamnus vulgaris Wimmer, 170
798
Sarsa, 703
Sarsaparilla, 703
„ Brazilian, 709
„ Guatemala, 709
„ Guaj'aquil, 710
,, Honduras, 709
„ Indian, 423
Jamaica, 709
,, Lisbon, 709
„ Mexican, 710
„ Pard, 709
Sarza, 703
Sassafras Bark, 539. 540
„ camphor, 538
„ nuts, 540
„ officinalis Nees, 537
„ oil, 229. 538
„ Eoot, 539
Sassafrasholz, 537
Sassafrid, 539
Sassafrin, 639
Sassarubin, 539
Satyi-ii radix, 654
Saussurea, 382
Savin, 626
Scammonium, 438
Scammouy, 438
,, resin, 438
„ root, 442
Schierlingsblatter, 301
Scliierlingsfrucht, 299
Schiffspech, 623
Schlangenwurzel, 591
Schojnanthus, 726, 728
Schoeuocaulon officinale A. Gray, 697
Schusterpech, 623
Scilla indica Roxb., 693
„ maritima L., 690
Scillain, 692
Scilliu, 692
Scillipicrin, 692
Scillitin, 692
Scillitoxin, 692
Sclererythrin, 745
Sclerocrystallin, 745
Sclerojodin, 745
Scleromucin, 745
Sclerotic acid, 745
Sclerotium Clavus DC, 742
Scleroxauthin, 745
Scopai-ii cacumina, 170
Scoparin, 171
index:
Scorodosma foetidum Bunge, 314
Scrape, 608
Scrophularia frigida Boiss., 416
SCROPHULARIACE^, 469
Sebacic acid, 446
Secale cornutum, 740
Seidelbastrinde, 540
Seigle ergot<3, 740
Semen Ajavte, 302
„ Ammi, 304
„ Amomi, 287
„ Anisi stellati, 20
„ Arecae, 211. 512. 669
„ Badiani, 20
„ Bonducell£E, 211
,, Calabar, 191
„ Carui, 304
„ Cataputice, 567
„ CinEe, 387
„ Colchici, 702
„ Contra, 387
,, Crotonis, 565
„ Cydonias, 269
,, et folia Daturae albffi, 462
,, Fceni-graeci, 172
,, Guilandinse, 211
„ Gynocardiffi, 75
„ Ignatii, 431
„ Ispaghulae, 490
„ Kaladanae, 448
„ Lini, 97
Nucis vomicre, 428
„ Physostigmatis, 191
Ricini, 567
,, Sabadillae, 697
„ sanctum, 387
„ Santonicse, 387
,, Sinapis nigrae, 64
,, albae, 68
,, Staphisagrias, 5
„ Stramonii, 461
„ Tiglii, 565
„ Zedoarise, 387
Semencine, 387
Senajjium, 65
I Sene, feuilles de.
Senega Eoot, 77
Senegin, 78
I Seneka Root, 77
1 Senf, schwarzer, 64
j „ weisser, 68
I Senna, 216
INDEX.
799
Senua, Alexaudrian, 218
„ Arabian, 219
„ Bombay, 219
„ East Indian, 219
„ Moka, 219
„ Tinnevelly, 219 '
Sennacrol, 219
Senuapicrin, 219
Serpentary Root, 591
Serapinum, 322. 324
Serpentaire, 591
Serronia Jaborandi Gaud., 114
Sesame Oil, 473
Sesames, 473
Sesamol, 473
Sesamum indicum DC, 473
Setae Mucunae, 189
Setwall, 378
Sevenkraut, 626
Sharkara, 715
Shi-mi, 716
Shir-kisht, 415
Siddhi, 548
Sigia, 271
Siliqiise, 172
Silphium, 320
Silva do Praya, 211
Silvic acid, 607
Simaruba excelsa DC, 131
SlMARCBE^, 131
Sinalbin, 69
Sinapic acid, 70
Sinapioe, sulphate, 70
Sinaj^is alba L., 68
Sinapis erucoides L., 65
„ juncea L., 68
„ nigra L., 64
Sinapoleic acid, 68
Sinigrin, 66
Sinistrin, 725
Sireh grass, 725
Sison Amomnm L., 304
Skimmi, 20
Skulein, 692
Slevogtia orien talis Grisebach, 438
Smilace.^;, 703
Smilacin, 711
Smilax aspera L., 703. 705
„ Balbisiaua Kunth, 714
„ brasiliensis Sprgl., 714
„ China L., 712
,, cordato-ovata Rich., 705
Smilax glabra Eoxb., 712
„ Japicanga Griseb., 714
„ lanceajfolia Eoxb., 712
„ medica Schl. et Cham., 704
„ officinalis Humb. Bon pi. etKth.
704. 707
„ papyracea Poiret, 705
,, Pseudo-China L., 714
„ Purhampuy Euiz, 705
„ Schomburgkiana Kunth, 705
„ syphilitica H.B. et K., 205
„ syringoides Griseb., 714
„ tamnifolia Michaux, 714
Snake-root, black, 15
Red River, 593
Texan, 593
,, Virginian, 592
Socaloin, 688
Soffar, 234
SOLANACE^, 450
Solanicine, 451
Solanidine, 451
Solanine, 451
Solanum Dulcamara L , 450
,, nigrum L., 450
„ tuberosum L., 633
Solazzi Juice, 184
Solenostemma Argel Hayne, 218. 220
Somo, 20
Sont, 234
Sorghum saccharatum Pers.,721
Soyah or Suva, 328
Soymida febrifuga Jussieu, 156
Spanish Juice, 183
Sparteine, 171
Spartium Scopariura L., 170
Spearmint, 479
Spermoedia Clavus Fries, 742
Sphacelia segetum Lcveille, 742
Sphserococcus confervoides Ag., 749
„ lichenoides Agardh, 749
Spigelia marilandica L., 433. 593
Spike, oil of, 479
Spikenard, 503
Spina cervina, 157
Spogel Seeds, 490
Spoonwood, 402
Sporae Lycopodii, 731
Sjiringgurke, 292
Spurred Eye, 740
Squill, 690
Squinanthus, 726, 728
800
INDEX.
1
Sqxiine, 712
Squirting cucumber, 292
Ssoffar, 234
Ssont, 234
Stacte, 137, 142
Stapliisagria, 6
Stapliisagrine, 7
Staphisaigre, 5
Star-Anise, 20
Starch, Caiina, 633
„ chemistry of, 631
„ Curcuma, 634
„ Potato, 633
„ structure of, 631
Stavesacre, 5. 698
Stearophanic acid, 33
Stechapfelblatter, 459
Stechapfelsamen, 461
Steffeusia citrifolia Kunth, 114
Stephauskorner, 5
Stercgliace,^;, 95
Sternanis, 20
Stinkasant, 314
Stipes Dulcamara, 450
Stipites Caryophylli, 286
Stizolobium pruriens Persona, 189
Stoechas arabica, 479
Storax, liquid, 271
„ true, 137. 141. 276
Storesiu, 274
Stramonium, 459
„ Seed.s, 461
Stringy bark, 199
Strobili Hamuli, 551
Strychuos colubrina L., 430
,, Ignatii Bergius, 431
„ Nux-vomica L., 107. 428
., philippensis Blanco, 431
,, Tieute Lesch., 430
Sturmhut, 8
Styphnic acid, 323
SttracejE, 403
Styraciu, 274
Styrax Benzoin Dryaiider, 4i)3
,, calamita, 276
„ Fiulaysoniana Wallich, 404
„ liquidus, 271
„ officinalis L., 271. 276
,, snbdenticulata Miquel, 407
Styrol, 274
from Balsam of Tolu, 205
„ „ Beii?:oin, 40S!
Styrol, from Dragon's Blood, 673
Styroue, 274
Sue d'Aloes, 679
Succus Glycyrrhizse, 182
Succus Limonis, IIG
Sucre de canne, 714
Sugar, 714
„ beet root, 720
„ maple, 72
„ palm, 720
„ Sorghum, 721
Sumach, 169
Sumbul root, 312
Sumbulamic acid, 313
Sumbulic acid, 313
Sumbulin, 313
Sumbulolic acid, 313
Summitates Scoparii, 170
Sureau, 333
Surinjan, 701
Suseman, 474
Sussholz, 179
Siissholzsaft, 183
Sweet cane, 715
Sweet Fla.g root, 670
„ Gum, 276
„ Wood bark, 561
Swietenia febrifuga Willd., 156
Sylvic acid, 607
Synanthrose, 381
Synaptase, 247
Syrup, golden, 722
Syrupus communis, 722
„ hollaudicus, 722
Tabac, 466
Tabakbliitter, 466
Ta-fuug-tsze, 75
Taj -pat, 533
Talch or Talha, 234
Tamarind, 224
TaTnarisk galls, 598
Tamarindi pulpa, 224
Tamarindus iudica L., 224
„ occidentalis Giirtner, 224
Tamarix gallica maunifera Ehreubg.,
414
„ oriental is L., 598
Tang-hwang, 83
Tannaspidic acid, 735
Tamienharz, 616
Tannic acid from galls, 5!^)7
INDEX.
801
Tar, 619
„ Archangel, 620
„ beech, 623
„ birch, 623
,, juniper, 623
„ oil of, 623
„ Stockholm, 620
„ water, 622
Taraxaceriu, 394. 398
Taraxacin, 394
Taraxacum Dens-leonis Desfont., 392
„ officinale Wiggers, 392
Tecamez Bark, 359
Teel Oil, 473
Tephrosia ApoUinea Delile, 221
Terebinthina argentoratensis, 615
,, canadensis, 612
„ chia, 165
„ eypria, 165
„ laricina, 609
„ veneta, 609
„ vulgaris, 604
Terebenthine d'Alsace, 615
„ de Brian9on, 609
,, de Canada, 612
„ de Ohio, 165
„ de Chypres, 165
„ commune, 604
„ du mel^ze, 609
„ dn sapiu, 61 5
„ de Strasbourg, 615
„ de Venise, 609
Terpenthiii, Chios, 165
„ Cyprischer, 165
„ gemeiner, 604
„ Liirchen-, 609
„ Strassburger, 615
„ Venetianischer, 609
Terra japonica (Catechu), 240. 335
„ (Gambier), 335
Tetranthera, 589
Thalictrum foliolosum DC, 5
Thalleioquin, 360
Thallochlor, 739
Thallogens, 737
Thebaicine, 59
Thebaine, 59, 62
Thebenine, 59
Thebolactic acid, 58
Theobroma Cacao L., 95
„ leiocarpum Bern., 95
„ oil of, 95
Theobroma pentagonum Bern., 95
„ Salzmannianum Bern., 95
Theobromic acid, 97
Theriaca, 44. 48. 439
Thornapple, 459
Thridace, 396
Thus americanura, 603
„ libycum, 325
„ masculum, 133
„ vulgare, 608
Thyme, 487
„ camphor, 487
„ oil of, 487
Thymele^, 540
Thymene, 488
Tliymiankraut, 487
Thymol, 488
„ from ajowan, 303
Thymus vulgaris L., 487
Tigala, 417
Tigliuic acid, 386. 566. 699
Tigliura officinale Klotzsch, 565
Tikhur or Tikor, 634
Til Oil, 473
Tiuospora cordifolia Miers, 33
„ crispa Miers, 34
Tita, 4
Tobacco, 466
„ Camphor, 468
„ Indian, 469
Toddalia aculeata Pers., Ill
„ lanceolata Lam., Ill
Toddy, 120
Tolene, 205
Tollkraut, 458
Tolomane, 633
Tolubalsam, 202
Toluene, 622
Toluifera Balsamum Miller, 202
Toluol or Toluene, 204
„ from Dragon's Blood, 674
Toulema, 633
Tous-les-niois, 633
Toute-epice, 287
Toxiresin, 471
Tragacanth, black, 177
„ flake, 177
„ Syrian, 177
,, vermicelli, 177
Tragacantha, 174
Traganthiu, 178
Treacle or Molasses, 722
3 E
802
INDEX.
I
Trehala, 417. 746
Trehalose, 417. 746
Trigouella Fcenumgrsecnm L., 172
Trimethylamine, in ergot, 746
„ in hop, 653
Triticin, 730
Triticura repens L., 729
Tropic acid, 457
Tropine, 457
Tubera Chinae, 712
„ Aconiti, 8
„ Colchici, G99
„ Salep, 654
Tu-fiih-ling, 714
Tung tree, 91
Turanjabiu, 414
Turmeric, 638
Turpentine, American, 606
„ Bordeaux, 606
„ Canadian, 612
Chian, 165
,, Cyprian, 165
larch, 609
„ Strassburg, 615
,, Venice, 609
Tylophora asthmatica Wight et Arnott,
427
Ty rosin, 81
Uehka, 94
IlLMACEiE, 556
Ulmenrinde, 556
Ulmin, 557
Ulmus campestris Smith, 556
„ fulva Michaux, 557
„ montana With., 556
Umbellifer^, 297
Umbelliferone, 322
,, from asafoetida, 3 1 0
„ „ galbanum, 322
,, ,, mezereou, 541
,, „ sunibul, 313
Uncaria acida Roxb., 335
„ Gambier Eoxb., 335
Urginea altissima Baker, 693
„ indica Kunth, 693
„ maritima Baker, 690
„ Scilla Steinheil, 690
Ursone, 402
Uruk, 4
Ushak, 325
Uvae passae, 159
Vacciniura Vitis-ida^a L., 402
Vacha, 677
Valerian, Japanese, 380
„ Boot, 377
Valeriana angustifolia Tausch, 377
,, celtica L., 378
„ officinalis L., 377
Phu L., 380
Valerianace^, 377
Valerianic acid, 37P. 553
Valerol, 553
Vanilla, 657
,, plauifolia Andrews, 657
Vanillic acid, 659
Vanillin, 285. 409. 659
„ artificial, 659
Vanillon, 659
i Vars, 574
Veilcheuwurzel, 660
Vellarin, 298
Veratramarin, 695
Vera trie acid, 699
Veratridiue, 696
Veratrine, 698
Veratroldine, 695. 696
1 Veratrum album L., 693
„ frigidum Schlechtendal, 695
„ Lobelianuoi Bernhard, 695
„ nigrum L., 695
„ officinale Schlecht., 697
„ Sabadilla Retzius, 697
„ viride Aiton, 695
Verek, 233
Vermicelli, 177
Verzino, 216
Vetti-ver, 728
Vikunia, 286
Virginia acid, 79
Vitis vinifera L., 159
Vincetoxicura officinale Mcinch, 79
Virgin dip, 605
Visha, 12
Vola, 142
Wacholderbeeren, 624
Waltheria glomerata Presl., 591
Waras, Wars, or Wurus, 572. 573. 576
Wattle tree, 237
Way thorn, 157
Weihrauch, 133
White Wood Bark, 73
I Whortleberry, red, 402
INDEX.
803
Wild black Cherry bark, 253
Winter's Bark, 17
„ „ false, 19
Wintergreen, 402
Wittedoorn, 237
Wood Apple, 131. 239
„ Oil, 88. 91. 229
Wormseed, 387
Wu-pei-tze, 169
Wurmsamen, 387
Wurus, 572. 573. 576
Xanthoxylum elegans Eiiglei-, 114
Ximenia americaiia L., 250
Xylenol, 689
Xylocassia, 529
Xylocinuamomum, 529
Xylole, 622
Xylomarathrum, 537
Yegaar tree, 35
Yerba del soldado, 590
Yuh-kin, 639
Zadvar, 14
Zanthoxylum, 111. 114
Zeitlosenknollen, 699
Zeitlosensamen, 702
Zestes d'Oranges, 124
Zimmt, 519
Zingiber officinale Roscoe, 635
ZlNGIBERACEiE, 635
Zitwersamen, 387
Zucker, 714
Zwetscben, 252
Zygia, 271. 272
ZTGOPHYLLEiE, 100
PRINTED BY ROBERT MACLRII03R AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW.
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